So divisive

“You’re so divisive”

I get told this a lot. Especially when I talk about things relating to race or Reconciliation. It’s these topics that seem to trigger this concept about divisiveness. 
It seems to imply that the goal of policy or priorities is that everyone agree that it is, in fact, a priority or the appropriate action. While that would be nice, we know that when justice is at stake, people who are in positions of power have never agreed. We can’t ask nicely for people to stop oppressing others.

This idea could be categorized as respectability politics. We better ask for justice nicely so that we don’t upset those holding power. Or better yet, don’t ask at all. 
I want to connect divisiveness to the trendy topic of polarization. People are saying, with dismay, that we are living in polarized times. Look at the response to the pandemic they say. Or they point to the trucker convoy. They reference the different sets of realities that people in our communities hold. 

Could we reconceptualize polarization as the margins actually having voice for the first time ever?

Image description: concentric rings with a stick person in the middle with a microphone. Next to them says “power & platform”. Outside of the rings is another stick person who does not have a microphone and they are saying “helllllloooooo?”

Image description: a line with stick figures at either end. Both have a microphone. By the figure on the left side it says “historical power & platform”. By the figure on the right side it says “New platform & organizing via social media.”

What I’m saying is that we’ve always had polarization in income, opportunity, experiences, and opinions. But social media allows those who have never had a platform to share their views as broadly as the algorithm allows, to find people who agree, and to be extreme in their/our opinions. It allows for some great things – like finding a community of people who also like to dress up like ponies, to find out about gender affirming care, to normalize incidences of mental unwellness. It also allows for some pretty harmful things like spreading lies about medical treatments or causes that have killed people. 

Maybe we are more divided than ever. And maybe we’re just feeling it because for the first time, we’ve been presented with more than an echo chamber. 

Polarization and divisiveness are here to stay because people are not going to stop fighting to be heard, to be recognized, and to be cared for. What we need to think about carefully is how to have better conversations together, that centre care and listening, especially of those who are most impacted. However, this shouldn’t mean a return to the status quo because that never served most of us in the first place.