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manifestations such as tears, tense posture, or quiet behaviors or challenge. The makeup of the

dialogue groups is important to understanding the role of emotion and how emotional displays

were handled within the context of “heart stories and hurt stories” as they unfolded and were

exhibited during the discourse and exchange among members of the group. It is important to note

here, as detailed in Chapter IV, the general composition of the groups that gathered to participate

in the dialogues on race were composed mostly of African American women. In addition to these

women, African American men and White women and men comprised the groups. Women in the

dialogue groups who displayed emotional responses, including raised tone of voice, expressions

of sadness and exasperation, and physical expressions, such as tightly folded arms and looks of

outrage may have felt more comfortable displaying these responses based on the composition of

the participants combined with and a process that emphasized safety, security and voice.

In one instance, a hurt story relayed by a grandmother told of the lack of an appropriate

response by school administrators to ongoing racial threats and harassment experienced by her

granddaughter. The story was met with a reply from a White male participant who prefaced his

comments as useful insight about how to deal with the unresponsive school administrators. The

White male instructed the grandmother and others in the dialogue group (using the following

paraphrased language): “you all should not be so angry with your demands, instead you should kill

them [school administrators] with kindness.” Responses to his comment included outbursts of

emotion from participants around the dialogue circle and physical displays of surprise and disbelief

about a response that, in their understanding clearly lacked empathy. It seems that the White

participant felt empowered enough in his position, with respect to other race dialogue participants

(Locher, 2004) to make such a statement. Locher (2004) informed, “Power can be exercised with

good intentions or bad intentions or without conscious intention at all” (p. 10). Further, his

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