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with goals” (p. 51); as such, conflict and emotion is closely linked to strong negative and positive

responses. With civic dialogue pertaining to the sensitive subject area of race, incidents of conflict

and disagreement was an inevitable occurrence. But given the issue was on biases and the group

was racially diverse, race conflict was likely latent and could be activated any time (Essed, 1991).

Unlike business and office environments, civic dialogue group interactions are predisposed

to a range of personalities, communication styles and interaction norms. Additionally, ethnic,

cultural and gendered styles of communication among dialogue attendees may result in a mix of

expressions and interactions that require explanation and decoding by the moderator or other group

participants. The dialogue group facilitators played a key role in helping the participants stay with

issues long enough to flesh out the surface and underlying issues. During discussion about

unemployment among African American youth, the facilitator helped to hold the space for

dialogue attendees to continue the discussion, even as some participants wanted to move on and

discuss other topics of concern. In another instance, a facilitator was intentional about re-visiting

a tension-producing period from the previous dialogue session. The sensitivity and courage of the

facilitator to put an issue that resulted in strong emotions and disagreement back on the table,

rather than “let sleeping dogs lie,” allowed the attendees to dialogue about lingering thoughts and

reflections. Facilitators at Community Conversations reported that taking a second look at the tense

issue allowed them (the facilitator) and the attendees to stand up to the tension in a way that was

healthy and respectful of the need revisit the disagreement and tension as a way to move past it.

“Hurt stories,” refers to the effect of the stories conveyed on the storyteller and some

listeners. The “hurt stories” revealed around the dialogue circle reflected enduring and unresolved

pain that some participants had lived with for years. Hurt feelings depict an emotional response,

as described by Folger et al. (2013) an emotional response to conflict that may result in physical

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