As prez race heats up, Dialogues are crucial

State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (right of center) and her assistant director of constituent services Phillip Reason (center) participate in a meeting of the City-Wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic & Racial Diversity last month at the YWCA in the Back Bay. Several participants said they were inspired to participate after hearing Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s March 18 speech in Philadelphia on issues of race in America. (Photo courtesy of City-Wide Dialogues)

Michelle Sedaca

In recent months, the heated competition for the Democratic presidential nomination has sparked a litany of conversations about race across the country.

“Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now,” Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said during his widely publicized “A More Perfect Union” speech, delivered March 18 in Philadelphia. “The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced … reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect.”

Here in Boston, that important work is the province of the City-Wide Dialogues on Boston’s Ethnic & Racial Diversity, an initiative launched in 2003 by a coalition of community organizations aimed at getting people talking, thinking and understanding.

People can register to join the discussion online and at no cost at www.bostondialogues.org. When at least 20 people sign up in any neighborhood — with an equal number of white people and people of color — the group forms and a new series of dialogues begins, consisting of five sessions that gather for two hours each week over the course of a month.

In the first session, icebreaker activities help attendees familiarize themselves with one another. The second explores race and class systems, while the third breaks the attendees into small groups to speak about their experiences. In the fourth meeting, participants discuss ways to improve relationships between Boston’s numerous racial groups. The fifth and final session is actually a beginning, as the group brainstorms concrete steps to positively affect race relations in members’ communities.

The week after Obama’s speech, a new series of dialogues started in the Back Bay. Democratic state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, an African American woman, attended the fourth session. According to Wilkerson, most truthful and helpful discussions about race aren’t easy.

“You can’t be smiling,” said Wilkerson. “If you’re comfortable, it’s likely that you aren’t being honest.”

Participants in the recent series spoke of being challenged to step outside their comfort zones and pushed to confront their assumptions about race. In one activity, people were separated according to their race and placed in the center of a circle to share the specific privileges and disadvantages they may experience, while the other participants formed a larger, “outer” circle and listened.