One thing that often happens is siloing, or at least the illusion of it. Unfortunately, everything is connected. Siloing doesn’t actually work in the real world when we’re discussing various issues, and it can make things more difficult.
Siloing is the belief that something can exist in isolation. It’s common in business, where teams like product development and inbound marketing simply don’t talk to each other. Usually, this becomes problematic there, and that applies outside business too.
For example, let’s look at physical accessibility. It’s practically impossible to implement physical accessibility for something without learning about neurodivergence and other conditions. Knowledge must build from there, especially if someone is devoted to providing good service.
This also applies to history. For example, it’s impossible to look at LGBTQIA+ history without learning about trans folks since they started or were instrumental in many parts of the movement. Never mind how much we learn about public policy along the way!
Studying mass incarceration leads in many different directions, from public policy to LGBTQIA+ rights to racism to indigenous rights. There’s no way to only look at this one problem without learning at least a bit about what feeds it.
Learning is an ongoing process, especially for things that have different places in general discussion. After all, general discourse tends to simplify things, often to the detriment of clarity. For example, prison abolition does advocate closing all jails, but it also advocates a community-based program to replace them.
Understanding takes time, and it takes commitment. Not everyone can afford to dive headfirst and look at all the connections in a week. However, one step at a time is all that’s required as long as we’re using our resources.
Committing to learning is an option to break this cycle. When we commit to learning uncomfortable pieces of information about something, it can truly shift our perspective on the topic.