This past weekend, an essay in the New York Times Book Review argued that business reporters are failing to adequately cover the financial crisis. The author, Chrystia Freeland, says the problem is that people don’t want to hear about the large systemic weaknesses that were the true cause of the economic meltdown. Instead, they want to hear stories about people, about heroes and villains.

A growing body of cognitive research is demonstrating something schoolteachers and entertainers have known for a long time: Most of us respond better to personal stories than to impersonal numbers and ideas. That cognitive bias is so pronounced that Deborah Small, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School, has found that charitable giving actually goes down if too many statistics are included in individual tales of need (and if we get only statistics and don’t learn any personal stories, giving is even lower.) Forget “just the facts, ma’am.” Actually, forget the facts altogether.

She argues that this focus on people, rather than statistics, is a bad thing in business reporting. But in the story of immigration, we at Uniting NC would argue that the reverse is true. Too much of the debate over immigration has been focused on people shouting facts (many of questionable accuracy) about how immigration is changing our communities. But in this case, numbers can’t tell the story of the influx of people that has irrevocably changed North Carolina.

Immigrants fill jobs, but they also create them. Immigrants use public resources, but they also help fund them. Immigrants have sparked cultural clashes, but they have also revitalized towns that seemed destined to fade away. This list could go on to infinity. The dynamics of immigration are so complex that no statistic could ever adequately explain them. That’s because, at its core, immigration is about human beings seeking life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

That’s why we at Uniting NC spend our time talking about people. You won’t hear us throwing around statistics about immigration. Instead, you’ll see us focusing on the people, of all nationalities, who live in our state — and who deserve, if nothing else, to be treated like human beings.

Uniting NC is working on a project that we hope will show why North Carolinians care about and appreciate their immigrant neighbors. We are collecting pictures of people from all backgrounds holding signs that sum up why they love and accept immigrants. Or, if the photo subjects are immigrants, why they embrace their adopted home in North Carolina. You can see more sample pictures on our Facebook page.

Our goal is to create a revolving slide show set to music, similar to this one created for the health care debate.  We have people lined up to make the video. All we need now are more pictures from you and your friends, family, coworkers, or anyone who lives in North Carolina. The only requirements are a marker, a sheet of paper, a digital camera and a bit of creativity.

Here’s how you can participate in the Uniting NC sign project:

• Spend some time thinking about why you love, support, appreciate or relate to immigrants to North Carolina. If you are an immigrant, think about what you appreciate about living here.
• Condense your thoughts into a short statement, ideally 12 words or less.
• Use a black marker to write your statement clearly on a plain white piece of paper.
• Have someone photograph you holding the sign. Make sure to take the picture close up, like the ones shown, and try to take it outdoors with natural light and a nice background. If possible, make the background your home, workplace or somewhere that says something about you.
• Email your picture to kristin@unitingnc.org.

If you need help crafting your message, email Kristin for help. Once we have enough pictures, we’ll post the finished video on our website and on Facebook. Please help us make this idea a reality.

A recent story in the New York Times reveals how a fight over immigration is creating a deep divide in a small Nebraska town. Its citizens have forced a referendum on an ordinance that would require businesses and landlords to check immigration status.

Residents who have spoken out about the proposal —for and against — say they have become targets for harassment as tensions mount. One woman’s cat was shot, and another had a rock thrown through her window. Immigrants, even documented ones, say they no longer feel welcome.

People living anywhere in the United States without legal status is a problem, but it seems that much of the controversy in this town is driven by fear of foreigners. Residents complain of hearing Spanish in Wal-Mart and needing interpreters at school events. They say immigrants are driving up crime, though there are no statistics broken down by race and ethnicity to prove their suspicions.

When I was a news reporter, I frequently heard identical complaints in North Carolina communities. People felt threatened by seeing Spanish signs outside businesses and didn’t like not being able to understand their fellow shoppers at Wal-Mart. They talked of immigrant-led crime waves, when statistics showed that crime in their communities had decreased.

They had started thinking of immigrants as hostile invaders rather than human beings.

Here in North Carolina, let’s not allow fear and anger to rip apart our communities. Let’s work together to recognize our common humanity, and make that the foundation for finding a solution to the problem of illegal immigration.

Wake County is in the midst of a bitter fight over how best to educate its children. The new majority on the school board has promised to end what they would call “forced busing” in favor of “neighborhood schools,” while those in favor of the former policies argue that the new majority’s proposals amount to “resegregation.”

The move has sparked protest rallies, and school board meetings now regularly turn into heated confrontations. Recently, Chris Malone, a member of the school board majority, perfectly captured the tone of the debate in a statement to the News & Observer. Referring to Raleigh civil rights pioneer David Forbes, who spoke out against the new board’s policies, Malone said, “This guy has a right to his opinion, but he’s wrong and we’re right.”

Hmm, this all sounds a bit familiar, doesn’t it? It sounds like the immigration debate. People with seemingly irreconcilable differences of opinion shouting at each other over the fence, distilling a complex debate into black and white platitudes. “You’re wrong and we’re right.”

News & Observer editor John Drescher recently wrote a great column about Malone’s statement. In it, he offered to pick up the tab for Forbes and Malone to have lunch together. He wrote:

“In the debate about Wake schools, both sides would do well to listen to the other and acknowledge that each side has valid arguments… If both sides got to know the other, they might find they have more in common than they think. And they might find some common ground.”

Our thoughts exactly. We at Uniting NC want to do for the immigration debate what Drescher is suggesting for the Wake schools debate. We want to bring people together at the same table, to share meals and stories, and to recognize that we all want the same things — safety, opportunity, respect, happiness. Our common humanity unites us more than our opinions divide us.

John McCain has long been a widely respected senator.  But his new ad contributes to concerns that the conversation on immigration in the United States is growing more polarized and less productive.

Senator McCain used to have moderate views on immigration. In 2006, he joined forces with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to propose immigration reform.

He used to say that immigrants were “God’s children,” that they enriched our culture and provided needed labor. He used to say that the public expected politicians to work together, across party lines, to secure the borders and solve the country’s immigration problems.

And he said that a fence at the Mexican border was one of the least effective ways to control illegal crossing.

But in this ad, Senator McCain perpetuates the stereotype that most border-crossers are criminals who commit “murder” and “home invasions” against American citizens.

And in conclusion, McCain promises to “complete the danged fence,” as if that were now the only obvious solution to our immigration problems.

At Uniting NC, we’re not here to judge whether or not the fence is a good idea.  But we do believe that Senator McCain was right when he said that we are all God’s children and that we should keep that in mind as our nation and our communities discuss immigration.