I  want to report on a recent activity at The Bridge that has taken us to a new level of undoing discussion.  As part of our recognition of Social Work month (2 years ago Mary P-G introduced undoing racism at that years event), we bought copies of President Obamas Dreams from My Father for every Bridge staff member.  We asked folks to focus on the Chicago chapter especially since it deals with so many of the important themes: organizing, community conditions that grow directly out of the legacy and current reality of racism. 

First of all, there was tremendous positive feedback from giving everyone a copy of the book.  I got many, many Thank-you emails from staff.  We put a Bridge label inside with the following inscription: As you know, at The Bridge we are very concerned about the social disparities that were seeded and grew from racism.  President Obamas life experience has shaped his attitudes towards race and can inform our continuing efforts to address the disparities that impact our clients, our practice as a staff, and the larger community.

We then held a major event using the book as a springboard.  We had an all staff meeting at which I gave an introduction to the conversations that were going to follow.  I stressed the racism/undoing themes of the book and read a 2 paragraph quote (from page 258 for those of you who have it) in which Obama quotes a school guidance counselor about the true uses of the public education system in black ghetto areas of Chicago.  I suggested that the groups to follow might want to consider how, beyond symbolism, the Obama election has impacted racial issues and racism.

We divided into 5 groups for small group discussion. Each group had 2 co-leaders; one person of color and one white. The co-leaders met twice before the event to discuss the book and plan for the event.  The feedback on the small groups was wonderfully positive.  The conversations were intense; the clock was ignored (a rarity at staff events).

Heres an example of the kind of things people talked about:

An African-American staff member who is an assistant residence director at The Bridge told the group that a week after Obama was elected, for the first time, her white neighbor said hello to her and engaged her in a conversation.  As you would expect, the group had a lot of different reactions to this story.

The ten group leaders have formed a pretty tight group and reassembled to plan for the next phase of undoing at the agency.

PB