Page 313 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

“And then, of course, when that man said “Don’t come at white people with such a…

whatever his comment was; now I can’t even think of it. But I just remember his face, and

I just was so mad about it.” (P14FAA)

“When the group confronted him his attitude was very dismissive.” (P14FAA)

There were three comments, each made by White participants, all men and each at different

dialogue sessions that evoked strong disagreement and emotions from other group members.

Although none of the interviewees repeated the full story during the interviews the significance of

the event necessitates I recall from memory having observed what happened so that the reader has

a sense of how distinct tensions were introduced, on separate occasions, into the dialogue group.

• During the very first dialogue session (CC2) a White man, in his senior years commented:

“Nature smiles on the hybrid.” During the course of the dialogue, he elaborated that bi-

racial children are smarter, prettier and have “better” hair than Black children.

• The second comment occurred during the mid-point of the following next dialogue session

(CC3). A middle-aged White man equated his experience as the only White player on his

high school basketball team as a strategy that African Americans should use; “don’t give

up, just suck it up and try harder” to achieve success. Shortly thereafter he left the session.

• The last comment occurred during the fourth CC and final dialogue gathering. As with the

prior two instances, the individual was attending his first dialogue with the group and

excerpt for the facilitator and his sister, he knew none of the other attendees. His comment

came in response to a story told by a man about the difficult time his nephew was having

at a summer job. His nephew was a lifeguard in an area of town in which few, if any African

Americans lived. He described how his nephew was ridiculed daily and frequently called

the N-word. As the man told the dialogue group about his attempts to work with the pool

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