A Case for Conflict Transformation in America
Fixing the cracks in the foundation
Anger is an easy but overwhelming emotion. In the first 100 days of this administration, I have sometimes felt consumed by my anger. Sometimes it felt like it was the only thing keeping me going. And while anger is a powerful motivator, I want to make a case for a different path forward.
Most are familiar with the concept of conflict resolution, which is the process of finding amicable solutions to disputes. However, there is another concept that goes a step further: conflict transformation. This concept (that spent a year of my life getting a master’s degree in) goes beyond conflict resolution to address the root causes of conflict. It requires us to redesign systems and norms to prevent the recurrence of violence. For some reason, I did not reflect on its application to the US context, but there is no time like the present.
In America, we have always struggled to live up to the ideals laid out in our founding documents. Women, black people, indigenous people, and even children have had to claw their way toward equality for centuries. Yet despite these gains, this administration brings fear that all of our progress will be rolled back. How is that possible? The foundation. The foundation was full of cracks. Regardless of their intentions, the Founding Fathers set us up to fail. By refusing to fully address issues such as slavery (probably because they were also slave owners) and creating solutions such as the 3/5 compromise, they set us on a path toward the deadliest war in US history and one of the most violent racial systems ever created. Even our post-segregation era has been filled with different forms of racial tensions. This gap between our ideals and our reality appear along other social fault lines throughout our history, further splintering the country. These divides require more than just our same old toolkit to address. It requires something more radical.
Some may not see the need of conflict transformation given a perceived lack of “conflict”. However, just because the United States has not experienced a civil war since the 1860s does not mean that we do not experience violence. In fact, our social tensions manifest through different forms of violence, including mass shootings; violence against women; and structural violence such as police brutality, mass incarceration, and the criminalization of homelessness. While we may be desensitized to these forms of violence, this does not reduce their impact on our society. In fact, their impact runs so deep that conflict transformation may be our only option.
Conflict transformation offers the only framework through which to redefine the American social fabric. By focusing on the structural and cultural dimensions of conflict in the United States, it can lead us to sustainable change. The concept itself relies on nonviolent strategies such as reconciliation, dialogue, and restorative justice. While there are many organizations domestically that implement these strategies on a local level, this would also be a unique opportunity to scale up to the national level. Additionally, this is a moment for people to bring their international expertise home, especially as our international relations architecture is dismantled. Most importantly, this framework can be applied across multiple fault lines. It does not need to be limited to racial or ethnic conflict and instead can be expanded to conflicts of gender, religion, even region.
The process of conflict transformation can be a healing one. However, I must note that this process must be rooted in love, not anger. Just like red pill men cannot hate women into being who they want us to be, we cannot hate this country into living up to its ideals. Our love for our country must exceed our hatred for our oppressors lest we become the oppressors ourselves. Conflict transformation and revenge are fundamentally incompatible.
I still have days where I wake up in a rage. Where I feel so consumed by fire that I can feel is an overwhelming need for destruction. However, I refuse to succumb to it. Many of these pieces feel like love letters to my country. A Shakespearean-level display of unrequited love. If we are willing, conflict transformation can provide a vehicle through which to calm our anger and channel love instead. And I’m sure that this all sounds blindly optimistic. However, it is blind optimism and determination that ended slavery, gave women the right to vote, and righted so many of history’s wrongs.
Been struggling with similar emotions lately. This quote from the book Beartown by Fredrik Blackman is helping me to reframe my thoughts, “Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe - comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy”.