Friday digest-open thread 4/11/08

Have you had enough talk about race yet? We haven't either. So mark your datebook for next Thursday (April 17), when we'll be holding our more-or-less monthly water cooler from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern right here on DemocracySpace. The topic will be how communities like yours are working to create greater racial equity. No RSVP necessary. Just show up and blog with us!

Following Martha McCoy's post yesterday about how big media may be missing the mark on its coverage of race, we posted the following discussion question on the Everyday Democracy page at Facebook: Do you think the media is getting a clue to the idea that substantive change will come not from talking about race relations but about racial equity? The discussion board is here, so if you are on Facebook, please join our group and weigh in on that topic. (Your comments are welcome here as well.) Meanwhile, in a response to Martha, Michael Weiksner wonders at e-thepeople whether it's wise to focus on problems like poverty through a strictly racial lens.

Writing at The Democracy Movement, Everyday Democracy senior associate and Deliberative Democracy Consortium executive director Matt Leighninger tells how, in civic-engagement programs originally launched to talk about race, many participants have come to question traditional assumptions. For example, he says, "they question the notion that racism is just an easily identifiable, individual sin – that we are all either racists or non-racists. When people take a closer look, they usually begin to see racism as a blurry spectrum, a series of individual and institutional biases that get progressively more inaccurate and damaging." Read more here.

In Lynchburg, Virginia, where the Community Dialogue on Race and Racism has brought more than 600 people together with the goal of dismantling racism, the local newspaper asked city council candidates: "Explain whether you feel issues of racial inequality do or do not continue to persist in Lynchburg. Specify what, if any, role is played by the city government in those issues. Further specify whether you feel the dialogue is an effective way of dealing with concerns related to race." You can read their answers here. Wouldn't it be great to see local editorial boards nationwide ask probing questions about racism as campaigns unfold this year?

The Human Rights Commission in Jacksonville, Florida, is launching a new series of study circles on racism this month. Visit the City of Jacksonville website to learn more and register. Jacksonville and Lynchburg are among the nine partners in Everyday Democracy's Communities Creating Racial Equity  initiative. Many more communities are engaging on the issue through resources such as our Facing Racism in a Diverse Nation discussion guide. Click here to learn more.

Update - Friday afternoon: Everyday Democracy staff member Molly Holme Barrett has passed along word of a show set to air on MSNBC at 9 Eastern /8 Central tonight. (Check your local listings.) “Meeting David Wilson” depicts the journey of 28-year-old David A. Wilson - a black man from New Jersey - to North Carolina to meet 62-year-old David B. Wilson, a descendant of the white Southern family that owned his ancestors during the slavery era. See more here. The program will include a 90-minute live discussion of racial issues in America.

Update - Monday, April 14: Peter Levine wrote this post at his blog Friday afternoon citing both Martha's post and a recent one by Rich Harwood on the changing narratives and need for action in our conversations on race.