Lessons from Touré: Promoting Healthy Discourse
By TONY WANG '20
Free and open discourse has long been key in promoting the growth of innovative ideas. But where do we draw the line on “free” discourse? Although discussing political issues can be deeply personal, we need to place strife aside and focus on the ideas themselves in order to arrive at meaningful conclusions. Seminar Day Keynote speaker Touré raised such questions of political discourse as he addressed the upper school. His message incited a variety of responses from the community and compelled us to look deeply at the way we handle divisive topics.
Touré’s perspective from working at MSNBC was certainly engaging. We rarely get to look behind the scenes of our news reports, but Touré put the audience in his shoes when he vividly recounted his interviews with various prominent rap artists, including 50 Cent and Kanye West. These anecdotes possessed captivating details, ranging from the exact wording of his questions to the facial expressions of his interviewees. After laying out an overview of the experience of a journalist, Touré progressed to the current scene of media reporting and the polarization of politicized media outlets. Addressing this issue, he bluntly stated that right-wing media sources often use deceptive tactics to “lie to their audience, leaving their followers unable to understand reality.”
Although nearly everyone agrees that all media reporting contains a degree of bias, many felt the way that Touré communicated this message was unconstructive. Commenting on this portion of the speech, Jerry Ducasse (III) said: “though he was speaking his own opinions, the way he spoke was somewhat insensitive to the people around.” This description reflects a major flaw of Touré’s speech: he discredited a number of opinions and news sources that were opposed to his without giving the audience an opportunity to consider them. Every historical diplomatic and legislative feat has required debate and negotiation to account for each of the parties involved, and these principles apply to our modern political discourse as well.
As Touré mentioned, debate currently surrounds many political issues. A proper debate requires a set of principles ensuring each side receives an equal opportunity to make its case. When asked about Touré’s approach to political issues, CE/PS teacher and Speech Team coach Weston Elkins stated that a debate should “give both sides equal time even if one side is at a disadvantage, and the audience should be able to decide the truth for themselves.” Indeed, the platforms for speech and expression need to be equal; only then can new ideas and minority opinions receive a chance to reach a larger audience and bring change.
More objective and justified ideas will generally find more evidence to support themselves, and if each side has made its best effort to advocate for itself, the listeners should ultimately be able to decide the ones that they support. During this process, each side will doubtlessly endeavor to discredit the others’ arguments, but attacks on the character of the debaters themselves are always frowned upon. The theme of a debate, and any discussion in general, should be evaluating the ideas presented rather than the people presenting them. After discussing how a debate should be conducted, Mr. Elkins went on to say that “if you don’t embrace the dignity of the other side[s] and give them the same type of respect [as you would to yourself], it becomes very difficult to build bridges.”
Though Touré’s angle on political discourse in modern media proved divisive, we can still learn from the flaws we sensed and work towards positive, unifying discussion in the Milton community. Whether in or out of the classroom, learning to evaluate and judge ideas rather than the people presenting them will facilitate healthy discourse and accelerate our arrival at constructive and innovative conclusions.