Anita's Angle: The great divide

Every school has its cliques. The high school in "Mean Girls" had its desperate wannabes, burnouts and the infamous “Plastics,” conveniently identified by which table they chose to sit at during lunch hour. At Tufts, social groups are just as stratified but less easily identified. Yes, we’re all liberal arts students united in our love for all things quirky (note to Admissions – are we still allowed to say that?). But dig a little deeper and you’ll find that meaningful interaction between people from different backgrounds with different mindsets is rarer than it should be.

From the “athlete section” in Dewick to the Crafts House and beyond, physical spaces on this campus are often associated with the groups that occupy them and their (thinly-veiled) ideologies. And at a place like Tufts, where students are prone to passion over apathy, even the smallest-seeming issues can turn into monumental debates. In my experience, the average Tufts student is opinionated, well-read and convinced that they’re always right. We are often too quick to speak before listening, and we, consciously or subconsciously, label our peers based on their on-campus affiliations.

Even more alarmingly, it can feel at times like there is no middle ground. If you’re not a capitalist, you’re an idealistic fool. If you’re not a communist, you’re an oppressor. Strong beliefs are crucial in guiding one’s everyday decision-making and giving our lives meaning, but we must also be open-minded enough to absorb information without filtering it through a pre-existing bias. This is, of course, impossible, but we can certainly at least make an effort towards humility.

Having strong beliefs but also being willing to admit when we are wrong sounds like a classic case of having one’s cake and eating it too. There is a clear social stigma against changing one’s mind — ever seen a political candidate accused of “flip-flopping?" But I think the prevalence of such accusations, especially in college, remains at odds with the entire point of a liberal arts education. We should hold onto our convictions, but also be willing to examine our blind spots. As college students, even as mere mortals, do we really have all the answers?

Professor Carol Dweck of Stanford gave a TED Talk on her idea of a “growth mindset,” or the power of believing that you can improve. Through this lens, one’s traits and talents are not seen as fixed; rather, they are cultivated and constantly being reshaped. We are always in the process of learning, not least because we attend a university with tremendous resources and a diverse student body. The irony is that truly open-minded discourse often occurs in the ivory towers of our classrooms, but less often in the personal and more intimate spaces we inhabit. So even if you’re not an athlete, stride into Dewick this week and strike up a conversation with a stranger. Remember that at Tufts, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.