Say No to Hate: Josh McLaurin

A decline in trust. We’re losing opportunities to get to know each other. We spend all kinds of time and money creating our own private, secluded spaces, both in the physical world and online, where we don’t have to encounter people who look or think differently than we do.

Josh McLaurin is an attorney in Atlanta who has been active in statewide and Congressional politics.

Say No To Hate 1

Josh McLaurin: A decline in trust. We’re losing opportunities to get to know each other. We spend all kinds of time and money creating our own private, secluded spaces, both in the physical world and online, where we don’t have to encounter people who look or think differently than we do. This hurts our ability to develop compassion for other people, which in turn makes it so much more difficult for us to tackle any other social ill. Although Atlanta faces plenty of serious challenges, I think our clogged roads are a powerful symbol of this type of isolation. If Atlanta had more comprehensive public transit options, it would do more than just improve quality of life or the economy — it would allow us truly to share a sense of community with the people who live around us. I think we’d find that feeling of belonging in a community to be much more satisfying than sitting in traffic alone for hours. And likewise, if we’re honest, our history of foot-dragging on transit hasn’t been about economics or quality of life. It’s about our fear of sharing, of getting to know each other.

Say No To Hate 2

Josh McLaurin: Somehow, we need to rebuild a culture that values engagement with diverse people in public spaces. We’re good at this when it comes to sports and concerts, but we could do better. It means looking for opportunities to get to know our neighbors, both who live on the same street and who join community organizations serving similar interests and needs. No one can pass a law to make this happen, though. We have to want it. I’m hopeful that we will.

Say No To Hate 3

Josh McLaurin: Almost everyone shows reverence for the phrase “civil disobedience” now, as if it were always so accepted by the majority as a legitimate means to protest. The reason it worked in the ’60s, however, is because it was a disruptive tactic that shook the majority to get the majority’s attention. We must never oppose the means chosen by grassroots activists merely because they are uncomfortable to us or challenge us — in fact, that’s the only way we get change.

But in an age where social media has encouraged us to grab way more attention than we could ever realistically use, I think activists have to be careful not to pursue tactics that have shock value or impose real pain on others simply for the sake of the disruption they cause. The young men who sat at the lunch counter at the Greensboro Woolworth in 1960 were not threatening anyone or asking for anything other than equal treatment. The only threat they posed was to others’ unjustified sense of entitlement and racist hierarchies. The challenge for activists today is to make clear moral statements in public space that challenge all manner of social ills without infringing upon the rights of others.

Say No To Hate 4

Josh McLaurin: It’s useful but dangerous. Useful because it connects us and allows us to share ideas and inspiration more than ever before; dangerous because it creates the illusion that we no longer need to find each other in person, or in other meaningful ways, to survive as a community. A great example of both the usefulness and limitations of social media is the onset of the Arab Spring protests and demonstrations from 2010. In a way that never before was possible, protesters made use of Twitter to organize and coordinate their protests. But Twitter itself didn’t change the politics of the North African and Middle Eastern countries affected by the movement — it was the millions of people who put their bodies at risk in the streets who changed the course of history there. Politics changes when real people take real risks to show how much they believe in the need for change.

The last two questions were intentionally left blank.


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