Reflections from Allison and Belichick

Today, my 8 month old puppy Belichick discovered the frigid reality of the oft- invisible blanket that is whiteness. Just like any other morning she asked to go outside. As she went to step outside on the front porch, however, there it was! Puzzled and slightly fearful, Belichick looked up at me. The bad owner that I am, I motioned for her to go ahead with little warning about what she was entering. At first, Belichick was very excited. She had never actually seen whiteness, only heard stories about its ubiquitous presence. This isn't so bad she thought. I'm a black dog and I'm having a great time pouncing, peeing, and pooping on whiteness. I can even retrace my footsteps and eat it! I'm leaving my mark all over this dominant structure HA HA!  After awhile however, Belichick's high began to wear off. I had her come clean the whiteness off of my car with me. Without doing so, we can't see the actual beauty that is my Honda Prelude. Nor could we move around and do the things we wanted to do in our daily life. Unfortunately, cleaning off whiteness is never as easy as it looks. It won't let the wind shield wipers move as they wish, doors that are usually open are frozen shut and when you go to get warm water to poor on the whiteness you usually slip on more whiteness on your way back to the car and fall flat on your back, spilling the water on you in the process.  Luckily, none of that happened this morning but Belichick did get her fair share of whiteness dumped on her as I wiped it off my car. She looked at me scornfully and shook it off refusing to hide her black, shiny coat. Although she wanted to continue jumping around in the whitness and make holes in its blanket as she dug and stuck her head deeper in to see what it was made of and what exists under it, I kept her on the leash near me as we worked to free Prelude. Belichick eventually sat down on the whiteness, surrounded by it in all directions as it continued to fall from the sky. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but I had to work on one problem at a time.  When we went back inside, Belichick was wet from all of the whiteness that had melted on her. She went and laid in my bed, damp and tired. I had little objection, as she had just been introduced to a very chilling and harsh reality. Although I tried to explain to her that this whiteness isn't always as visible and obstructive as it was today, during this time of year you could wake up to it at any time.  I hope all of us, like Belichick, will continue to brave this sometimes unexpected (yet always present) storm that is whiteness. Perhaps we can learn from her initial excitement when she pounced, pooped, peed, and chewed on whiteness (this excitement only seemed to fade when she spent to long in the whiteness of I limited her potential movement with a leash).  Happy 1st snow of the season everyone! 

Allison

Third Dialogue Reflections

As you know, the third dialogues wrapped up last week. We brought up previous responses to the discussion of whiteness, which provoked a variety of new responses (meta-responses?) and sent us off in new directions around statements such as "I don't think talking about race helps anything" and why they might come out of the mouths of all students regardless of race/ethnicity but might mean very different things to white students and students of color.

The discussion of Allies and Actions steps provoked genuine interest, feelings of helplessness and occasional ridicule. For some white students professions of hope or avoidance seemed to be the road to panacea, and for others the complexities are just beginning to emerge. For students of color hope was/is the riskiest response, and only seemed to occur when they saw white students being vulnerable and there was a sense of collective responsibility for change. Hard to believe but it did happen, and the reflections indicate as much.

Enough for now. Please post your own reflections. I'd/we'd love to know.. . .

Leda

Second round: what seemed to work. . .?

Hi all,

Well, we finished the second round of dialogues (minus the make up dialogue for those students who were ill, etc. and could not make this round). The feedback overall was more positive than in the first round, although I've heard from many of you that this one was particularly difficult. It's pretty much uncharted territory, what we're doing, and so some things work better than others and I am really hoping hear from you on that regard. For myself, and working with the white students, I found that starting with a general discussion of what is white privilege? and then whiteness as separate from white bodies worked to open up the discussion of the resistance strategies (the handout).

Interestingly, some students really appreciated the discussion on resistance strategies but got pretty upset about the McIntosh checklist, while others seemed to get more out of the checklist and clammed up when we talked about strategies. Anyway, I'm aware more than ever that these things take time to sink in for some folks, and that immediate reaction might be negative, but it stays with some (white) folks and they continue to think about it. On the other hand, the energy and personal investment/honesty from ALANA groups was palpable.

I am aware of the energy this takes, and the commitment on all your parts. I am so amazed and grateful for all your enthusiasm, creativity, vulnerability, intellect, care and work to make change happen. Each of you has contributed so much to this project, and I hope you realize how much all of your effort has meant to what we have been able to accomplish. Again, not always immediate or perfect but for those reasons much more meaningful than a brief class discussion (or none at all) on the topic.

thanks much,

Leda

Format for second dialogue, please note

Hi all,

I am posting here for those of you who tend to (accidentally?) delete my emails. You can always find the info here if you need it. Below I have written out the format for all dialogues except those for Clemmons' 5:45-6:45 Thursday dialogue. Please note that facilitator hand outs will be sent to you later today, as will student handouts. If you are able, please bring copies of the student handouts. If you are not, I will have some on hand.

Each dialogue is structured in 5 parts:

1. Introduction: (suggestion) Have students say something about themselves and something they took from the last dialogue. Facilitators should explain a bit about their role in the discussion and why they/you made the commitment to work on this project.

2. Framework for dialogue:

• List the content and process goals for the dialogue. A potential content goal might be to discuss the ways whiteness organizes racial categories and impacts all of our lives. Process goals might be to be listen openly and without immediate judgment and to be reflective about feelings of defensiveness, frustration or anger. Where is this coming from?
• Remind students of the debate vs. dialogue idea--mention that if they find themselves coming up with arguments, might want to remember the goal is not to find out who is right and who is wrong. Also we need to acknowledge the moral implications of our discussion.
• Remind students of principles of learning community. You can hand these out or pass a few around for them to look over as you discuss them. Even if a "safe" environment is unrealistic it's important to emphasize an atmosphere of curiosity, openness and good intentions.
• Tell students how the dialogue will proceed (dyads, then larger group, then closing)

3. Dyad exercise. See facilitation handout that was sent out today on resistance and engagement strategies. Make sure students are addressing both resistance and possibilities for engagement.

4. Bring back to larger group discussion. Ask, "How did it feel to do this exercise?" "Was there an "aha" moment for you as you were reading over and discussing these?" For students of color you might ask "How do you feel when you see other people doing this?" "Do you ever do this yourself? Why?"

To bring the discussion back to the structural issues, you can use the MacIntosh handout on white privileges, which locates some of the more abstract, structural benefits of whiteness in concrete practices--practices that do not necessarily separate out race, class and gender but show how they depend on one another. We will have this handout available. You can also download it from Unpacking the Knapsack

5. Closing. You may choose to have participants say a brief word about the dialogue, or just summarize what we have discussed. You might also orient them toward the final dialogue by asking them what they might do next, ,as a result of the dialogue. PLEASE remember to have all participants write a brief reflection paper (2 minutes or so).

THURS

CC 165-169 Thursday 12-2

CC 101 Thursday 2-4, 4-6

Herter 231 Clemmons' class 5:45-6:45

Machmer E33 6-8

FRIDAY

all but 6-8 session in CC 101. 6-8 is in Machmer E33

GOOD LUCK and THANKS

Leda

A word of thanks to all the facilitators and summary of last night's post dialog meeting

Hi all,

Thanks to those of you who were able to come to the meeting last night. I really appreciated the stories you (Margo, Liz, Heather)told of difficult moments and situations that(I believe) made you wonder if this process was worthwhile for students of color who are highlighted in uncomfortable ways and potentially exploited in mostly white groups. We discussed moments when this may or may not be happening, and the power that observation (and silence) may have for, for instance, the African American man in a group of white students. Raphael, Lauren and Molly discussed ways that we might ask questions to include (invite--as we call our dialogue "an invitation") white students to express themselves in terms of their experiences. We might not agree with their interpretation of those experiences, and that could be a time for more questions. Claudio discussed the power of the personal story, and the invitation to others to join in with stories of their own.

Margo brought up the important point/question about intervention and our role as facilitators in these dialogues. When/how do we intervene when participants are telling angry stories, or stories that further marginalize or exoticize students of color--whether or not those students are part of the group? Other shared similar concerns about finding "teachable" moments when perhaps we should not be teaching. Brittni responded that what we are doing is not dialogue, since dialogue usually happens in conditions of mutual trust and respect for the process. Indeed, this is an important distinction, and I do not consider it a reason either to discount "true" dialogue, or the project we are doing as "psuedo-dialogue" (not does Brittni, I think). Her point was, I believe, that we might just need to teach under these circumstances, but in a way that invites (that word again) others to think about what they are saying about their own experiences and in a structural sense, about the ways race extends beyond "who does what to whom".

Dijana, reflecting on the conversation, commented that is seemed as though the real breakthroughs in the dialogues happened when facilitators asked questions. This is also teaching, but not in a manner that you presume what it is the participants need to know.

As we wrapped up the meeting last night Claudio mentioned that we (facilitators) need to remind each other of the good work we're doing, along with being cognizant of where we might improve. As I looked around the room, I was so happy to see the great group that we have or really dedicated and caring people. After all, you've put up with all my frantic pleas for help and scheduling difficulties etc, and still have done an incredible job.

So, again, my thanks. We will have a pre-second dialogue session on Tuesday November 17 at 4:00.

best,

Leda

Format for second dialogue, handouts and readings

Hi all,

I have been emailing all of you about the second dialogue but wanted to post the format here so if you all want to add anything you should feel free to do so. First, as I have mentioned, there will be a group facilitating Doris Clemmon's class on the 19th November from 5:30-7 in Herter Hall. Their instructions are below and then further down the format for the larger group of dialogues.

Doris Clemmons' class:

This group will facilitate for about an hour, given the usual class business, etc. There fore, the format of the dialogue will be somewhat different, with less time spent on icebreakers, intro and ground rules/learning community discussion, although that needs to take place. The groups for the second dialogue will be somewhat similar to the first where possible, and will not be divided according to affinity groups. I will send that information later.

The format for the second dialog will be around discussion of being "raced" or "ethnic" in a predominantly white university. For the white students in the class the conversation will be similar. You also may use the handout I will send you all soon on strategies of resistance and strategies of engagement around whiteness. Students should discuss each, their responses, and where they locate themselves in the discussion.

Second dialogues--All other Groups

Along those lines, the second dialogue for most of you will revolve around a discussion of whiteness. You will have more time to spend on the actual dialogue for this session, since many folks will be familiar with the learning community principles, etc. I don't mean omit these discussions, just shorten them.

The actual proces should look something like this:

1. Introductions/Icebreaker (can use meet and greet or shorter options)

2. brief discussion of goals of dialogue, and the ways these differ from debate--possibly ask for comments here from students on whether or not dialogue "happened" in their last experience.

3. Learning community principles posted and ask them if they wish to comment on any. If not comment on a couple and remind them that we will return to these as needed. Emphasize their importance in affinity group discussion--issues of voice as well as accountability for what you are saying.

4. Dyad exercise: Here I would like for you to use the handout which will be provided based on work in communication on strategies of resistance and engagement by white students on the topic of whiteness and power. The handout is based on Yep (2007) and I can make this reading available for all of you. I recommend it highly.

All students can read over and comment on the handout. For groups of students of color it is important here for them to locate themselves as students of color in a PWI. What are their strategies? Where are their resources?

5. Bring this discussion to the larger group. Awareness of whiteness may be recognized as stages, although I tend to resist such categories:

a. identifying whiteness,

b. being aware of whiteness in one's life

c. understanding one's own role in maintaining/perpetuating structural whiteness.

d. taking actions to un-learn, de-construct, and work to change systemic privilege.

Appreciate inquiry may be useful for both groups here when it comes to discussing both resources and strategies that they may currently be using or know of.

6. Summarize/conclude. Ask them for one thing they can change--emphasize that this is their choice but to acknowledge that they *can* change some dimension of systemic racial privilege. Thank the group for their work and ask them to free write reflection.

Hope to see you all this Thursday at 5 or Friday at 2. Have not heard from a bunch of folks yet.

Leda

Readings on dialogue

There are some great readings to facilitate your facilitating available to you on e-reserve.

Just a reminder that for those of you doing independent studies with me , in addition to facilitating you will need to be reading from the e-reserve list (Comm 500, under my name or Dee's--password "dialog"). You will need to either write 2 short papers based on the readings and the dialogues @5 pages each or one longer one due at the end of the semester.

Still no word on space, still no sleep at night. More soon and see you Friday or Sunday--or soon.

Leda

Money money money and schedules and. . .

Hi all,

I thought that title might get your attention. On Friday after several phone calls, I finally received word that the check was in the mail from John Mullin. So, for those of you (grad students) who have been with the group since April, please contact Kathy Ready about making up a contract so that you can get your $200. For others of you, I ask that you wait until October for your request for funds. I am also in the process of writing a proposal for a research grant and if i receive some funds from that will be hiring a video person and some interviewers so more money might be in your future. For faculty, paying you is more complicated, so we might have to do some bartering or perhaps I could buy you some school supplies. . . :0)

Regarding protocol for the dialogues. As I have mentioned to you all, there are a few things i will ask that you do for each session: put up the sheets @ learning community, goals for the sessions and difference between dialogue and debate. I also would like for you to have the students spend one or two minutes at the end of the session writing a brief reflection paper. This is important, both to our research and to their teachers, so please don't forget. I am still working on room assignments.

Information sessions begin tomorrow at noon. You are more than welcome to attend--especially Thursday because i can't be there. Lily will be in charge but she could use the help--and company. We will also go into the classes with which we are working, so there might not be too many folks who show up, but please spread the word.

Practice sessions will be held on October 9 at 2 and on October 11. I know of only one person who can make the latter date, so please let me know if anyone else can make it on the 11th. The session on the 9th will be in the conference room on the third floor of Machmer, unless you hear otherwise :0)

Schedules for co-facilitation. Mariama developed a chart listing the schedules for herself, Hari, Danette and Brittni. I did another chart for the Ellen, Theresa, Liz, Molly and Wren group. There are few overlapping times, but there are some. Which means that some of you may have to facilitate with other folks. If you can do your own group chart, that'd be great; otherwise, I'll keep working on the charts, and you please send me your schedules. I can't seem to figure out how to publish PDFs to the blog, but once i get all schedules I'll send them to you all.

best,

Leda

Answering some Questions

Hi

Rather than attach comments to Liz's post I thought it might be better to address concerns and make some general remarks here. I appreciate the questions posted; they are very important at this point in terms of our overall goals and organization.

First, my thought was that there would be overall content and process goals for the group to be posted on the wall for each dialogue. The ones I had mentioned in our last meeting were almost identical to the ones Liz posted via Ellen. That is, a content goal is to raise awareness of our own and others' racial identities and the role these identities play in larger contexts of privilege and inequality.

Another stated by the IGD folks that I like is to: explore similarities and differences within and across social group memberships.

our teams' goals do not have to be identical to these but some similarities are necessary for continuity purposes. Also, I wouldn't want too many content goals--2 or 3 is plenty.

You might identify process goals in terms of skills to promote action for self and others toward achieving a more just campus and society:

1. developing skills for listening to others to promote better understanding and widen our perspectives

2. developing skills in working through and and actually valuing discomfort and conflict for its potential for our personal and collective growth.

My wordy words. These can have a bit more variation but something along these lines.

II. E-reserves/Readings lists

I had planned last week to post a list of readings to suggest for students. There is an e-reserve account set up from which I had asked you all to read for our meetings this summer. I asked them to re-activate the account and it does appear to be working. I have added some readings and can add more. I suggest that you draw from what is there, but not more than two or three.

I suggest the Harro reading, the Tatum reading, the Johnson reading and one I just recently added from Myles Horton's autobio called "Islands of decency." All but one are short and to the point. The downside is that none deal complexly with race and whiteness, but these are good starting points.

III. Room issues. As we take on even more students (depending on who actually shows up we could have as many as 400 in small groups), there will no doubt be snafus with rooms on campus. I am having a terrible time getting rooms for the thursday dialogues, so if any of you know of available rooms for 10/22, 11/19, 12/3 and 12/4 PLEASE LET ME kNOW

IV. I have not posted facilitator assignments b/c I have not received everyone's available dates, and because we might have more sessions at one time and less at others. It depends on when the students can come as well. I don't yet have their availability. I could use your help both in sending me your info and for when i get the student sign up sheets. I need to match all that with rooms I don't yet have. Any help here is much appreciated.

V. I on;y have one person who has said that they could come to the practice session on Friday and one wo might come to the alternative Sunday. I will not hold them if more of you do not respond, so please, if you want the practice, let me know.

VI. I will post more details regarding dialogue logistics and guidelines but I would prefer to address you all in person before we start. It's much easier for me to answer questions in person, although I understand the usefulness of posting it for the group.

Take care,

Leda

Small Group Meeting and Questions for Follow-up

Hi Everyone,

Ellen, Theresa, Molly and I met yesterday to begin discussing our small group's plan for the dialogues. In that meeting, we decided to post the notes on the blog in the hope that they would be of interest to others, spur conversation, and that Leda would respond to some of our questions. So, here is a summary of our conversation with specific questions at the end.
Thanks
Liz

Process and Content Goals
Our conversation began with a discussion of what our process and content goals might be. This quickly brought us to the question of whether each group with have their own goals or we will have goals that are the same as the overall project goals. Ellen mentioned that she worked on some goals for a grant that will used in dialoguing with social workers for CEUs. Perhaps these goals may be the same overall goals for the dialogue project on-campus as well? The goals are:

1. To practice listening, speaking and asking questions with the purpose of developing shared understanding;

2. To explore personal racial and ethnic identities and how they impact experiences in the workplace [for campus groups substitute "on campus" or "in our lives" for "in the workplace"?};

3. To demonstrate effective use of invitational communication as a means of ethical engagement with the subject matter, audience, and occasion.

We decided to postpone our goal setting until we knew whether or not the entire group would have overall goals.

Icebreakers
Next we discussed the use of introductions and icebreakers in the dialogue groups and talked about ones that we've used in the past including:

1. Name and a story about your name
2. Name and something about you that you can't tell by looking at me (this one we spent considerable time talking about and expanded to alternatives).
3. Alternatives for #2 included: Name and "you can't tell by looking at me, but I can ..."; Name and "you can't tell by looking at me, but I don't ..."; Name and "you can't tell by looking at me, but I want ..." etc.**

**In doing the second icebreaker and its alternatives, we thought a transition could be then made into assumptions people have made about you or we make about others.

4. Name and something you took away or stood out for you from the first dialogue group (we thought this would be away to reconnect especially with different people in the groups).

Visual, Media, Text Aids
We spent some time talking about the use of a video clip or document or text (such as Peggy McIntosh's Backpack) within the context of the group. Positives to starting with some clip or piece for us included a common group for the group to start discussing their personal stories from, a way to validate people's experiences as more than one individual experience, and a means to expand the conversation to institutional racism and issues of race in a bigger picture.

A suggestion out of this was to perhaps have an e-reserve for participants that have other resources or information if they want to know more, read more, etc. after the dialogues.

Ending, Concluding
Finally, we talked about questions that would help wrap up the conversation including: "what are you taking away from this conversation" and "what is one thing you want to think more about" as both a means of reflecting and concluding but also trying to prompt or encourage actions after or outside of the dialogue.

Summary/Questions
That was the gist of our conversation. Hopefully the group will add/edit as they see fit. To summarize though, the questions we had for Leda and others are:

1. Can we start an e-reserve for students wanting to know more?
2. Will there be process and content goals for the overall project and what will they be?
3. Should our content/process goals then be the same as or reflect these?
4. Plans for orientation:
Are students going to get an introduction to the differences between dialogue and discussion?
Are students going to get an introduction to ground rules and guidelines for the dialogue?
Are students going to be introduced to the goals of the overall project?
And finally, how many students are we planning to have in each session?

Practice sessions and update

Hi and thanks to those who have posted your availability,

I have been running around trying to find slots on campus for 300+ bodies. Our scheduling officer in the dept cannot find regular rooms and so now i am going to individual departments. It's time consuming and when I think about matching names to rooms, etc for each sessions. . . Well, it's a bit of a nightmare. So, if you know of seminar rooms with availability on October 22 and 23, November 19 and 20 and December 3 and 4, please let me know. . . I am also concerned about getting food and drink to each room, but hopefully, we'll have some assistance on that end.

Scheduling facilitators and sessions. Thus far, there are a lot of folks offering to do the 12-2 and 2-4 slots and only Hari from 6-8. Dee and I can handle this if no one else can, but please let us know if you are able. Remember, we need to assess your availability and will then match it with students availability. If no students want to do 6-8 it won't be an issue.

So, practice sessions. My schedule is full, as I assume are yours. I am proposing two dates for practice sessions. Come when/if you can. October 9, 2-4:30 and October 16 noon to 2:30. I could also do either the 11th or the 18th if Sundays work best for people. These sessions are optional, but let me know your intentions, so that I can plan accordingly.

thanks for your assistance. happy fall semester!

Leda

My Availability

Greetings all,

I'm new to the team. I hope I'll be able to meet you all at some point this semester!

My availability is as follows:
Thursday, Oct. 22nd (12-2 or 2-4)*
Friday, Oct. 23rd (12-2 or 2-4)*
Friday, Nov. 20th (12-2 or 2-4)
Friday, Dec. 4th (12-2 or 2-4)

*I'm not sure about my availability for the month of October. I have a conference to attend, so once I make travel plans, I'll know which day, Thursday or Friday, is better. Right now, I'm leaning toward Friday, from 12-2.

As you can see, generally Fridays work best for me. I'd also be interested in doing a practic session before the first dialogue in October.

Leda, where can we find the facilitator form?

I look forward to participating in these dialogue sessions!
--Kabria

Some good resources for Dialogue

Hello all,

I talked to John Gerber (who runs a PSIS Dialogue course on Sustainability issues) and he forwarded along these resources for our group to explore and use.

http://www.metta.org/practices/id02-introducingTheGuidelines.htm
http://courses.umass.edu/plnt397s/gettingstarted.htm
http://www.david-bohm.net/dialogue/

If anyone can get a hold of the David Bohm book, On Dialogue, I would highly recommend reading it.

If anyone has questions about Insight Dialogue, which is the form of dialogue I have experience with, I would be happy to give more information relating to my personal experiences with the practice.

Most importantly, though: Pause, Relax, Open are the main points to always remember in dialogue.

See ya'll soon,
Brittni Reilly

my availability

Hi everyone, and happy start-of-semester :-)

I have a class on Thursdays from 1 to 3.30, so my Thursday availability is somewhat restricted. Here are my availabilities:

Thursday, October 22: 4-6 or 6-8
Friday, October 23: 2-4 or 4-6 or 6-8
Thursday, November 19: 4-6
Thursday, December 3: 4-6
Friday, December 4: 2-4

Looking forward to our sessions! Take care,
hari :-)

Hi All,
Happy new school year to everyone! I've just completed my first full week of graduate classes and a work schedule comprised of two part-time positions. After briefly reflecting on the week, it quickly became apparent that this semester will provide new opportunities for growth and development, and present a variety of challenges. ;-)
I certainly look forward to getting our initiative underway, and I'm available the following dates and times: September 24th for information session, Oct. 22nd, Nov. 19th and Dec. 3rd, to facilitate from 12-2 p.m.
Mariama, Hari, Brittni and I have been in contact. We're trying to coordinate our practice and facilitation schedule. In fact, Mariama kindly created a graphic organizer to get us started. We'll keep you updated on our progress.
Peace,
~Danette

my availability

Hi everyone,

I have no classes on Thursdays and Fridays so at this point I could do any of the days/times Leda has identified. But I anticipate things coming up so I'll indicate my preferences and keep those dates/times free. But Leda, if you need someone to plug in somewhere let me know as it looks like I can be flexible.
October 22, 12-2
November 19, 12-2
December 3, 12-2

Also, I don't think I've filled out the facilitator forms. What are they?

It occurs to me that this kind of message may not be what you had in mind when you asked us to post on the blog. I'll try to get back to it with something profound (-;

Ellen

Dialogue times and your schedules, etc

Hi all,

There has been little activity on the blog, and with the semester starting I know it will be difficult to keep in touch. Please bookmark this page and let's keep connected.

I am posting here the dialogue schedule so that you might plug into times that fit your schedule. Please let me know asap what works for you.

For those of you who have not filled out the facilitator forms, I've can send you the KASP inventory. It should be helpful to share with your group. I also am looking for a volunteer (Hari?) to go to Claudio Moreira's large lecture course (Democracy and discourse) to give an overview of the dialogues and administ the brief survey and informed consent. Should take no more than a half hour to 45 minutes. The class meets MWF.

Dialogues:

October 22 and 23, blocks of 12-2, 2-4, 4-6 and 6-8

November 19 and 20, "

December 3 and 4, "

I'll send more info about what I'll need from you all on the dates when you facilitate soon. In the meantime, I'm passing along the e-reserves link so that you might access the reading, assessments, etc. the password is '"dialogue"

take care

Leda

Recaps, Reminders and last session

Hi all,

For reasons you all know by now, this summary of our last meeting will be brief. i encourage those of you with two functioning arms :0) to elaborate on any of the areas i neglect in this post.

We began the meeting with a discussion of the research design, which i have been working on based on the various conditions in which the dialogs will be conducted. Any ideas/help is welcomed.

1. Facilitators will need to facilitate/attend a *minimum* of three two hour dialogue sessions. We have scheduled two dates for each session, to accomodate course and work schedules. The dates for the orientation session and three dialogues will be:

Orientation.

Sept 21 and 24 from noon to 1:00. P's will fill out informed consent, take a brief survey and we will give an overview of subsequent sessions. facilitators may attend but is not required.

Oct. 22 and 23 First dialog session. Two hours in staggered sessions, noon-2, 2-4 and 4-6.

November 19 and 20. 2nd dialog/Affinity group session. Again, noon-2, 2-4 and 4-6.

December 3 and 4. Same deal

The first and third sessions will be videorecorded.

2. Needed: research assistant and videographer. Both positions can be taken for credit and a small stipend.

3. All facilitators will receive a $200 stipend, and perhsps more down the road. Participants will get a catered meal and a small gift certificate, in addition to fulfilling course asignments. They also can register for a one credit indep. study.

4. Faciliators have been divided into teams of three. We did some work around faciliators' styles and needs. From here on,co-faciliators will need to plan their approach to each of the phases of the dialog.

5. A basic framework for our dialogues was discussed, with options for each stage. We went through an introduction, discussion of goals, terms and ideas that form the basis of our work together (e.g. learning community, dialog and/or debate, racial identities, etc.).

6. NEXT steps. The last meeting before the semester will take place at UMass on Sept 3rd or 4th at 1:15. Please let me know your preferences. This meeting is optional, and will end at 4:00. Topics will include facilitation techniques around discomfort and risk-taking--and methods such as forum theatre and learning circles.

Please feel free to call or email me with questions.

Leda

What do you think of this?

Hi all,

Saw this last week. Speed through up to the segment with Larry Wilmore on Gates.

interested in what you all think.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/239848/tue-july-28-2009-spinal-tap

leda

Leda's reminder and a few comments, Lily's summary--and Theresa's follow up

Hi,

following on from the earlier themes, some thoughts:

1. to lead in our fliers, recruitmemt stuff: "How does race matter? An invitation to dialogue. . ." and for grant writing, irb, something similare but more academic.
2. on format for campus dialogues: first, intergroup with small groups and all faciliators co-facilitating in as mixed configurations as possible. second, affinity groups dialogue--including a multi-racial group and possibly an-other group. last, intergroup dialogue. This format, while not my preference, has several important logistical benefits, including facilitation and recruitment.
3. an initial informational session for profs and program heads (e.g., athletics) on campus. help with this is welcome!!!!!!
4. our last summer session will be a discussion of goals, some of which should happen on the blog, small group co-facilitating (with hopefully enough folks in attendance to do so), and a large group dialogue facilitated by Dee and I. It's a lot, but we'll prioritize and discuss as we move along.

Please let me know if u have questions, concerns AND if you have contact info for potential facilitators. We hope to bring a few more folks to our group.

The following is just an attempt to keep some track of our conversations. will try not to duplicate everything.

Posted by Lily

Hi everyone,

Below is an attempt to sum-up today's engaging conversations; if i'm
missing/misrepresenting something, please add/correct it; also my chronology is
a little messed-up, so even though there are numbers, this might not necessary
be the order in which things happened.

* Leda and Dee are accepting ideas about a possible title for the
dialogue/project

1.We began by talking about dialogue in terms of:
a. A broad definition – a dialogue gives people opportunity to say something
they may otherwise not say, opens up conversation, rather than closing it. As
facilitators, we should continuously consider/ask the group, “What are we doing
here as a group?”
b. What distinguishes a dialogue from a discussion and from a debate (there’s a
handout in the packet Leda sent & we talked based on this and questioned the
values it presupposes)
c. Helpful ideas for starting/leading dialogue – a lot of this and the
conversation that followed was based on the Public Dialogue article on e-
reserves: setting up ground rules, including what we, as a group, understand as
dialogue, allowing for emotion (including anger), finding connections in
disagreements, appreciative inquiry (e.g., “What would a good conversation
about race look like?”), lead with curiosity and wonder (Ellen brought up an
example from “Grand Torino” here & Dee followed up with “Crash”), facilitators
record & revisit language used by dialogue group participants

After talking about dialogue and what we can do as facilitators, we talked
about some of the logistics and procedures of organizing the dialogue groups.

2. Groups would last approximately 2 hours each, with 1 meeting early in the
fall semester and a follow-up meeting later in the semester; a framework/format
is available in the packet Leda sent as a curriculum design

3. We considered different options for the overall design of the project –
should we first have affinity groups dialogue and then an intergroup dialogue?
Should we have an informal meet-and-greet/info session for all participants
together? How would our choices affect retention for the second meeting?
Danette emphasized that either way we should be clear and explicit with
participants about what to expect and that both types of groups will meet.
Raphael emphasized that either way, the facilitation of the dialogue matters
more than the format alone and that co-facilitators should be mindful as to who
participates in the dialogue and think of ways to include everyone.

4. Using Hari’s example of Henry Gates Jr.’s arrest, we talked about some forms
of resistance to conversations about race we may encounter & how we, as
facilitators, should respond to such resistance – e.g., through reframing, role
playing of alternative scenarios, appreciative inquiry, directing conversation
toward systemic foci, while bringing it back to concrete personal experiences
and away from the abstract – for example, we may start by asking considered
appropriate and/or legitimate, what are the rights of home-owners, who
determines what is legitimate, how has that affected us in our personal
everyday experiences

5. Several times throughout the conversation today the question came up of what
are our goals, hopes, desired outcomes for this project; we thought it will be
interesting and helpful if each one of us came up with her or his own “list”
(also including what are our goals/desired outcomes for ourselves as both
facilitators and participants in the dialogue) & then we share our thoughts.

6. Leda asked what would be most helpful for us in our last meeting
(tentatively scheduled for Aug. 19?) – should we have a panel of facilitators,
do something more applied, other suggestions? Thoughts, suggestions, and
feedback are welcome.

7. Throughout the conversation another question kept coming up as well – how do
we “deal” with expressions of emotion during dialogue groups. Toward the end of
the meeting, Dee summarized lessons from other facilitators and experiences to
say that we should not shun emotion, but expect it and find ways to include it
into the conversation, to ask the group to talk about it, to ask the individual
(s) who “exhibited” and emotional response to something to talk about it and
what triggered it.

Thanks for filling our home with so many interesting and valuable thoughts,
looking forward to August!

Lily

Theresa replied:

There were a couple of points that I took away that could be added.One
of the items that was mentioned by Dee and Molly resonated with me
with regard to the dialogues. Both the critical incident that is
personally identified and a critical moment that is used as a text to
comment on were important points to include.

Another point in our discussion was what we can do as facilitators to
keep the dialog process open and inviting. I took away Ellen's acronym
of WAIT (though I apologize to all if I did not use it well) and
Leda's elaborating linguistic strategy of "what does 'x" mean in this
context." Hari's technique of using a generative text, the police
transcript, started me thinking what questions could help guide the
shaping of text interpretations by a group interested in questioning
how privilege manifests itself. When Rafael brought up points of
legitimacy and power operating in the policeman's text, we could see
that as important to interpreting the report using a US historical
context. Dee also indicated that keeping account of the patterns of
interaction in the dialog, such as who is not talking, could be
productive as well. I wondered how I could be invitational, if the
interactions were racialized and emotional as well.

We also had several divergent views in discussion about the use and
consequences of grouping by affinity versus intercultural
grouping. One emergent question is how either functions in reifying
racial constructions and/ or in shaping perceptions of the
consequences of the dialogs. Dee added an important element to keep
in mind - the need to include the ambiguity and complexity of the
construct of race within the affinity groups.

These were a few of the points that resonated with me and add to Lily's summary.

Thank you all for a stimulating afternoon,

Theresa

Sorry

Hi everyone,

I want to apologize for my part in taking us off course on Tuesday. I realize I need to put the WAIT (why am I talking) acronym into practice. I'll do my best to listen more and talk less at our next meeting.

Ellen

Our last session, Gates and your suggestions

Hi all,

welcome to our new blog. please excuse my one-handed typing, and my post surgery grogginess. i am eager to start this blog and to see where we go from here.

first, thanks to Lily for her summary of our last workshop. i sensed (and heard from some of you) some dissatisfaction with what did or did not occur during our meeting. i thought we had some great discussion, and also thought i should have interrupted it a bit to keep us headed toward application. It's always tricky to assert,share,critique,evaluate...power.

Nonetheless, a few moves to hopefully move us to a title, a format and a sense of our next meeting in my next post. i'm feeling ill right now so i'll leave uo with some comments from a listserve i belong to that build on some of our discussion of everyday whiteness, race privilege, racism.

post below:

i sat on a panel at my school this year with a black colleague of mine, listening to two white guys tell us about the "glories of post racial nirvana." One of these guys had been with SNCC until they kicked he and his wife out. These white guys sat back expectantly as they expected me to congratulate them for tellling us all is right with the world now because Obama is the prez. I told them that as long as white students can walk in my class on the first day and walk right by me up to the oldest white man or woman in the class to find out if they are the course instructor, we still have a race problem. When i can still go to administration offices on campus and they ask me which staff department do I work for instead of knowing I am a professor, there is still a problem. As long as police on campus can profile our young black men simply by the cars they drive, ( never mind the white meth freaks and dealers we have on our campus) There is a problem. I am going to court in August because a young white cop gave me a ticket because he said I "failed to stop" at a stop sign. Mind you, he had no camera in his car. He did not even tell me what the charge was intially. He got mad because I demanded to know why he stopped me when there was no traffic on campus and he was sitting back too far to even see anything. He left me sitting there while he called for another cop. I found out later he did not have his ticket book with him; the other guy brought it to him. When he finally came back to me, he told me to sign the ticket. I refused to do so (they are supposed to tell you that this is not an admission of guilt; it is just to say you received it etc). I asked him why he decided to give me a ticket and why he had to call for his ticket book. He said it was " officer discretion." When I kept asking questions he told me to stop talking and I told him I was not raising my voice nor arguing I was exercising my first amendment right to speak.  Anyway, he gave me the ticket  just to show me he could curtail an uppity professor like myself. Oh yeah, I should tell you I had some of my black students in the parking lot because it was opening night for my play " Raisin in the Sun" and I was delivering food to the cast who was getting their last afternoon practice in. I kept talking to them to try to calm them down, but it was evident they were concerned.  I go to court on August 11th. Even if I have to pay the ticket I will. He made some mistakes on the ticket and did some things out of procedure which I will point out to the judge.  the officer says the judge will believe him because he does not lie as if to say I do lie. I have only had two tickets in my entire life about 14 years ago.  I said all of this to say that even the most simplest of offenses we still have to remind ourselves to fight them. Whites are not our allies, are not glad to see us succeed and will continue to try to bring us down. I spend a lot of time reading blogs from national newspapers and magazines and it is absolutely amazing what whites are still saying about racial issues.  they claim we are race card playing overly sensitive babies who can only get what they want through Affirmative Action because God knows we aren't smart enough or talented enough to really do anything on our own.  Wake up call!! Brothers and sisters my alarm clock is always on!!        Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas,Ph.D Assistant Professor,  Speech/Communication Art, Music and Theater Department 11935 Abercorn Street Savannah Ga 31419 912 344- 9130 office