We’ve all heard it before: Prior to judging a person, you have to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Cliché, yes, but it could not pertain more to our current state of affairs. Not only our country, but our world seems to be divided across all lines. Whether it be racial, religious, or political, our society is filled with division. Taking a step back and viewing life from a different perspective may provide solutions.
Last semester, I remember walking around Tiger Stadium during the Ole Miss game wearing a “Clinton Kaine” sticker on my chest. A student pressed his finger against it and began to yell, “Trump for president! Trump, Trump, Trump!”
Instead of retaliating, I decided to keep walking until I found a seat. I tried to forget, but this irritating moment continued to bug me. I asked myself, “Why did he put his hands on me? Why did he feel the need to yell at me? Why was he so angry?”
I repeatedly asked myself these questions, as well as similar ones. I did what many people like me often do — I oversimplified the moment. I thought he was just your average southern, conservative student who didn’t have much tolerance for liberal ideas and beliefs.
But then I truly began to think about why he was angry. What in his life caused him to be so furious at someone he didn’t know, over a woman he didn’t know?
On election night last year, CNN commentator Van Jones described the results as a “whitelash against a changing country.”
Jones was right that many rural white voters, as well as others, were fed up with a country that was moving forward while they remained stagnant. They were tired of being “ignored” and felt they had been left out of the hope, change and progress that the country had experienced.
My inability to take a step back and view the perspective of the young man that touched my “Clinton Kaine” sticker is what allowed me to simply label him as another angry Trump supporter.
That was a mistake.
On the other hand, what was going through his mind when he pressed his finger against my sticker? Did he ever wonder why I decided to wear a Clinton sticker loudly and proudly in a stadium full of Trump supporters?
I am willing to bet he did not.
If he would have tried to view it from my perspective, he would have known that my support is rooted in something deeper than a candidate or a party. It is rooted in a belief that everyone in this country should be treated equally, regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they choose to pray or who they choose to love.
My ancestors knew what it was like to be discriminated against and hated by a country they loved. It would be irresponsible of me to neglect my history and the familiar ties it has to the present day.
It is a failure on all of our parts to constantly ignore how others experience life in this country. If we were more cognizant of these multiple perspectives, we might be able to get a step closer to achieving real progress and healing the deep wounds of division.
Frederick Bell is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Greensburg, Louisiana.