Giving Compass' Take:

• Jennifer Mercieca explains the importance of enthymemes and how words can hold different meanings for various communities of people. She goes on to examine how people in the U.S. understand the word "diversity" in many ways and discuss this concept with each other. 

• In this particular political climate, why is it essential to understand enthymemes in order to have more productive conversations with individuals who have different values than you?

• Learn about the individual definitions of diversity, inclusion, and equity and why they matter. 

One way to take a peek inside a culture’s discourse is to examine what rhetorical scholars like me call a culture’s “enthymemes,” which we can think of as the ways that words, phrases and ideas are understood in a particular community.

In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle coined the term “enthymeme” to explain how different words and arguments resonate in one community but not in others. Technically, an enthymeme is a “rhetorical syllogism” – an argument made with a premise that’s assumed or taken for granted, and so goes unsaid. For example, when you hear someone say, “the states,” you know they’re referring to the United States of America.

If you want to persuade a group of people, then you need to understand what they understand, see the world the way that they do and use the words that they use to describe objects and ideas. Otherwise, you’ll just talk past them.

As part of my research for a book that I’m completing about the 2016 election, I’ve spent the past few months reading the message boards and websites of white nationalists, a group that exists on the fringes of American culture. It’s been fascinating to learn the white nationalists’ enthymemes and to see how they understand discourse about race.

Imagine attempting to have a productive conversation about issues of race or diversity with someone who holds completely different enthymemes from you.

When one side understands “diversity” as America’s strength and another side understands “diversity” as a conspiracy to exterminate white people, there is little common ground to discuss policies such as building a border wall, affirmative action, or whether to abolish ICE.

Read the full article about diversity by Jennifer Mercieca at The Conversation