Thursday, June 11, 2020

How Do You See Things?

Already reeling from a deadly pandemic, the brutal death of George Floyd has left us all shocked, outraged, and wondering, what is happening to our world? Now is the time for all of us to see things from a different perspective, to listen, and to fight against a rush to judge

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By André van Heerden, Communications Director

I remember being very disillusioned when I was in my first year at Carleton University studying journalism. In a course where we were studying objectivity and how to achieve it, I was struck by the fact that no one could actually be objective.

There are ways to collect and record facts. There are ways to verify what was said, and by whom, and to do further research. There are ways of stripping a story down to nothing but the essentials.

But there is no way of getting rid of yourself in reporting the story. The story has to be reported by someone, and that’s a problem. Because once you involve a person—any person—their perspective will influence how the story is reported.

A great deal has been written about media bias. It’s generally understood that some media sources are liberal in their reporting while others are conservative, and that both sides sensationalize news to drive the business of generating an audience. But before we complain and condemn the media, let’s remember what the root cause of the problem is: people.

And people aren’t just journalists. They are also construction workers, healthcare workers, teachers, parents, and everyone else that you meet and talk with. People are also police officers and protesters.

In the tumult and anger that has followed the brutal death of George Floyd, there have been many descriptions, videos, and opinions about those two groups in particular. I’ve seen videos of police officers praying with and hugging protesters. And I’ve seen officers attacking and beating people.

I’ve seen protesters quietly kneeling and trying to stop violence, and I’ve seen protesters setting fires, attacking officers, and looting. Why is there such a wide range of words and actions from people of the same groups? Because they’re all people and they all have different perspectives.

Pastor and author Steven Furtick notes that “your perspective will either become your prison or your passport.” Obviously, the vast majority of us want peace and justice and a society where people don’t hurt others. We’d love it if everyone did as they should, thought the best of everyone, and had an equal voice.

But if we’re being truly honest, we have to admit that at times we’re part of the problem.

What if our hurtful words or actions in low-stress, low-stake situations were suddenly amplified in high-stress, high-stake situations? Like in a protest? Like when facing aggressive opposition? Like when facing an assumed threat? Like when feeling you have no hope and that no one is listening?

It’s easy to make judgments when you think your bias is 100 percent correct or when you don’t even recognize that you have a bias.

Author and sports commentator James Deacon said that “what you see depends not only what you look at, but also on where you look from.”

We have to recognize that while we can control what we look at, it’s much more difficult to control where we look from.

Just recently, NFL quarterback Drew Brees stated why he thinks it’s important to stand for the national anthem and how kneeling in protest during it is disrespectful. He was harshly criticized and condemned for his view.

Tony Dungy, a well-known former NFL coach, said in Brees’s defense that “we can’t be afraid to say, ‘OK, Drew, I don’t agree with you, but let’s talk about this.’ We can’t just say anytime something happens that we don’t agree with, ‘I’m done with that, and I’m done with this person.’ That doesn’t make sense. We have to be better than that. . . . We can’t go forward with judgmental, bitter spirits. We need to be proactive, but do it in the spirit of trying to help make things better.”

After listening to the backlash to his comments and understanding the hurt he caused, Brees issued a lengthy apology and noted that his comments “lacked awareness and any type of compassion or empathy.” He acknowledged that “I will never know what it's like to be a black man or raise black children in America but I will work every day to put myself in those shoes and fight for what is right.”

Brees is taking strides to do what everyone should be doing: trying to see things from a different perspective.

So my journalism classes were on the right track. There is a way for people and journalists to be more objective.

It’s not easy. It takes a lot of listening and even more listening. You have to fight against a rush to judge. And it may also involve admitting when you make a mistake and apologizing.

As Dr. Wayne Dyer said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

How Do You See Things?

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