The YWCA of Minneapolis has an amazing program that everyone should know about, especially in the context of all the racial discussion that's going on at ProU today. It's called It's Time To Talk: Conversations About Race. I've volunteered for this program for the last six months, and I have to tell you how incredibly moving the experience is.
The YW's mission is "Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women." The It's Time To Talk program encourages diverse groups of people to come together in a round table discussion on racial topics. There is a facilitator for each group of ten or so. The topics are centered around understanding your own racial heritage and charing your own experiences around race. The program uses the restorative justice circle facilitation method, which means that everyone gets a turn to talk. Only the person with the "talking stick" is allowed to talk. Everyone else listens. Everyone gets the same amount of time to tell their stories. This eliminates the possibility of rude interruptions or angry, impulsive responses.
It is life changing to sit face-to-face with people of all races/ethnicities and hear their personal experience of being ________(insert ethnicity here) in the world. It is hard to leave a discussion without a new perspective and increased empathy for your fellow humans.
Every year for five years, the YW has hosted a giant summit event for ITTT. This past year, 1,000 people participated in the event. The corporations, schools, and non-profits who participate in the large event can continue the discussion throughout the year with questions tailored to their organization.
We're all taught not to talk about race. How many of us have heard a parent say, "Shhh! Don't say that!" to a small child who has asked why someone has a different color of skin? We've all gotten all the wrong messages about race. Simply teaching kids not to use racial slurs is not enough racial education. We ALL need to learn a healthy dialog about racial/cultural differences.
I encourage everyone, of any race/ethnicity, to look up your local YWCA or a similar organization and see if there is a program like this available. It is amazing. Understanding feels good.
This link to the YWCA national organization is a good place to start.
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Recently my school has been hosting lunch forums on Tuesdays in which people share their stories of how race relates to them in a number of ways. Weekly topics include discussions on race and gender, race and identity, and such. It provides a great way to let one get their story out there, as well as to facilitate discussion about race.
Another option for college students to talk about race is something called the white privledge conference that is being hosted this April. Each year a number of schools sponser college students to attend the conference, where people who want to make an impact and to discuss potential solutions to the discrimination issues at their school can. If the conference would be something that you are interested in, check to see if your college sponsers students to go. Otherwise, you can contact me if you want to know more about it (I am going this April).
I think that there are a lot of programs out there such as the ones that you described, but not enough people know that they exist and how to access them. Great blog! I am so glad that you offered one possible solution for those of us who have been debating about race relations recently on Progressive U.
Is there a website I can look up?
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
The website for the White Privilege Conference is http://www.uccs.edu/~wpc/