Diversity can add to your religious beliefs, Faith,
Dialogue helps bend individual arcs toward justice.
This past January, after an America’s Sunday Supper dialogue event on the topic of race, a good friend of mine asked me if we really accomplished anything by just talking about racism — a good question, indeed.
Recalling the words of a community organizer who had previously expressed to me general dissatisfaction with dialogue events that offer no call to action, I hastily responded, “Yes! But only if we take the next step and put what we learn into action.”
While there is truth in walking the talk, having given the matter some thought, I would add that there is indeed great value in dialogue.
We never know whom we will touch with our stories, or the stories of others that we tell, just as we never know when the opportunity will present itself in which the art of dialogue will come in handy.
For instance, late one evening at a grocery store in Central Austin, three people were in line at an open cash register: first, a Mexican woman, then a nicely dressed, middle-class white woman, and a witness. The cashier totaled the order of the Mexican woman who proceeded to pay in food stamps.
The cashier was impatient and downright rude with this woman. After the woman left, the cashier totaled the order of the white woman who paid in cash.
The cashier was as cheerful as could be with her. When the transaction was complete, the white woman politely said, “Thank you for the way you treated me. I only wish you had treated the woman in front of me the same way,” visibly startling the cashier, and leaving the witness to wonder if he would have responded the same.
The exchange of stories like these truly inspires my work in Diversity, Dignity, Dialogue events. The witness in the cashier’s line had shared that story many times in the years since it had happened; and it was a story I had already heard.
But when I saw the expressions change on the faces of the of the people around me as they heard it, I knew it was just as powerful as the first time it was told, and just as important that it had a venue and attentive audience to be retold.
I am further encouraged by groups beginning to emerge out of the dialogue community choosing to advance their practice of communicating on difficult topics or shifting the focus to the wider community for systemic change.
Certainly, though, we are all on different parts of the journey of understanding race or class relations in our society; and we will all have our own ebb-and-flow of active participation.
In a recent interview with Jon Stewart, Ta-Na- hisi Coates argued that the arc of history bends toward chaos once we take into account our history and the arcs of individuals. While that might seem so from day to day, if there is any truth to that in the long term then we must actively bend that arc back towards justice. It can start for anyone as simply as standing in line at the grocery store and sharing such stories — inspiring others to walk the talk.