Diversity and Inclusion in The March For Our Lives

This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of people participated in the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC, and demonstrations throughout the country.  One of the things that impressed me the most about the kids who spoke at the march in Washington was the spirit of diversity and empathy that infused the entire demonstration.  Real diversity requires not only the inclusion of people who are different, but also an acknowledgement of difference, an attempt to understand those differences, and empathy towards the experience of others.  Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the kids from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school in Parkland, Florida is their willingness to reach out to kids who are different from themselves and include them in their cause.

The Parkland kids experienced an unspeakable tragedy when a lone gunman shot and killed 17 people; their classmates, friends and teachers.  At the March For Our Lives, they spoke about the horrors that they had experienced, and decried the lack of safety in schools throughout the country.  The most striking tribute was that of Emma Gonzalez, with her dramatic four minutes of silence.  Along with representatives from Newtown, Connecticut, the kids from Parkland spoke for the 187,000 children in our country who have been directly involved in mass shootings in schools. 

However, the Parkland kids were not the only speakers at the demonstration.  Shortly after the February 14 Parkland shooting, student leaders from Parkland traveled to Chicago to talk to other teenagers who have been traumatized by gun violence.  They learned about the millions of children, primarily children of color, who are threatened by gun violence every day of their lives.  Some of the people that they met also spoke to the crowd at the Washington march.  Speakers included kids from inner city neighborhoods including Chicago, South Central Los Angeles, Washington and Baltimore.  Those speakers represented the millions of people who have spent their entire lives in constant fear of gun violence in their neighborhoods, and the children who experience daily fear and trauma.

Almost all of the speakers had one thing in common; they had been directly affected by gun violence.  The speakers from Parkland and Newtown had been in school during a terrifying mass shooting.  All of them had directly experienced that trauma, and lost friends, family members and teachers.  The other speakers had also lost loved ones to gun violence.  Their brothers, sisters, and nephews had been gunned down on city streets.  Zion Kelly, from Washington, DC, told the crowd about losing his twin brother last fall when an armed robber shot and killed him.  Edna Chavez, from South Central Los Angeles, described watching her brother shot and killed on the streets of her neighborhood.  Chavez explained that gun violence was a normal part of her life, that she had learned to dodge bullets before she learned to read. 

All of the speakers at the march were 18 years old or under.  They emphasized their tragic commonality, but they also talked about the real differences in their lives.  Though they had tragedy in common, these kids came from different backgrounds and income levels.  The kids from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school in Parkland, Florida are largely white and relatively affluent.   The other speakers were children of color who live in relatively poor neighborhoods that are plagued by crime and violence.  The speakers acknowledged their differences.  For example, Parkland student David Hogg admitted that his white privilege was one of the reasons that the Parkland kids have gotten so much national attention.  They have consciously used their notoriety to provide a platform for the other speakers who do not regularly grab headlines.  Those students added to the debate over how to address gun violence with their personal experiences.  For example, Edna Chavez explained why arming teachers is an inadequate solution for kids of color who are already being treated like criminals in school. 

In our increasingly diverse world, it is a challenge to communicate effectively people who are different from ourselves.  The teenagers at the March For Our Lives talked easily and openly about their differences, and more importantly, they listened.  In this movement marked by intersectionality, they are trying to come up with a solution to gun violence that is informed by all of their experiences.  Whatever happens with their campaign to end gun violence, the Parkland kids and their allies have taught all of us a lesson on how to be truly diverse, inclusive, and empathetic.  In the words of the band The Who, The Kids Are Alright.

Comments

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

Thank you for this inspirational post. (Erratum: The Kids Are Alright ... and of course we mean by these words something rather different from the song’s lyrics!)

In a recent blog post, “Philosophy of Education, Education as Philosophy & Education for Democracy” (largely about some ideas from John Dewey), I invoked a contemporary work on democratic theory and praxis that takes seriously the reality and consequences of “sealing off of different types of life experiences from one another” in contemporary democratic societies (such as they are), as well as the prospects for overcoming same, namely, Robert E. Goodin’s Reflective Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2003), a taste from which follows:

“Here I shall be attempting to identify deliberative democratic methods for evoking more reflective preferences as inputs into the political process. Properly crafted deliberative processes can produce preferences which are more reflective, in the sense of being:

• more empathetic with the plight of others;
• more considered, and hence both better informed and more stable; and
• more far-reaching in both time and space, taking fuller account of distant periods, distant peoples and different interests.

The key innovation I shall be offering is, in the first instance, a theoretical one. What is required is a new way of conceptualizing democratic deliberation—as something which occurs internally, within each individual’s head, and not exclusively or even primarily in an interpersonal setting. It happens in interpersonal settings, too, of course. Indeed, that is a central plank in my argument on this score. The philosophy of mind and language teaches us that, even in face-to-face conversation, much of the making sense of what the other is saying to you goes on inside your own head. You have to imagine yourself in the place of the other in trying to decode what she seems to be trying to tell you. If that is what goes on in ordinary interpersonal discussion, the same sort of mentally imagining oneself in the place of others might well occur in the absence of any actual other. A suitably informed imaginary might serve the same internal-discursive purpose.”

Goodin proceeds to draw several inferences from the above, including the proposition that “cultural institutions and policies matter;” that “policies and institutions that facilitate social mixing—having people whose social circumstances are radically unlike your own living nearby or, going to school with you or your children, riding public transportation alongside you—can again serve as an aid to the political imaginary;” and that “consultative procedures [e.g., study circles], even of an apparently toothless sort, could also actually have far more democratic bite than we might ordinarily suppose.”

The organized, passionate and thoughtful kids in your post thus illustrate, I think, yet another example we might add to the list immediately above: nonviolent protests and demonstrations likewise capable of exemplifying or motivating “deliberative democratic methods for evoking more reflective preferences as inputs into the political process.”

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

Somebody needs to exercise leadership in this Nation and bring us together and finally espouse real American values. Inclusion, common sense, decency, and that core constitutional value, human rights/dignity. It hasn't happened since January 20, 2017, 12:01 pm EDT. Somebody taught these high school kids well...thanks to all their public school teachers and engaged parent(s).

[Rebecca Zietlow]

Patrick, Thanks for your comment. I agree that these kids are engaging in deliberative democracy, and it's great to see how reflective they are at this young age.

Deep State Special Counsel, Yes, and the kids often talk about being products of excellent public schools.