When Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde helped lead conversations in the past about race and racism, it was easier to pick up on body language, to see someone shift slightly in their chair and tell how comfortable (or uncomfortable) they are.
These are pandemic times, though, and for as many challenges as the virtual world presents, Abegunde, a facilitator for the Powerful Conversations on Race series, said different doesn’t necessarily mean worse.
“It’s allowed people to enter the conversation differently,” she said.
Some people may not be comfortable talking about racism in person, so doing it virtually has given them some distance and more time to sort out what they need to say.
The conversation series, through Spirit & Place, is in its second act after a relaunch in 2021. The series initially ended in 2018. It includes facilitators such as Abegunde, who is also an assistant professor in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.
Guiding conversations about a difficult topic like racism requires more work than most probably realize.
There’s facilitator training, learning about race work, preparing material, knowing the subject matter and working with a co-facilitator (Abegunde and her co-facilitator even develop a script for the session). Facilitators don’t work on every conversation.
Abegunde said she feels no pressure from others or herself because it’s what she calls a “transformative process” that involves follow-up questions and keeping people engaged.
“Once you step into the circle, people bring their own understandings and interpretations with them,” she said. “Part of the work is being able to have enough of an awareness and openness to what someone is saying.”
LaShawnda Crowe-Storm, community engagement director for Spirit & Place, said the conversations are meant to be difficult — no one’s singing “Kumbaya” around the campfire. But that doesn’t mean there has to be a contentious shouting match. Dialogue, Crowe-Storm said, is about listening and responding.
“We don’t have a lot of space for that,” she said, “about race or about anything.”
‘Nobody wants to admit how cruel we are’
Mary Boggs has been to every conversation except one — she had trouble logging on — and she understands she’s a bit of an anomaly.
Boggs is an 83-year-old white woman and said part of why she got involved in the series is because her peers don’t seem to see racism as an issue. Not all of the information covered in the series is new to Boggs because she’s done research for herself, but still, the fact that learning about the history of race and racism hasn’t been easy says something to Boggs about white Americans’ reluctance to confront difficult truths.
“Nobody wants to admit how cruel we are,” she said after the most recent conversation about the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Boggs said the conversations make her want to ask for forgiveness.
“I know because my skin is white I’ve had opportunities my Black friends haven’t had,” she said.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853 or tylerf@indyrecorder.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS ON RACE
Powerful Conversations on Race is a monthly series through Spirit & Place. The next conversation is April 10. Learn more at spiritandplace.org.
