The left and right wings are attached to the same body

Each Trojan has a unique sense of identity. Sometimes, it can be difficult for students to adequately express their individuality, and so they resort to using common labels to describe themselves. Titles like liberal, conservative, straight, queer and many others require only a brief conversation to tease out of a fellow student. But the implications of those labels can be dramatically different depending on who is hearing them. For many people, it seems that if somebody disagrees with one’s core values, there is little reason to continue interacting with them other than to deride them. “Queer” is turned into “snowflake,” “conservative” morphs into “alt-right” and people retreat back into their like-minded bubbles to seek reaffirmation.

In doing so, however, students seem to forget that we all have at least one thing in common — we are Trojans. We all were admitted to this university because we embodied the five traits of a Trojan — faithful, scholarly, skillful, courageous and ambitious. But there really should be a sixth trait of a Trojan: respectful. USC’s administration has done a wonderful job of creating a vibrant community of people from innumerable, breathtaking backgrounds. Even students who appear to be stereotypical at first glance often have deeply personal narratives — narratives that ought to be heard by their fellow students. In light of this, students should be slow to judge each other and quick to seek understanding of one another — now more than ever.

Each Trojan brings the sum of their life experience to campus every day, and differences in life experience often drive students to varying conclusions about education, life and politics. Students ought to view this diversity of thought as a resource, not a liability. The guy wearing a “Make America Great Again” baseball hat walking on Trousdale Parkway and the outspoken queer feminist in a GE class both probably have compelling reasons for thinking the way they do. It may not be immediately clear — and therefore easy to assume that they don’t — because those students haven’t been given a chance to explain their perspectives. Writing off students like that as ignorant, as irritating or — worse — unworthy of one’s time does them a disservice and damages the unity of the Trojan Family.

Regardless of if a student is “right,” “left” or somewhere in between, we are all Trojans. Trojans will share the same campus for years, after all, so we ought to make the most of the time we have together. The first step in that direction is choosing to seek common ground with and to be respectful of fellow students. There are undoubtedly certain things that most Trojans can agree on; it is only a matter of finding them and understanding why we agree. It may be that our concerns and priorities are not so disparate after all, but we will never know if we do not engage in dialogue with one another and withhold judgment. The desire to tackle issues like poverty, food and water security, health quality and many other “wicked problems” identified by Provost Michael Quick very likely forms our common foundation here at USC.

The terms “right wing” and “left wing” were created in the era of the French Revolution in order to refer to opposing groups in the French Legislative Assembly. Those who sat on the right were usually conservative, those who sat on the left were usually liberal. In contemporary politics, the terms are often used to describe people who oppose one’s own views. Yet, to use a metaphor, a bird needs both the left and the right wing to work in concert in order to soar. So, too, does our university community, the United States and the world. There needs to be cooperation and moderation between different groups. There must be dialogue aimed at moving the collective onward and upward. And it all starts with us.

So talk with somebody different today — doing so just might start a beneficial movement.