Page 331 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

think that this helped him kind of stop where he was in his process and maybe listen a little

better.” (F02FW)

“He was kind of leaning in more and listening to people and their personal stories about

how they have experienced being treated differently based on the color of their skin, in his

community that he has lived in all of his life.” (F02FW)

Listening deeply allowed participants to connect with participants in an authentic way, as

stories were told in the vernacular of the storyteller, with references to places and incidents that in

some cases were unknown to white participants due to their unfamiliarity with places and events

unique to the African American community. The act of listening served as a vehicle for

transformation; connecting real events to real people.

“I really appreciated listening to her experience. She was a light-skinned woman and she

identified as African American. And she was really blunt with me … saying she didn’t

know she was African American until I think she said the second or third grade. I think she

was trying to play at someone’s house, one of her friends, or was it at church. I don’t know,

she wasn’t allowed to go someplace because someone said, “we aren’t going to have any

colored around here.” She had to go back to her family and ask about that, because she

didn’t understand that. I was like wow, that story really stuck with me and how she really

processed that and made meaning of it. I mean that’s just a really powerful story to tell.”

(P12FW)

Processing tension, disagreement, and discomfort. The facilitators spoke of the

techniques they used to manage the tensions, disagreement and comfort that surfaced over the

course of the dialogue sessions.

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