Social Change to a Better World

I don’t know when I first became aware of race as an issue.  I would say it was fairly young.  Growing up in rural Indiana meant there was not much diversity.  There were only a handful of African American families in the town near me, which may have numbered 5,000-6,000 people in total.  None of the kids in that family were in my grade as I went through elementary and middle school.  I recall almost no diversity in my high school classes.  No doubt, I was a racist, but I never even thought about it.  But then, perhaps most racists are not too aware---except in more recent times.

College was different and certainly graduate school was very different.  My big awareness change happened in the 1960s when the Civil Rights movement was strong and public.  It is easy for me to conjure memories of King, Gandhi, Malcolm X and so many others.  There was significant legislation which outlawed overt segregation and America’s version of “separate but equal,” which everyone knew was a joke.  On a personal religious note, I have long been aware the biggest numbers of Quakers in the world are black---mostly Africans living in Kenya, and nearby areas.  

I have tried to become less racist.  It might be difficult for most white folks ever to escape racism totally, partly because there is still significant racism in our system.  Whether it is hiring bias or something else, in this country we unknowingly participate in a system that too frequently is stacked against those who don’t look like me.  I don’t want it, so I continue to be committed to do what I can to eradicate that pernicious problem.

Ever since the summer of 2020, race has been back on the public radar.  George Floyd is a name all Americans should know.  The image of his horrific death at the knees of a policeman should spur us to work in our own way to help something comparable from ever happening.  And yet we know it goes on---in our cities and streets.  Many organizations---businesses and non-profits require that we go through some form of diversity training.  I am not against it.  But I also know it may well not do any good.

In a recent article, the columnist, David Brooks, cites many studies to that end.  Brooks puts it bluntly when he says, “…this was the year that showed that our models for how we change minds or change behavior are deeply flawed.”  He continues, “It turns out that if you tell someone their facts are wrong, you don’t usually win them over; you just entrench false belief.”  Specifically with respect to diversity training programs, Brooks tells us, “These programs are obviously well intended, and they often describe systemic racism accurately, but the bulk of the evidence though not all of it, suggests they don’t reduce discrimination.”  In fact many studies show it may actually backfire, making the problem worse!

He offers a number of reasons, culled from multiple first-rate studies.  For example, he quotes one study that demonstrates that “short-erm educational interventions in general do not change people.”  Sadly other studies show that asking folks to do diversity training may actually activate their prejudice and bias and they wind up worse than when we started!  Another reason made sense.  Generally, people don’t like to be told what to do, much like required to do things like this.  I know my own institution required some of these programs.  I am dubious whether it really has changed any of us.  If all this is true, what then?

This is where I like where Brooks goes.  It resonates with my own experience and thinking.  He begins to address it positively when he claims, “People change when they are put in new environments, in their permanent relationship with diverse groups of people.”  He goes on to quote Gordon Allport, one of my favorite psychologists.  He cites Allport’s “contact hypothesis.”  This says that “doing life together with people of other groups can reduce prejudice and change minds. It’s how new emotional bonds are formed, how new conceptions of who is “us” and who is “them” come into being.  He continues, “Real change seems to involve putting bodies from different groups in the same room, on the same team and in the same neighborhood.”

This relates to what I like to call community.  If we can truly create community, then we have a chance to change our thinking and behavior.  Community means much more than a simple group of people.  Communities know each other and care for each other.  Usually, there is respect, understanding and compassion for each other.  We want the best for the other.  We see this in teams and even some churches.  But there is so much more to do.  This is what Brooks calls real social change.

We need social change.  Hopefully more and more of us are willing to go beyond doing diversity training.  It may sound sappy, but we really need to learn to love and then do it!  I know I can talk a good talk about love, but I have more progress to make.  I need to walk the walk of loving.  And I want to be in places and with communities where I can love more broadly than I do.  

I know how to be nice.  I want to be loving---fully and widely.  That is how social change will create a better world.