POLITICAL DIALOGUE WITH URBAN CITIZENS
How To Talk Across a Divide
(FreedomFest 2022, Las Vegas – Black Guns Matter Workshop: Become an Expert in De-escalation and Conflict Resolution – Maj Toure
Having just attended FreedomFest, I wanted to share some of the highlights with you. This talk really resonated with me, as Maj made it clear that the way we communicate with people we don’t really know makes a difference in how they are likely to respond. While he aims this at speaking with urban residents, I think it would work well whenever you begin a conversation with anyone you don’t know well.
Here are his three main points:
1. Practice empathy. This comprises three skills:
a. Listening – try to understand the problems that plague the person without planning your next words.
b. Build Rapport – the more you listen and ask questions, the faster rapport will be built. Don’t offer solutions until you are further along in the conversation.
c. Create liaisons – focus on subjects where you share concerns. This might be school choice or the war on drugs.
2. Know the facts. Don’t repeat myths you’ve heard; dig up the truth. Use liberty-based research. An example of myths he shared were that “black fathers are overwhelmingly absentee” and “gun ownership increases crime.” When you look into it, you discover that welfare programs pay mothers more when they kick the father out. And the data is clear, particularly in a time when gun ownership is rising at a rapid rate. People who acquire guns legally are very likely to never use them except on the range. It doesn’t automatically change someone from a pacifist to a warrior.
3. Offer liberty-based solutions when you understand the problem.
Too often, well-meaning people focus on personal responsibility as the primary goal, but that won’t work if someone feels that they have no agency. The victim mindset is inculcated by our government. When you are completely dependent, you have no motivation. When government wants the people to be beholden to its largess, you end up with poverty, disempowered people and hopelessness. But people get used to it.
Instead, it can help if you can focus on your conversational partner’s abilities and talents. We all have so many untapped resources, but unless someone notice and appreciates them, they wither away. “You’re better than you think you are.”
Maj focuses a lot of energy on getting Black people into responsible gun ownership, providing training and support. People forget that long after slavery was outlawed, Blacks often were deprived of the rights others enjoyed, especially the right to own a firearm. Giving people the opportunity to learn about guns and how to safely use them reminds them of their power and the fact that they are entitled by our Constitution to all the rights of citizenship. A gifted speaker, Maj could probably turn a lot of gun control advocates around, as he speaks of the horrors of living in criminal-infested ghettos. The increasing advocacy of Blacks for this basic right was instrumental in the recent SCOTUS decision on the 2nd Amendment.
Next time you have the opportunity to speak with someone about the issues of the day, look at Maj’s straightforward approach. He’s been able to talk many people into realizing the negative impact government handouts have on them and how they can use their power and abilities to become more than a victim and dependent.
Check out his page.
https://www.facebook.com/blackgunsmattermajtoure/
