Race Dialogues

All too often, race discourse in the United States devolves into shouting matches, silence, or violence, all of which are mirrored in today’s classrooms. This book will help individuals develop the skills needed to facilitate difficult dialogues across race in high school and college classrooms, in teacher professional learning communities, and beyond. The authors codify best practices in race dialogue facilitation by drawing on decades of research and examples from their own practices. They share their mistakes and hard-earned lessons to help readers avoid common pitfalls. Through their concrete lesson plans and hands-on material, both experienced and novice facilitators can immediately use this inclusive and wide-ranging curriculum in a variety of classrooms, work spaces, and organizations with diverse participants.

Book Features:

• Specific instruction on how to facilitate dialogues in a way that promotes deep understanding, empathy, and collaboration across different racial identities.
• Comprehensive plans for sequenced and sustained dialogue sessions for a variety of audiences.
• Methods for administrators, teachers, community leaders, and facilitators to approach resistant communities.

Donna Rich Kaplowitz is the co-director of the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan. Shayla Reese Griffin is the equity, diversity, and school culture consultant for the Washtenaw Intermediate School District in Michigan. Sheri Seyka is a public education teacher in East Lansing, Michigan with 22 years of teaching experience.

“An extraordinary, timely, and unreservedly recommended addition to school district, college, and university library Teacher Education instructional reference collections.”

—Midwest Book Review

“As a college professor and consultant who specializes in teaching others how to engage in or facilitate conversations about race inside and outside the classroom, I find Race Dialogues: A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom to be an essential resource in my tool-kit. Despite empirical evidence of pervasive racial inequality in the United States, White America continues to cling fiercely to an ethic of colorblindness, an ideology that functions to rationalize and perpetuate racial injustice. These issues have become even more visible within the current political climate where President Trump and other leaders have made overtly racist and xenophobic statements, leading to a rise in racially motivated hate crimes on and off college campuses. Thus, the ability to effectively facilitate conversations about race/ism is an urgently needed skill for educators and racial equity consultants. However, the training that K-12 teachers and college professors receive focuses primarily on content knowledge, not on how to deliver this knowledge effectively. The strategies and techniques provided in Race Dialogues can help fill this professional development gap for persons who wish to become better skilled at facilitating conversations about race within multiracial settings.”

—Teachers College Record

“Race Dialogues: A Facilitator’s Guide to Tackling the Elephant in the Classroom is a scholarly, timely, and urgently needed book. While there is other literature on facilitation of intergroup dialogues, none are so deeply and effectively focused on race—the elephant in the room.”
—From the foreword by Patricia Gurin, Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor and Emeritus Research Director, University of Michigan

“This brilliant book is a gold mine of wisdom and resources for teachers, facilitators, and student dialogue leaders. It summarizes, explains, and elaborates upon everything I have ever been taught about what makes for great facilitation. With experience and compassion, the authors have written a clear, user-friendly guide to facilitation of race dialogue for both youth and adults. I will recommend this book to every facilitator and teacher I train or hire.”
—Ali Michael, director of the Race Institute for K-12 Educators and author of Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education

Contents

Foreword Patricia Gurin ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1
Scope and Content 2
Dialogue: A Tool for Creating a Participatory Democracy 3
Note 4

1. Why Is There a Need for Race Dialogues? A Brief Primer on Race in The United States 5
What Is Race? It’s Complicated 6
Why Does Race Matter? Understanding Racism  9
Racial Inequality in Education  11
Conclusion 15
Notes 15

2. What Is Intergroup Dialogue? 17
Where Did Dialogue Come From? 20
What the Research Shows 20
Intergroup Dialogue Models 21
Our Research Findings 22
Conclusion 24

3. Setting Up an Inclusive Dialogue Space 25
Dialogue Nuts and Bolts 25
Preparing for Dialogue: Key Concepts and Activities 27
Conclusion 36
Note 37

4. Dialogue Facilitation: A Science and an Art 38
Facilitating a Dialogue vs. Teaching: A Freirean Model of Education 39
The Role of the Facilitator 40
Facilitation Training and Facilitator Models 40
What Good Facilitators Do 43
What Good Facilitators Do Not Do 51
Conclusion 52

5. The Power of Sharing Stories  54
The Importance of Storytelling 54
Vulnerability 54
Multiple Ways of Knowing 55
Expect and Name Emotion 55
Find Learning Edges 57
Connecting Personal Experiences with Structural Inequalities 57
Conclusion 61

6. Asking Good Questions and Responding to Participant Comments  62
Asking Better Questions 62
Responding to Participant Comments 67
Conclusion 71

7. Co-facilitation  73
Selecting Co-facilitators 74
Best Practices in Co-facilitation 76
Debrief Prompts for Facilitators 79
Conclusion 79

8. Encountering Conflict and Resistance  81
Why Is There Resistance? 82
Preparing for Pushback 86
The Art of the Apology 91
Conclusion 93

9. Responding to Conflict and Resistance  95
Immediate Response  95
Concrete Actions  101
When There Is Disruptive Behavior 102
Conclusion 104

10.  Managing Resistance Among Different Stakeholders—Our Story: A Case Study  106
Program Development 106
Resistance 107
The Big Lesson Learned 112

11. Race Dialogues Curriculum  113
Dialogue Structure 114
How to Structure a Dialogue Session 114
Debriefing 117
Participant Journal  118
Grouping 118
Time Constraints 119
A Note for High School Educators 120
Lesson 1: Why Are We Talking About Race? 121
Lesson 2: How Do We Engage in Dialogues About Race? 124
Lesson 3:Developing Group Norms 131
Lesson 4:The History of Racism 136
Lesson 5: Understanding Social Identities  140
Lesson 6: Interpersonal Racism and Microaggressions 146
Lesson 7: Individual Racism: Implicit Bias and Cycle of Socialization 151
Lesson 8: Exploring Group Privilege and Oppression 156
Lesson 9: Institutional Racism 161
Lesson 10: Caucus Groups and Fishbowls 164
Lesson 11: Hot Topics 167
Lesson 12: Allyhood I—Interrupting Individual Racism 169
Lesson 13: Allyhood II—How to Be an Aspiring Ally 175
Lesson 14: Adjourning the Dialogue  177

Conclusion 180

Appendix A. Social Justice Concepts 183

Appendix B. Icebreakers/Community Builders 187

Appendix C. Closing Activities 190

Appendix D. Values List 192

Appendix E. Facilitator Feedback Form 193

Appendix F. Privilege Walk Statements 194

Appendix G. PASK: Facilitator Personal Assessment Chart 196

Appendix H. The PALS Approach 198

Appendix I. Videos 200

References 203

Index 212

About the Authors 223