Page 340 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Consequence/Impact

Experiencing healing. An impact of the Albany New York, Community Conversation

series on ‘Implicit Bias’ was that it went beyond just being an eventful gathering as it revealed

itself while discussing concepts as some notable mending of individuals and the greater community

in incremental and subtle ways began. As the dialogues continued, the realization among

participants was that the act of dialogue is as much action as a process as it became more evident.

“They at least got to share and they [Black participants] realized that they were not singled

out in certain situations, that this is a universal experience for other people as well, and

think that is probably very healthy and healing.” (P04FW)

“The outcome was getting the community engaged in a dialogue process, which I think

happened. I think that the other outcome was to maybe initiate some new initiatives around

community health and wellbeing and coming together across differences and kind of

examining where things were in the community in terms of maybe some of the educational

experiences.” (F02FW)

“To some extent I think that the action is that we are becoming more aware of each other’s

perspectives. The action is that we are challenging our own biases and assumptions.”

(F06FAA)

“You have to be willing to listen and understand in order to have other people listen and

gain an understanding from you.” (P14FAA)

Core dimension: Co-creating safety. Safety was central to achieving the depth of

interaction and disclosure that took place in and around the CC circles among the individuals that

gathered on the four evenings to examine local issues of implicit bias, race and racism. Safety was

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