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that. It just was so invalidating. It was so dismissive; that’s what it was. It was so

dismissive.” (P14FAA)

“I don’t think that he got what she was saying. I thought it was so great that he was there

and that he was the only man in our group. I would never have said to him, ‘Oh gosh, you

don’t get it.’ I think that his participation is very important, wonderful, but he had the

looseness that I see in a lot of men. I hate to say it like that.” (P15FW)

“Like my grandma; oh my god. I could tell you stories about her. She was, I mean, major

bigot. And I heard that all growing up. But I didn’t hear it like … and this is going to sound

really weird, ‘the nice side’ of bigotry. I think a whole slew of people were uncomfortable

with what he was saying.” (P12FW)

Implicit tensions describe the disagreements about the process or internal issues the

respondent identifies, rather than something stemming from participant interaction. For example,

the participant identified as P10, a male who self-identified as “multi-mixed” or tri-racial,

expressed feelings of frustration during the first series of dialogues resulting from his perceived

lack of movement by the group toward action. His bias toward identification of a project and

tangible results stemming from the dialogue discussion represented implicit tension. A leading

implicit tension from the second dialogue session pertained to the issue of the intent and outcome

of the dialogues on implicit bias. Initially, the issue was difficult for some participants to reconcile.

Dialogue participants indicated that some of the tension they experienced was frustration about the

lack of tangible outcomes and lack of clarity about the overall purpose of the dialogue gathering.

“Well, you know, we were just talking. We ought to be doing more than talking. What are

we trying to accomplish?” (P10MTRM)

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