We are living in violent and deeply troubling times.
In New York City, a teenager raised in Philadelphia participated in an attempted terrorist attack on Gracie Mansion. According to security experts, the attack is part of a rising tide of domestic terrorism that has mostly recently led to assaults in Michigan and Virginia. The tragic pattern of violence on display in the daily news is especially troubling because it transcends any single group or ideology.
Evans Whitaker
Matthew Daniels
Americans have been badly divided before. But today, technology seems to empower purveyors of conflict more than proponents of peace. The business model of many media outlets feed off of this cycle. Social media algorithms thrive off polarization, and cable shows turn policy debates into shouting matches. The result is that division and hatred are increasingly the cultural currency for a lot of what passes for discourse online — a toxic tender backed by too many irresponsible politicians, social influencers and even sophisticated foreign influence operations.
Most Americans are distressed by the result but still typically blame the other side for the problem rather than realizing both sides are the victims of manipulation. How to break this dangerous dynamic?
With the endorsement of Ambassador Andrew Young, right hand to Martin Luther King Jr., a movement is beginning among college students from a diverse array of academic institutions that embraces the proven principles that informed King’s leadership of the Civil Rights Movement as a roadmap for a better future.
King, Young and the many other early Civil Rights activists taught the value and dignity of all life. Out of this understanding came their visionary commitment to nonviolence — a methodology with a proven ability to advance equality and justice in our society in a enduring manner. Now, this same methodology is inspiring a new generation of young leaders to work for peace and reconciliation in our day.
A federal marshal reads a court order halting a planned voter registration protest as Martin Luther King Jr., right, and fellow marcher Andrew Young, left, look on in Selma, Ala., March 9, 1965. (AP Photo)
Building from a hub at Anderson University, a private academic institution in South Carolina, we have launched the Ambassador Young Fellows program to train a new generation in the unifying and timeless principles of America’s founding. About half these students come from historically Black colleges and universities, and the rest come from a wide array of other educational institutions from across the country.
In a time when our nation is consumed by political extremes and division, the Ambassador Young Fellows program offers a third way, a significantly better way. This path is not found in partisan politics. It is a path of reconciliation, justice and dialogue that bypasses the destructive cycles of animosity. The fellows are taught that justice is not won through demonization and division but through constructive love and unwavering grace. It seeks to bring together young leaders from a diverse array of communities to study and practice the principles of civility and public service.
Although it will take time for the impact of this educational movement to be felt, we have no choice but to make a long-term investment now in the only proven remedy to the forces of division and hatred. Even as we prepare to celebrate the sesquicentennial of our nation, intolerance and violence threaten America’s future.
However, our nation’s founding principles, as courageously expressed by the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement, offer an antidote to this disease. So we must empower rising generations to be agents for the distribution of the antidote while we still have time.
Evans Whitaker serves as president of Anderson University in Anderson, S.C. Matthew Daniels serves as a distinguished university professor of law, political science and human rights at Anderson University and is founder of the Ambassador Young Fellows program.