Our culture is in overdrive to get us to pick which we are on in any issue. Social media has amplified this. But it is a bit of a trap here because it is impossible to be informed about every issue.
It takes real guts to say, “I am not informed yet.”
It takes guts because if you are not informed it means you haven’t done the reading. And if you haven’t done the reading, our status can now be challenged.
Rather admitting this we are inclined to simply pick what are friends chose.
To tell others that I am not as informed as I could be is real vulnerability. To be a white male and say, “I haven’t been affected by systemic racism and I am not informed on how it is to live like a person of color.”
That is a vital first step. To acknowledge we don’t know is how we change.
Labels ruins discourse though. We’ve sorted ourselves in a way to be on one side or another.
Are you one of us or one of them? Are you an insider or an outsider?
Insiders and outsiders struggle to understand each other and how the other group thinks.
The second step in this is to acknowledge am I an outsider or an insider.
Finally, we must understand there are more than two teams here.
There are more than who’s right or who’s wrong. Who’s good and who’s evil. You can be for the 2nd Amendment and believe guns need to be regulated. You can be for a complete overhaul of how police enforce the law and stand for peace.
It isn’t this or that. It is this AND that.
Josh Allred's Blog 