The following questions may be used to guide participants through each
phase of a dialogue. Whether meeting for one session or a series of
sessions, participants should progress through all four dialogue phases.
The questions are organized under each phase according to how many
sessions are planned. For each dialogue phase, select the question
set(s) to fit your format.
Phase I -Who Are We?
For 1 Session:
- What are your first memories of learning that there was something
called race?
- Have you ever felt different because of your race. If so,
what was your first experience of feeling different?
- How much contact do you have now with people from other
races? What type of contact is that?
For 2-3 Sessions (consider these):
- What was your first exposure to messages that concern racial
stereotypes? Who told you about them?
- When did you first discover that some people thought about
race very differently than you?
- What experiences have shaped your feelings and attitudes
about race and ethnicity?
For 4 or More Sessions (consider these):
- What did you believe about race relations in your community growing up?
- What is your family history concerning race? Did racial issues
affect your parents and grandparents?
- What early experiences have shaped your feelings and
attitudes about race?
Phase II-Where Are We?
For 1 Session:
- What experience have you had in the past year that made you feel
differently about race relations?
- If you had such an experience, what am the conditions that made that
experience possible? If you did not have an experience, what makes such
experiences rare? What do we make of our answers?
- Is race something you think about daily?
- How much contact do you have now with people from other races? What
type of contact is that?
- What are the underlying conditions that influence the quality and
quantity of our contact with people from other races?
For 2-3 Sessions (consider these):
- Can you think of a recent experience when you benefited or suffered
from people having a stereotype about you?
- What are the underlying conditions that create the various ways we
answer that question?
- Can you think of a recent time when someone's understanding
of race made your action or statement have a different impact than you
intended?
- Can you think of a time when you wondered whether your
behavior towards others was affected by a racial stereotype, or by other
racial issues?
For 4 or More Sessions (consider these):
- How would you describe the overall state of race relations in
our community?
- What do you tell young people about the racial situation in our
community?
- Is it important to sham our perspective, or let them find out
for themselves?
- What are the underlying conditions or barriers that hinder better
race relations?
- In what ways do we agree or disagree about the nature of racial
problems, what caused them, and how serious they are?
- What are the underlying conditions that might make us have different
approaches to talking to youth about race?
- Which is the bigger problem in people understanding today's community
challenges: people overemphasizing race or under-emphasizing race?
- Is it a little easier to relate to people from your same race
than to relate to people from other races? Why?
- What are the barriers (in you, others, or in society) that sometimes
make it difficult to relate to people of other races and cultures?
Phase III-Where Do We Want
To Go?
For 1 Session:
- What needs to happen for people to have more positive experiences
with race relations?
- What would have to happen so that people were not made to feel
different because of race?
- What would have to happen for people to have more frequent and more
meaningful contact with people from other races?
For 2-3 Sessions (consider these):
- What would have to happen for our society
to have fewer racial stereotypes?
- What would have to happen so that people from different backgrounds
could more easily work through their understandings of how race affects
day-to-day situations?
- What are we, either independently or with others, willing to do so
that we have more interactions that contribute to better race relations?
For 4 or More Sessions (consider these):
- In what specific ways do you wish race relations were different in
our community? What would have to happen so that race relations would
improve?
- What would have to happen so that youth had an informed and
optimistic understanding of race relations?
- What can we agree needs to happen to improve race relations, even if
we have different ways of understanding history?
Phase IV-What Will We Do, As
Individuals and With Others, To
Make A Difference?
For 1 Session:
- What are we, either independently or with others, willing to do so
that we have more interactions that contribute to better race relations?
- What are we, either independently or with others, willing to
do so that people have more frequent and meaningful contact with people
from other races?
- What are some actions we might encourage community, business,
or government organizations to take?
For 2-3 Sessions (consider these):
- What are we, either independently or with others, willing to do to
reduce the affect of racial stereotypes in our lives and community?
- What are we, either independently or with others, willing to do to
lessen misunderstandings about race?
