Grace and vulnerability across differences

How are we to talk about sensitive or contentious cultural issues when even the language around them is a trigger?

"I have thoughts about transgender athletes.  I don't have the language to talk about the thoughts I have, because if I walk into a room with people who think about this a lot, and who know all of the letters, I am immediately going to be seen as "this is the dude that doesn't really understand the differences between the different letters."  And so, I just don't have those conversations with those folks.   [...] 

"But this language is everywhere.  Latinx.  It's like saying that Latino is gendered.  And Latina is gendered, and in order to be inclusive, let's just put an X there.  There are colleges that don't have freshmen any more.  They have first-years, because freshmen suggests that it's a gendered first year student that is a man, and not a woman, so they call them first-years.

"And so this is a problem.  For some folks, this is like the woke mob run amok, and for others this is inclusion that's well-intentioned, but maybe not having the results they would like.

"But, if we can figure out how to create social trust in a diverse society of 330 million people, then we will have discovered the American Holy Grail.  That is the "more perfect union."  And it might be ultimately uncomplete-able.  It may never be attainable, but the pursuit of it is where the beauty of America is, and that's where the honor in being an American resides.  But the pursuit of it means, not only are you willing to be vulnerable and learn, in order to be in conversation with other folks, but they extend grace, or you extend grace, when other people try to do the same thing. And that is extremely difficult to do, because power, personal power, individual agency, feels like it's surrendered when you extend grace or when you appear vulnerable.  Grace and vulnerability across differences is especially contentious in a hyper-partisan environment where everything is zero sum.

"So, the fullness of the American experiment is captured in our ability to extend social trust across difference. 

"And, here's to trying."

Dr. Ted Johnson  

excerpt from The Focus Group podcast April 18, 2022

(This podcast episode is actually about the different ways swing voters, Republicans, and Democrats view the appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.  Worth a listen.)