The UNDIVIDED Series

JAMIE DIEDRICH
STAFF WRITER

3/10/2025

On March 5, at 7 p.m. in the Thomas Andison Chapel, Rev Dr. Troy Jackson, co-founder of UNDIVIDED took the stage to discuss the civil rights movement, more specifically the Montgomery Movement, and touched on topics like how technology is aiding in protest, the importance of forming a team when it comes to taking action, and how it can only take one person to start a revolution. 

The next day, at 5 p.m. in the Andison Center, the UNDIVIDED team hosted Connecting Across Divides. It gave the audience interactive training on how to discuss topical issues in society, such as politics, race, and religion, in a nonpartisan, empathetic, and tolerant way. 

Many of the questions for the first event, The Ongoing Struggle for Racial Healing and Justice: From Civil Rights to 2025, centered around the pressing and topical issue of DEI and its removal, protesting when even now peaceful protests are frowned upon, and the many ways we can speak up and out about the changes we as a society and student body want to make. 

The biggest suggestions were finding a team or organisation that can back you up just in case, forming a team of like-minded people, and being aware, from Rev Dr. Jackson’s own example, that it takes bravery to stand up when you are being told to stay sitting. 

The second event had us all sit down and discuss the steps of the event: Reflection and moments of pause, connection and small group time, and lastly, direction and the movement to using knowledge. Next, we discussed crafting our 3 minute story through the challenges, choices, outcomes, and the importance of telling our stories. 

They had the audience split into teams of three and reflect on an experience or challenge at a family gathering or moment with friends in regards to political differences. We then shared what choices we have made around this challenge and the outcome, then why we want to improve how the situation took place. A lot of this event was tapping into our emotions and displaying them in a way that will not be aggressive and will require active listening. 

The next portion addressed was the CARE framework, which goes as follows: Choose to allow someone else’s experience to become part of your imagination, acknowledge that their experience is valid and belongs to them, recognize the emotion in their experience, and engage in your own curiosity by going deeper with them.

For the second event, they left us with two things: an example of how to start and continue an empathetic yet effective conversation on the values we are bringing into the season, and a list. The list is people we want to have these tough conversations with, in hopes we’d eventually work up to 15 to 20 people. The questions on the sheet include: What are your biggest hopes? When you think about this coming political season, what are your concerns? It prompts us to remember to respond with warmth, empathy, and respect. 

In order to reach out to others, we as a society must put thought into everything we do, including keeping eye contact, matching the energy level, and remembering to communicate understanding. 

The first event ended on the note that we need to use history as an example of fighting back against different forms of oppression on a government level. The second event ended on the note that we need to grow a gut for empathy and show that we care about each other by making the people around us feel heard. Each event carried its own powerful impact on how we as people can improve our impact on society and how, going forward, we can slowly become better people.