The University of Maryland business school on Tuesday hosted a screening of the 2023 film Undivide Us, which investigates the “toxic polarization” plaguing American political discourse.
Amid extreme partisanship and division, filmmakers aimed to show that healthy political debate still exists through roundtable focus groups featuring diverse Americans who discussed their perspectives on divisive topics such as abortion and gun control.
By the end of the discussion, participants in the film deepened their awareness of others’ perspectives, but did not waver in their views. When moderators asked if anyone’s opinions changed, no one raised their hand.
Reconciliation between people with vastly different perspectives doesn’t always happen immediately, said Benjamin Klutsey, executive director at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and one of the film’s featured moderators. But over time, society becomes more inclusive and people with opposing viewpoints can work to understand one another, he said.
“We’re not trying to change your mind about anything,” Klutsey said at a post-screening Q&A at Tuesday’s event. “The goal was to understand perspectives.”
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The film describes a majority of the population as “reasonable Americans” who are tired of politicians’ and social media’s inflammatory rhetoric driving family and friends, while a smaller proportion, described as the “emotional 20 percent” on the fringe of society, participate in and drive extreme partisanship.
The film’s two leads, Klutsey and Tony Woodlief, State Policy Network senior executive vice president and senior fellow, view their experiment as a victory and expressed hope that the focus groups will continue, placing importance on resolution and “good disagreement.”
After the showing, audience members and students asked questions and said comments about the film, expressing interest in continuing these conversations in their own lives.
Dylan Cooperman, a freshman accounting major, was an attendee at the screening who agreed and disagreed with parts of the film.
“It was a nice discussion, everyone was calm and collected, and no one argued too much,” said Cooperman. “There were arguments, but it was civil.”
While it arguably created more questions than answers, Undivide Us prompted student discussion that can help create healthy discourse on campus.
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Freshman international business and management major Coral Douglas said the film stressed the importance of peaceful conclusions after discussions of contentious political topics.
“It definitely made me realize a lot of things that I hadn’t considered before about having controversial conversations and having to come to an agreement,” Douglas said.
