Page 374 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

During later dialogues participants focused on the questions of how to get at issues that

affected local unemployment among African American youth in the community and ways to

extend the dialogue conversations. During these last two dialogues the main discussions on race

focused more on resources available with the need to help African American youth in the

community obtain jobs and job skills. The progression of the dialogue from a first focus on Implicit

Bias to issues of race and racism represented an evolution that was the result of dialogue group

attendees having many opportunities to air their issues and personal concerns about race and

racism.

Within the context of civic dialogue about race relations and discrimination, composition

and management of the group will contribute to perceptions of safety. The skills and sensitivity of

the facilitator are an important part of the interchange that occurs in the dialogue process. In

particular, “the degree to which race and gender differences are validated within the dialogue may

be dependent on the depth of the facilitator’s exploration and comfort with these issues” (Groth,

2004, p. 205).

The success of the Albany CC dialogue series was attributed to the participants engaging

sincerely with each other of which skilled facilitators at hand supported. At the start of the

dialogue, the focus of participants and facilitator was primarily on process and operating

procedures as a way or orienting dialogue attendees to the civic dialogue processes and one

another. Focusing on process was a necessary part of orienting attendees to a new way of building

relationships while discussing the painful topics of race and racial discrimination in a public

setting. Within the literature there are many references to individuals arriving at civic and

deliberative dialogue sessions prepared to approach the work of the public as they would a

traditional public hearing, or forum intent on advancing their point of view.

355