PRODN Calendar

 End-of-year  Party  & 
 National ODN Conference Recap 

PRODN Activities

  Dialogue on Race  

On Wednesday, November 28, 2001, one of PRODN's Special Interest Groups (SIG) the Mixed Race Dialogue Group conducted the November program. The context was meant to set the stage for a series of activities to be held over the next year and intended to support us — as OD professionals — to learn about race together.

We believe that it is important for us to do our own work first, so we can better support our clients in understanding the impact of racial dynamics in organizations. The more prepared we are, the more we can help our clients. We are our own best instruments.

This work takes personal awareness and consciousness about our assumptions, stereotypes, fears, and so on. And we needed to create an environment for ourselves where it was safe to learn and make mistakes. So, we wanted to use our community as a supportive learning laboratory where we could learn together, collaboratively, across race. We needed to do our own work within same race groups — AND then we needed to work together across race. We really needed each other to do this work.

The Racial Dialogue Group believes that is an ongoing, emerging process, not an event or one-time exchange. So look for upcoming PRODN events on Racial Dialogue and Healing. There will also be "People of Color dealing with Internalized Racism" workshop, "Whites working on Racism" workshop and another "Mixed Race Dialogue" workshop to come later this winter. Look for dates and registration information on this web site.

My Personal Reflection:

I thought we put on a wonderful program last night. The design was perfect, members went deep with their sharing in the fishbowl. I think we really got across our points about how important it is to do this work in our own racial groups as well as mixed racial groups. Participants were impressed with our depth and understanding of our work together and our ability to create a container to share what we had learned in a non-threatening manner. And there was a lot of interest to join us for future programs. Thanks to everybody who could be there and the other members were there in spirit.

Frederick Bryant wrote:

... I like to add an observation of the experience I had last night.

...Using Lorraine's (I think it was she who said) ... pounding the veal to make it tender metaphor. By the end of the night there was a heightened sense of tenderness among people in the room, people got soft ... it was visible on the many faces as they lingered and chatted for a long time after the meeting ... absent from their faces was what I sometimes observe in (particular whites) is the look of confusion, fear, anger sadness, shame etc. (When race is discussed.)

I feel that (whites) and People of Color left tenderized to issues of race and racism without feeling pounded. I am not sure but I think it was a first for me to witness ... at least in such a short time frame such as last night!

And from the response to the many names I observed on the News print list, those interested in Whites working racism and People of Color wanting to look at internalized racism I think people are eager to do more of what was started last night.

-- Submitted by Barry Cross

Next Meeting Thursday, December 20 Please note date change from December 13th (so we can all attend the PRODN event).

Join us for one or more meetings. Meeting location near Conshohocken. Please email Cynthia_Brancato@Merck.com or call 215-652-1602.

Other News

Announcing the "Practicing Cutting-Edge OD Conference at Penn State": April 3-6, 2002! Special $100 discount for registering online by January 2,2002! Visit the Conference web site at http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/cuttingedgeod/