Event prompts honest discussion on race
If you go
The Diversity Action Team is sponsoring a Courageous Conversation about Race at 7 p.m. today at Janesville's Academy for International Studies, 29 W. Milwaukee St., on the third floor. The event is free and open to the public.
JANESVILLE — Bob Baldwin wants to help people have candid talks about race.
Four members of the Diversity Action Team will be part of a panel discussion today at Janesville's Academy for International Studies. Baldwin, Neil Deupree, Leslie Brunsell and Jane McCauley each will share his or her racial autobiography, including when he or she first became aware of race.
A racial autobiography is a tool for deepening insight about race, Baldwin said.
"For a lot of people, it's really interesting, especially for white people in Wisconsin," he said. "Many people were raised in small towns with no people of color, so race had no impact. They talked about race for the first time when a child of color came to their elementary school."
Baldwin will lead the discussion. He taught workshops for teachers and administrators in the Janesville School District using the book, "Courageous Conversations about Race," by Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton. Later, Baldwin decided the book would be useful to start conversations in the community.
For about a year, a group has been meeting to talk about how race impacts their lives with help from the book.
The book offers guidelines for successful interracial discussions. The guidelines—or Four Agreements of Courageous Conversation—help create conditions for learning. People must agree to stay engaged, expect to experience discomfort, speak their truths and accept that the conversation will not be over.
"When you are talking about race, you are talking about something our country has refused to have a national dialogue about because it is painful for people to talk about," Baldwin said. "You also must expect not to have closure. It's not going to be a conversation you have once and then you can cross it off your list."
The free event is open to anyone interested in building neighborhoods where everyone is celebrated. The Diversity Action Team sponsors the discussion. The group's goal is to eliminate racism and all forms of discrimination in Rock County.
"We want a lot of people out there having courageous conversations," Baldwin said. "The ultimate goal is to make this a welcoming community for all people."
Feb 12, 2011 at 5:59 p.m.
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+1 That is awesome Sandman.
Feb 12, 2011 at 5:43 p.m.
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Having attended one of these very same programs--in this very town--a (very) few years back, I can with certainty say that, from my perspective, it appeared to be as stifled and one-way as one might expect in today's "poor us," PC-filtered environment.
By ONLY welcoming, as stated in the article, "anyone interested in building neighborhoods where everyone is celebrated" (whatever that means, and it sounds suspiciously like Unitarianism!--honestly I'd be more likely to welcome...er, "celebrate"... people who kept down the noise, the "music," and horn-honking, picked up and disposed of their trash, cut their lawns, raked their leaves, shoveled their walks, and didn't use their yard and the city street to store their unregistered and junk cars), you've already truncated the discussion to little more than superficial dribble, political pandering and self-fulfilling anecdotes. Besides, I seriously doubt that there have been more than a few "candid talks about race" since the Eisenhower administration!
Such efforts, while perhaps noble and of full of good intentions (to which "the road to Hell is paved"!), along with so many attempts by designer legislation to foster "niceness" and enhance criminal penalties for "hate crimes" (aren't most of them either crimes of passion or hate anyway?) and bullying will never increase acceptance--much less "celebration--of others and their "cultures," memes and lifestyles. Conversely, such attempts are likely to ultimately result in a greater backlash when reality finally festers itself to the surface. After all, there is no honesty (or resolution) in a forced handshake!
Feb 11, 2011 at 10:23 a.m.
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I think it would be good to discuss the Superbowl commercial for Pepsi Max (love hurts) it had so many racial profiling. Domestic abuse, violence, leaving the scene of a violent crime. The discussion should be, how woul you have viewed this commercial if the man were the aggressor or if it were a white couple hurting a black woman. It was an outrageous commercial
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