By McKenzie Jackson, California Black Media

Americans became more polarized in the last decade than at any time in U.S. history since the Civil War, according to Maia Ferdman, the Deputy Director of UCLA’s Bendari Kindness Institute and Staff Director of the university’s Dialogue Across Difference Initiative.

“Not only do we just vote or think differently, we dislike or mistrust people who are different from us,” Ferdman explained.

Seeing opponents as enemies can justify violence and hate, Ferdman also warned. “Bridge-building, she said, can counteract the fraying of society.”

Ferdman’s insights framed the tone of the California Commission on the State of Hate’s “Virtual Community Forum on Dialogue Across Differences” held via Zoom on Sept. 5.

The two-hour community forum’s other spea

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