At last week’s Facing Race Ambassador Awards event, keynote speaker Naomi Tutu challenged the audience to continue conversations about race. In her speech, Ms. Tutu challenged the notion that by ignoring America’s long-standing issues of race, racism and oppression we were solving the issue, and further asserted that avoiding challenging conversations about race could be compared to having a puss filled wound and repeatedly covering it with bandages and packing, keeping the infection in, saying in every facet of our lives, what we ignore is sure to come back to haunt us.
She said, “Conversations can be frightening – they tell you who you are as a human being. However, the gift on the other side of the challenge is the building of relationships and community. God has given us the gift of diversity. It is an insult to pretend you do not notice it. Enter a conversation because the differences we bring can be gifts to one another. In a child’s world, noticing differences are an opportunity to move the conversation forward.”
Her words stirred me and got me wondering why we as people, as professionals, as co-workers, and co-board members don’t have conversations about race more often. Why is it that when the topic of race comes up, even in conversations related to diversity, inclusion and justice, we tend to back away, change the subject, or shut-down? Why is it that we can spend hours talking about disparities, difference, and what _______ should do, but only minutes about racism itself… intentional, unintentional, individual, and institutional racism?
Though there are many ism’s that should be addressed, racism is arguably the ism that lasted the longest and has the potential to continue into perpetuity in large part due to our inability and/or unwillingness to have open, frank, and crucial conversations in our day-to-day lives about it. So what can we do to change it?
For some, it’s been as simple as having lunch. In 1997, Joe Martin a long time Bank of America executive in Greenville, SC challenged the community to set-aside one day each week to have lunch with someone of a different race. These lunches not only provided an easy opportunity to have discussions about race and racism, but a way to begin building cross-racial relationships that extend beyond the formality of day-to-day business interactions.
Others have chosen even more intentional means such as visiting a worship place with different style and different cultures than you’re used to, or setting up a play-date for your children with children of different races, attending community events that take you out of your comfort zone, and interacting with the attendees to learn more about them as individuals and as a community. The options are as diverse as we are, but you still might be wondering how to actually have the conversation. I mean having lunch with a person of a different race doesn’t guarantee that you will actually talk about race and racism. Like any conversation with a purpose, it must be intentional, and there are tools to help us not only become more knowledgeable but prepared to have those crucial conversations.
A book has recently been released entitled “To Be Free: Understanding and Eliminating Racism” that I believe can help those who strive to know and do more to address racism. The book was written by Thomas Peacock and Marlene Wisuri, and the forward was written by Eric Jolly.
The book was produced with support from several Minnesota foundations and MCF members and free copies have been distributed at several recent events. Though the book was written to assist educators in preparing youth to prevent and eliminate racism, its content is enlightening and motivating for adults as well. Each chapter ends with a summary of its key themes and activities to promote understanding of its topic that could easily be used in a group setting for workplace dialogues and training.
I encourage you to use this book, available at aftonpress.com to create your own conversations about race and racism, and share with us and your peers on the blog your own solutions for continuing eliminating racism through conversation. And to share the words that were shared at the Facing Race Ambassador Awards event, the conversation about race will end when racism ends.
- Tawanna Black, MCF diversity fellow
[...] A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows that individuals who hold racist beliefs tend to think erroneously that most people agree with them, and furthermore, that their beliefs are less racist than those of their peers. In other words, they think their beliefs are comfortably in the norm. So if you believe in racial equity, what’s the solution to showing these individuals that they are not, in fact, in the mainstream? As my colleague Tawanna Black points out in her recent entry, you’ve got to talk about it. [...]
Great blog post, Tawanna. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of “To Be Free.”
I think it’s difficult to talk directly and openly about race and racism for many reasons. A couple of these include:
Talking about disparities and differences seems very “fact-based.” For people who like statistics and analytic thought (like me), it’s simply an easier conversation when the focus is on “the data.”
Of course, there are plenty of data points to support the fact that racism – individual and institutional – is alive and well. But talking about it as individuals involves being open to the personal experiences and perceptions of others. It involves acknowledging privilege (white and otherwise), without succumbing to guilt or shame in such a way that it stops the conversation. It means being OK with conversations that make us uncomfortable or outraged. It means asking questions about things you don’t know or don’t understand. In short, it takes interpersonal communications skills – and time – that we may not have or that may not be fostered or valued in the workplace or Board room.
Another reason it seems hard to have these kinds of conversations here in the Twin Cities is that the Twin Cities feels both segregated, and well, white. In the year and a half I’ve lived here, I’ve had very few opportunities to have casual conversations about race with people who are different from me. I’ve come to understand that if I want to have those conversations here (and if I want to model this for my daughter), I will need to make an active effort to foster relationships with people who are different from me and open the door to conversations about difference.
One of the great gifts of having lived for 10 years in New York City (aside from the fact that people are very direct) was the opportunity to have informal conversations about race and other differences with all sorts of people – neighbors in Queens, colleagues who worked in city gov’t, as I did (as well as at other jobs), fellow students in grad school. In hindsight, these informal conversations and situations were such a blessing. They forced me to think and talk about race; to feel what it’s like, on a regular basis, to be in the minority; and to shut up and listen up to all sorts of different people. I didn’t give much thought, before leaving, to how valuable those opportunities were to me.
Those are my thoughts. Wanna have lunch sometime? :)
Juliana
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