{"id":2658,"date":"2024-08-28T21:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T21:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2024-08-28T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T22:00:00","slug":"chicago-gang-member-teaches-about-divides-talk-with-amanda-ripley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/08\/28\/chicago-gang-member-teaches-about-divides-talk-with-amanda-ripley\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can a Chicago Gang Member Teach Us About Our Divides? Amanda Ripley Explains"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou&#8217;re either with us or against us. You\u2019re either racist or anti-racist. You&#8217;re either Republican or Democrat. You&#8217;re good or evil. Like, this kind of thinking does not serve us in the modern world.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 Amanda Ripley, from the <i>12 Geniuses<\/i> podcast<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the latest episode of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/08\/21\/debate-without-hate-podcast-series-navigate-divisive-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cDebate Without Hate: Elections 2024\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> season of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 Geniuses<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> podcast, journalist Amanda Ripley talks about the ideas contained in her best-selling book <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Amanda Ripley: Countering Culture Wars and Conflict | Debate Without Hate: 2024 Elections\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F1yPW2Rtf9Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amanda Ripley shares the story of former Chicago gang leader Curtis Toler. Curtis joined his first gang at age nine to find a sense of belonging and protection. As he rose through the ranks of the Black P. Stone gang, a local high school basketball star he idolized was suddenly shot and killed. Curtis became convinced that the rival gang, the Gangster Disciples, was responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Driven by a desire for justice and fueled by pain and anger, Curtis spent years pursuing a vendetta against the Gangster Disciples. Like many in high conflict, he searched for a way to make his life meaningful. But Curtis was under the spell of the conflict, fighting the wrong enemy. The rival gangs, often separated by little more than geography or minor differences like how they wore their hats or belts, were quite similar, with members who could have been friends in a different world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amanda uses Curtis\u2019s story to illustrate what she calls \u201chigh conflict.\u201d When we let anger and pain control us, we often fight the wrong battles. Instead of finding real solutions, we get stuck in cycles of revenge and misunderstanding, not realizing that our true enemies are often the very conflicts that divide us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amanda says we must try to reimagine conflict \u2014 to see that it can be healthy and constructive. \u201cWhen we are in a state of dysfunctional conflict, it means trying to find a way to be in good conflict, like the kind of conflict where we make each other better and stronger, rather than worse off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2024\/08\/21\/debate-without-hate-podcast-series-navigate-divisive-election\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn more about the 12 Geniuses podcast series<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to stay in the loop about efforts to reduce toxic polarization? <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/join\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sign up for our newsletter<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou&#8217;re either with us or against us. You\u2019re either racist or anti-racist. You&#8217;re either Republican or Democrat. You&#8217;re good or evil. Like, this kind of thinking does not serve us in the modern world.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u2014 Amanda Ripley, from the 12 Geniuses podcast In the latest episode of the \u201cDebate Without Hate: Elections&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":2659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[],"type_feed":[72],"class_list":["post-2658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Can a Chicago Gang Member Teach Us About Our Divides? 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