Diversity Conversation Project

Each year, throughout the month of February, we invite faculty, staff and students to take part in a series of open and honest dialogues on differences and diversity.  We encourage them to invite someone from a different cultural upbringing for a private one-on-one conversation over coffee or lunch.  OIED and Sodexho partner to provide a generous donation of a limited number of lunch vouchers for those who need them (contact Annette Johnson via phone (478) 445-4233 or via email at annette.johnson@gcsu.edu for more information).

Benefits to Participants:
By taking part in these courageous and planned one-on-one conversations during the month of February, participants will:

• Explore some of the messages they have received about their own culture and the culture of others,
• Raise awareness of the individual and collective racial experience,
• Develop a better understanding of ourselves, as cultural beings, in a social context that allows us to move from personal experiences to considering multiple viewpoints.

Conversations around differences have helped many participants in the long run to:

• Honestly listen and begin to validate the diverse experience of others,
• Acknowledge the individual, cultural, and institutional racism that exists in our community,
• Develop strategies for changing personal and institutional behaviors that perpetuate racism in all of it forms and
• Build a stronger commitment to a community that appreciates and takes full advantage of its diversity

Steps to a One-on-One Conversation:
1. Decide on a Georgia College member of a different background that you would like to invite to lunch for a conversation on diversity or contact the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity to find a match. You can e-mail yves-rose.saintdic@gcsu.edu to obtain a sample email to invite someone to a conversation.
2. Prepare for the conversation by browsing through the list of online resources below or by visiting the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity for additional resources.

At the Meeting

• Engage by sharing your cultural autobiography and by listening to your partner's cultural autobiography.  To obtain a sample cultural biography, email Yves-Rose SaintDic at yves-rose.saintdic@gcsu.edu.
• Sustain the conversation by asking follow-up questions.
• Be prepared to experience discomfort.
• Expect/Accept Non-Closure (Adapted from the Pacific Education Group).
  

Be sure to e-mail Yves-Rose SaintDic at yves-rose.saintdic@gcsu.edu to inform her that you took part in this project.  Your contributions will be engraved in our on-line Diversity Cornerstones and Pathways. 

Resources
Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerad, Dialogue; Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation (John Wiley & Sons, 1998)
Guide for Meaningful Conversations
http://www.publicconversations.org/pcp/page.php?id=69
 Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity (in OIED Library)
"One Conversation at a Time"
http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=1092
http://www.studycircles.org/en/Issue.6.aspx
http://www.conversationcafe.org/

CONNECTING WHAT MATTERS

"It is fear that makes talking about diversity so difficult. Fear that I will say something that will offend you or reveal my ignorance or prejudices. Fear that you will think less of me after I speak. ... We need to be and feel heard, to be willing to listen without feeling that we must change to conform to another's way of thinking and being. Until we can create a place for such conversations to occur, I doubt we will be able to create new of ways of being together that honor us all."

Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard, Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation (John Wiley & Sons, 1998)