Why is America so Divided?

Hopefully this information will help us all take a moment to reflect on our own behavior, how much true diversity we experience and what is influencing our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors towards others. Why does this slippery slope matter? Because as the great Mahatma Gandhi said:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, 
 Your thoughts become your words,
 Your words become your actions, 
 Your actions become your habits,
 Your habits become your values
 Your values become your destiny.”

In other words, our beliefs matter. These beliefs need to be challenged through healthy civil debate and through rigorous self-examination and through teaching people how to engage in metacognition, or “thinking about thinking”. In a free society, we have a high burden on our educational system and on other critical institutions, such as the family unit, religious groups, and I would argue, corporations, to help reinforce healthy beliefs and teach people about personal best practices that will build a just and more-inclusive society. Two such organizations that are attempting to build a curriculum to help institutions learn how to be truly inclusive are OpenMind, which is building a curriculum and platform for companies to foster mutual understanding across differences, and the Heterodox Academy, which is an organization of thousands of college professors who are trying to reinforce diversity of thought and civil discourse in college campuses so students learn how to engage with people whom they disagree with and get exposed to dangerous historical ideologies, so we hopefully avoid repeating mistakes from the past.

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