Welcome!

What you see above is a word cloud of responses to the question "What comes to your mind when you think of 'race'?"  (the larger the word, the more frequently it occurred in people's responses).  As you can see, the responses are numerous and varied. When given the opportunity, people have opinions on race and they have a real desire to express them. The idea that race is something we want to, and should, talk about is the inspiration for this project.

Race is one of the most emotionally charged issues in American society and, therefore, it is difficult to have meaningful, transformative conversations about the subject, especially between people of different races. It's difficult because there are serious personal risks involved. Openly stating ones opinions about racial matters has the potential to offend, create misconceptions about oneself, and even to end valued relationships. But meaningful conversation is needed; the current and common level of discourse about race in this country has done virtually nothing to change peoples attitudes, increase our understanding of each other, or bring us closer together.

With the idea of facilitating and participating in conversations about race, I have been and will be conducting one on one interviews/conversations about the broad topic of race. These conversations are free flowing and informal, just normal people (if there is such a thing) talking about how they feel and what they think. To remove as many of the social pressures and constraints as possible, I pledge to every interviewee that they will remain anonymous and have drawn up a contract stating that. My hope is that people will be able to fully express themselves without having the usual potentially negative outcomes to worry about. I'll be posting excerpts from those interviews and my reflections on this blog. But my input is not the point, I want to create a space for meaningful dialog between as many people as possible. With that in mind, I encourage any and all readers to comment. No honest and respectful idea or question is off limits and commentors will remain anonymous as well. So, please feel free to share your thoughts.

I believe that communication, is it's truest sense, is one of the most powerful tools we have as humans and if we are willing and able to communicate we can effect real change. I also believe, that if we remain silent and unquestioning, or censor ourselves, we are complicit in the systems of oppression and domination that poison us all. So let's talk, and see what we can learn together.