Carolina Judicial Council invited former state representative Bakari Sellers to mediate a discussion Monday night on civility in relation to the Carolinian Creed. Sellers also introduced the audience to his father's past, his background and his own definition of civility.
"I want people to understand the commonalities that we have, but even more importantly than that, I want people to be able to see us for who we are," Sellers said. "I want you to also be able to give people the benefit of their humanity."
Discussing his father's own role in the civil rights movement and temporary placement on death row, Sellers broadened the conversation to a recognition of injustices he said are still alive in the U.S.
"I saw a video of a young man in Charleston, South Carolina who was running away from police being shot eight times in the back because he was being seen as something less than human, " said Sellers. "And why is that amazing? It's because Dylann Roof got a cheeseburger and got arrested without any incident."
Defining civility as seeing one another with the benefit of their humanity and a quest to find common ground, Sellers took to the podium to mediate a conversation between representatives from four of USC’s political student organizations. Present were American Civil Liberties Union president Jake Fortenberry, College Democrats president Logan Martin, Andrew Graybill from Young Democratic Socialists and Morgan Rizer from College Libertarians. College Republicans was invited but unable to attend.
The panel tackled questions about bipartisanship, polarization and what it means to be civil in the face of adversity. Guided by Sellers and the audience's questions, the panel moved toward a desire for compromise and “multi-partisanship," calling for more moderate compromise in U.S. governing bodies.
“By making it a right versus left or a black and white issue it kind of negates any ability for a third party view to be presented,” said Rizer. “So I feel like even if people don’t subscribe to the libertarian agenda or they don’t subscribe to the Green Party or any other type of third party, I think sometimes ... their voices are lost.”
Whether or not one could be civil when fighting against human rights infringements became a daunting question for the group and received a specific interjection from Sellers.
“But isn’t loud and angry, isn’t that civility?” Sellers asked. “I think that you should be loud. I think that you should be angry. I think that the March on Washington was loud and angry ... you should be loud and you should be angry and not be erased, but I think that that was civil.”
The panel unified their diverse beliefs at the close of the discussion with an encouragement for everyone, particularly college students, to vote.
“It’s important to vote because how many of you love hemorrhaging tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition?” asked Martin. “The only way to do something about that is to vote for candidates for South Carolina State House who are pledging ... more state funding to universities.”
Liz Hammond, a third-year political science and history student, is the vice president of Creed programming for the Carolina Judicial Council. She wanted audience members to leave with a broader understanding of the Carolinian Creed, one that correlated with a larger message of acceptance and compromise.
“With the current political climate we just get so caught up in the negativity and more so fighting as opposed to civility,” said Hammond. “So this important because it reminds us ... to remain civil in this environment.”
Editor's note: The Civil Leadership Education Action Team also contributed to putting on this event.