For the John Templeton Foundation, I wrote about the New Pluralists.
For much of the history of the United States, Americans have embodied the promises and paradoxes of the motto E Pluribus Unum, one out of many. Diversity is part of the American identity — according to the Pew Research center, more than three quarters of Americans believe the country has become more diverse in recent decades, and more than 60% favor even more diversity. Yet the United States stands out among advanced economies for the level of perceived societal conflict. According to another Pew survey, 90% of Americans said there are strong or very strong conflicts between Americans who support different political parties; 71% reported the same level of conflict between those of different ethinic or racial backgrounds, and 49% saw strong or very strong conflict between those who practice different religions.
It’s a paradox but there are signs of hope, like the People’s Supper, which uses shared meals to build trust and connection among people of different identities and perspectives; More in Common, who worked with the National Immigration Forum to host a series of living room conversations in 27 U.S. cities to learn about cultural, economic and security concerns that drive the immigration debate; and StoryCorps, which has which gathered more than 650,000 Americans, two at a time, to record intimate conversations about their lives.