I have to acknowledge that my response to this work is that of a white boomer male. While not seeing himself as a movement organizer, he hopes to mobilize social media influencers and to promote the work of the Baylor Program for Collaborative Conversation and Race, a research and training center to fill the gap in empirical research in apply mutual accountability models to racial issues. He offers the example of Sean Sheppard, founder and CEO of Game Changer, a California-based organization working with communities and police departments using collaborative conversation and mutual accountability methods. He concludes with a call for a mutual accountability movement in addressing racial issues. Finally, he considers how mutual accountability might work in our lives. In a world under the illusion of human perfectibility, the Bible reminds us of our depravity and the folly of relying on our own intelligence and moral sense. The big “but” is that no significant research has yet been done on the effectiveness of this model in reducing racial bias, although some research from diversity programs suggest that “intergroup contact and cooperative interventions within diversity training efforts have promising potential to reduce prejudice.” He then turns to theological support for his model, noting the examples of resolution of intergroup conflict such as Acts 6. He cites research showing the effectiveness of mutual accountability in fostering agreement and collaboration between parties. Yancey offers empirical support for his model with a qualification. ![]() 46)īefore going on to contend for this model, he addresses the failure of colorblindness to address the reality of institutional discrimination and the failure of antiracism due to its reliance on power and compulsion rather than the moral suasion where former adversaries become convinced allies. Find a compromise solution that works best for all. Create solutions that answer the concerns of the racial outgroup.ĥ. Recognize our cultural or racial differences.Ĥ. It is an approach that take problem-solving rather than venting seriously, following this process:ģ. ![]() By allowing those we disagree with to hold us “accountable” to their interests, we are forced to confront the ways we have fashioned solutions that conform to our own interests and desires."Īctive listening is an essential skill necessary to these collaborative conversations–the listening that seeks to understand rather than to fashion an argumentative response. In this way we fashion solutions to racialized problems that address the needs of individuals across racial groups instead of promoting solutions that are accepted only by certain racial groups. In those communications we strive to listen to those in other racial groups and attempt to account for their interests. "This model stipulates that we work to have healthy interracial communications so that we can solve racial problems. What he proposes instead is a mutual accountability model. They may gain grudging compliance or achieve political victories while fostering ongoing resentments and resistance. ![]() Antiracist approaches often antagonize and alienate the very parties needed to make progress in addressing racial ills, shaming and stigmatizing those they consider the problem. Colorblindness fails to acknowledge the present effects of historic abuses and the systems and structures that sustain discrimination against racial groups. George Yancey, a black sociologist at Baylor University believes neither of these strategies are working, and are actually contributing to deepening divisions. ![]() Antiracism challenges all the systems and structures that maintain this power, demands activism (“you are either an antiracist or a racist”), and that whites must support antiracist efforts of blacks by persuading other whites and pressing for financial restitution for historic abuses. It argues that a majority group inherently seeks to preserve its power and to subordinate others. I do not wish to debate these claims but to cite them as an example of the divergent approaches being used to address the racial fault lines in this country: one being colorblindness, arguing that it is the emphasis on race that exacerbates our divisions, particular the invidious label of “racist.” The other is the “antiracist” strategy, one that is used widely in various forms in diversity training. Another candidate spoke against the ire raised by being called “racist” for concern about people entering the country illegally. One candidate stood at the Edmund Pettus Bridge invoking Dr. I witnessed it in our Ohio senatorial primary. Summary: Proposes as an alternative to colorblind or antiracist approaches, one of collaborative conversation and mutual accountability to overcome racial divisions.
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