Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Anyone who has been stressed, frustrated or angry after engaging in a political conversation with friends or family is hardly alone.
Several research groups, including the nationally renowned Pew Research Center, have noted that close to two-thirds of Americans feel the same way after talking about politics with people they know.
The same polls report that a nearly equal number of Americans want to return to having somewhat civil political discussions with people they disagree with at least partially.
To resolve this issue, people need to learn from each other.
"People don't know how to talk to each other, to ask, 'Why do you feel that way?' I know I didn't," said Lori Cartwright of Braver Angels, an organization that helps people learn how to talk with others they disagree with politically.
"A friend of mine said after you get furious, get curious," she continued. "That's key for many people, I think. We need to be brave to have these discussions and curious enough to want to learn about other people."
To teach this skill, Cartwright's organization decided to jump into the deep end politically on Saturday, opting to discuss one of the most politically divisive topics in the country: immigration.
The staff of Braver Angels held step-by-step instruction sessions on how to discuss difficult topics with others, with the help of the Salt Lake City Human Rights Commission, the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity's Utah Center for Global Talent and New Americans, and hosted by the Sorenson Unity Center in Salt Lake City's Glendale neighborhood. When it was time to practice, politically mixed groups discussed their feelings about immigration policies in the U.S.
In groups of four or five, adults went around their tables and discussed — civilly — the plight of undocumented folks, the strain immigrants may place on the state's education system, and whether immigrants are taking the jobs of American-born Utahns. Statistical information had also been presented from the governor's office: The foreign-born population is 9% of Utah residents. Immigrants are 12% of the Utah workforce, according to data gathered by the firm BSG. Its data also reported that 58% of Utahns do not have a friend or family member who is an immigrant.
Given this information, there was reason to think heated debates would follow. They did not. Instead, participants addressed the values that help shape their opinions, values that they found they had in common who those who think differently.
"What I'm liking is understanding," said Lisia Satini of Salt Lake City's Human Rights Commission. "The compassion, understanding an individual story ... versus looking at that individual as an outsider, that's what I enjoyed."
Learning how to communicate politically with different-minded people was not the only reason for the program. The Salt Lake HRC and the Utah Center for Global Talent and New Americans attended and supported the event as a way to listen to constituents and residents about the topic of immigration. Staff hoped to gather information about how constituents feel in hopes of creating programs and policies that would help different communities.
"Our goal here is to be able to bring conversations together and help illustrate where people fit and where they sit on the issue of immigration in Utah," said Natalie El-Deiry, from the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity's Utah Center for Global Talent and New Americans. "We can bring stakeholders together to have real conversations about real issues. ... What can we do to help? And, with that, we need to build bridges over differences."
