As a Black man coming up in America, I have always been suspicious of calls for “bridge-building” across political differences. I harbor strong, left-leaning political beliefs, and so I have seen most efforts to bridge political divides between Americans as unconvincing. To me, the tendency to ignore what divides us and focus on what we have in common and arrive at “common ground” has come from a position of naïve privilege. During a time of rising white supremacy and hate, Black Americans cannot simply ignore systemic racial injustice, queer Americans cannot ignore the homophobia and transphobia that seeks to erase them and women cannot ignore the societal misogyny that endangers them. “Common ground” has never meant unifying; it has signified a blindness to exclusion and privilege.

However, I have recently come to see political polarization as one of the greatest threats facing our nation. It is so dangerous that historians are comparing our situation today to the era before the United States Civil War. Increasingly, Americans are feeling alienated from and animosity toward one another over political differences. Just as George Washington warned in his farewell presidential address in 1796, a toxic form of partisanship is driving us into a red versus blue America.

Then, this past summer, I happened upon an internship at Columbia University to work on a nascent project called the Polarization Detox Challenge. Developed by professor Peter T. Coleman, the Challenge is a free, online, once-a-day set of “micro-activities,” that aims to help red and blue Americans alike shape new attitudes, norms, skills and relationships of tolerance and compassion. What drew me to the Challenge was how it actually encourages us to disagree with one another, but to do so with decency.

In a country of over 330 million people of different backgrounds, cultures, races, genders, religions,and classes, there is always disagreement. Discord, however, is not a bad thing: it is a common and healthy part of our personal lives, and it should and can be the same for our political lives as well. If we can disagree daily with our friends, family and significant others without destroying our relationships, we can also disagree with our fellow Americans.

Having taken the full four-week Challenge myself with a group of friends, I will say that it’s not perfect, nor is it going to be the sole thing that ends political polarization, but I found it incredibly worthwhile. It is also easy to do and recognizes that, for most of us, patching together American democracy is not our full-time job. Despite being based on conflict research from some of the leading minds in the field, the Challenge is easily accessible. I am by no means a science-nerd, but I walked away this summer much more aware of the many complex forces that drive us apart, and of what I can do about them. It has affected the way that I interact with the news, the way I engage with social media and the way I feel about cross-partisan relationships.

For me, the key to the Challenge was being asked to step out of my comfort zone and face the difficult and complex realities of political identity. So, if you’re someone like me who is skeptical of bridging initiatives and has strong beliefs that you’re not willing to sacrifice, I encourage you to try the Challenge. With the 2024 election cycle approaching like an angry storm on the horizon, now is the time to do what we can to prepare. Perhaps, if enough of us take the Challenge seriously, we might all find the way out of this era of toxic polarization together. 

I would be remiss to write an article addressing the toxic polarization in the US without at least mentioning the polarization that has gripped this campus since the breakout of the Israeli-Hamas war. I mourn the tragic loss of life, and I know that nothing I say can repair the pain and sorrow of Yalies who are personally affected by this tragedy. I also know that, as someone without direct personal ties to this tragedy, my role should never be to inject my own opinion or thoughts on the matter. What I can say, however, based on what I have learned from the Polarization Detox Challenge, is that as you engage with this issue and interact with people on this campus regarding this issue, it would do us all better to remember that our fellow Yalies are human, have human flaws, and we should remember to always try our best to display radical compassion toward each other even when that might not be our preferred option. Our radical compassion by no means will solve all of our issues, but I know that we will all be better off together when we display it. 

JEREMY WILLIAMS is a junior in Branford College. Contact him at jeremy.williams.jaw239@yale.edu.