Way(back): David Frank on Kevin Frazier's Thick Tolerance Piece
Prejudice is reduced when individuals and groups holding different values and outlooks are in direct and extended contact.
What is a “Way(back)”? These pieces are short reflections from contributors on previous Oregon Way pieces that left an impact on them.
In his editor’s note of December 17, 2021, Kevin Frazier featured the importance of “thin” and “thick” tolerance. Thin tolerance, he observes, is a “live and let live” approach, a version of libertarianism in which people live separate lives with no need to engage, understand, or judge others. Thick tolerance, Kevin argues, is a better approach because it expects communal engagement, understanding the experiences and values of others, and judgments of self and other citizens. Thick tolerance produces civil disagreement, which thin tolerance avoids because the individual is supreme.
Kevin’s editor’s note is striking and stands out because he identifies what we must do to improve our democracy: We must get “much better at thick tolerance.” Thick tolerance requires contact between people and groups who may hold very different sets of values.
Advocates of thin tolerance and libertarianism believe such contact is both unnecessary and counterproductive: unnecessary because the individual is supreme and has no need for the constraints of others; and, counterproductive because contact between individuals who hold different values may create unnecessary tension.
“Thin tolerance” Kevin writes, “requires more from both the skeptic and the devout.” Thick tolerance, in a telling phrase, “turns the skeptic into a perpetual learner, rather than a constant defender of their own righteousness.” Kevin sprinkles his note with several charming examples of his direct experience with thick tolerance. His essay reinforced for me the importance of the “contact hypothesis,” one of the most powerful and well supported theories in social psychology.
The contact hypothesis holds that prejudice is reduced when individuals and groups holding different values and outlooks are in direct and extended contact. Kevin’s note provides additional proof for the contact hypothesis and strengthens the vision he is developing with The Oregon Way for a better Oregon.
Indeed, I believe The Oregon Way is one of several initiatives he has launched to enact thick tolerance and embrace the contact hypothesis. He has, tirelessly and relentlessly, sought out voices and perspectives often ignored and marginalized and given them The Oregon Way as a platform. His vision for Oregon is expressed in the hundreds of opinions he has gathered in service to the thick tolerance a truly democratic Oregon needs.
David Frank is a professor emeritus at the University of Oregon. He served as dean of the Clark Honors College from 2008 - 2013. Among his publications are six books and over 50 scholarly articles concerned with American and international public discourse, argumentation, rhetorical criticism, with a focus on social movements for justice.
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