Burst the purple bladder in 2025 – the Williams record

Williams students cannot talk about politics. This does not mean that we are politically under property or uninterested system on the system-away from it. Our students are articulated, well trained and passionate. The problem is that we are in a political bladder that prevents us from talking about politics in an authentic, understanding way.

Since I arrived at the college, I have often heard the expression “the purple bladder”. It is usually used to refer our physical isolation and also describes our political isolation. According to a 2024 Record Overview of the student body, 82.5 percent of the respondents planned to vote Kamala Harris.

Having a great concentration of liberal people is not a problem in itself. I myself am liberal. It is easy to forget that we are surrounded by voices that reflect our own and reflect in a cycle of political deception. In my experience, College students tend to isolate themselves and refuse to hear alternative positions or arguments.

I understand the tendency to deduct us from opinions that we do not vehemently agree with. Every new day seems to be a message about a stealing decision by the people who lead our country. Especially now when problems of dignity and identity are at stake, it is convenient to write off those with whom we do not agree. If you stay in the bladder, life becomes much easier, but it is not the reaction to the constant political chaos of our time, which leads to real solutions.

Talks across political borders and interpersonal political dialogue take on political changes. This is not a naive wish, but an empirical truth. People sympathize more with political reasons if they can understand the personal circumstances on which these views are based. Public support for the legality of same -sex marriage increased when people met more gays and lesbian people and realized that they were not threats, but were normal people. In his contradiction to the decision of the Supreme Court of 1919 Abrams against United States, which confirmed the conviction of the US government's critics according to the Sedition Act of 1918, justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. You don't think of anyone.

The college is a bastion of Wealth, both as an institution and in his student body, and this is a double -edged sword. As a student of an elite institution, we can often not be very well received in relation to the political needs of people in various socio -economic positions from our own, even within the college. Our upbringing is very different, and only a few of us ever try to bridge this gap sensibly.

I visited a small private high school in New York City. A good friend of mine attended a large public high school in Texas. In a conversation about the merits of the Free College for all, my girlfriend spoke about the decisions that their classmates made about the college: Many of them went to the community college, to the commercial school or went straight to the workforce. I realized that nobody from my high school did these things; As soon as there were any state schools. It is embarrassing to tell me that this was the first time that I had thought about that these options could be the norm in entire communities.

These lessons can be expanded on topics outside the college. If the students can remove us from our bladder in intelligence, we can become better, more sound citizens and learn to speak specifically about problems that are outside the limits of our experiences. Something as simple as the cashier in the grocery store or a person who is in line in the DMV can be immense for this endeavor. When I visited the jury in New York, I was sitting next to an immigrant from West Indian Islands and a student of Brooklyn College, who had just finished her night shift. After talking to you for a few hours, I understood more about life in contrast to my own. Although we have never learned the names of the other, we interfered with each other – both politically or not.

College students tend to talk cerebral about problems that we are not confronted with – especially privileged students. People who do not make a supply payments or can put enough food on the table often prioritize the survival on other questions that are important to them: they will vote with their immediate needs if their circumstances require this. This was evident in the last elections. Many economists predicted Harris' politics as better for families of the working class, but many of them voted for Trump because they thought that the Democrats did not understand their emergency. President Biden constantly called his economy the strongest ever, which was true, but the reality that people could not afford any fundamental goods. People choose food on the table about personal freedom. It is the commitment of the privileged to listen to the concerns of these people instead of mocking them to vote against our perception of the right choice.

It is our duty to listen and try to understand without convincing the intention, especially those in our own generation. Men between the ages of 18 and 24 in the last presidential elections swung 14 percentage points compared to 2020. Whether you like it or not, a large part of the American population feels like something of us on this campus. When we speak to them in community centers, during lunch or in high school, we can start the tedious process to finally burst the purple bladder. We can connect and find out that we have a lot more in common than we might think.

After many discussions about how this problem of insulation and apathy can be resolved, we hope to put a new way forward. This year Victoria Zhang '27 and I will start an impartial initiative for College students to talk to people outside of our bladder through the Department of Management Studies and the Center for Learning in action on politics. With the name “Burple the Purple Bubble”, it will promote the discussion in political and socio -economic boundaries to listen and understand. We all invite you to join us.

Change is caused by listening and avoiding prejudices based on political affiliation or socio -economic position. The goals of this project are ambitious but necessary. It is high time to burst this purple bladder.

Bryan Difebo-Byrne '27 is from New York, NY.