View the meeting slides here: DC_Intro_2.4.2020

Dear Diversity Champions,

Thank you so much for joining us on Tuesday February 4th! We had meaningful engagement from all Extension program areas and regions!

Welcome and Introductions
This first monthly Zoom meeting provided our second opportunity to come together as a group after our Courageous Conversations About Race (CCAR) session at the Extension Annual Conference in December. We are so excited to have such a motivated group of Diversity Champions in this cohort, and look forward to everything the upcoming year has in store for us!

During our meeting this week, we introduced ourselves, went over the CCAR Protocol, and practiced engaging in group conversation using the Compass, the 4 Agreements, and the 6 Conditions. We established that Diversity Champions is an approach that calls for developing the capacity of Extension to speak a common language about racial equity (explicitly, but not exclusively, as we will also use this protocol to navigate conversations across difference in another aspects of diversity) as a prerequisite for creating and sustaining more effective programming.

This recap provides a short overview of the session, but does not replace the deeper experience of participating in the monthly meetings in real time. As we have heard from our participants time and time again, one of the most valuable parts of this program is witnessing your colleagues opening up about their experiences and motivations and having the opportunity to grow individually and as a group.

The CCAR Protocol
Please refer to slides 4-7 on the meeting’s PowerPoint (included above) for an outline of the CCAR protocol that we will use for the duration of this program. As you continue to familiarize yourself with the protocol, it may be helpful to post a visual of it in a location where you will see it frequently, and can practice using it in different situations. It can be a very useful tool, both in and out of our program. A past Champion once told me they set a picture of the Compass as their computer desktop background so they could check in throughout the day to see if they were centered. Feel free to use the program, the readings, the protocol and the conversations in the way that makes the best sense for you. Our only ask is that you honor your own and your teammates´ growth by keeping our conversations “brave”. This means that, while we can´t guarantee safe spaces for all of us in this space, we strive to create brave spaces where we grapple around concepts and ideas (not people) and allow the space and the personal narratives shared to remain within the boundaries of our meeting (please do not quote your peer´s personal stories, remember, you just have one story to tell: yours).

“Homework”
If you have not had a chance to purchase the Courageous Conversations Field Guide Book or obtain a journal you can use during this program, we highly encourage you to do so! To get the most out of our next meeting, please:
 Journal/free write around the following prompt (for 5 minutes or 45 minutes – whatever your schedule allows!): What is your earliest and most recent experience with your own racial awareness?
 Read Chapter Four: Agreeing to Talk About Race

Heads up
There will be lots and lots of opportunities for us to keep sharing insights and stories as a group. We certainly encourage you to keep sharing with us as much as you feel safe sharing. As facilitators, we will ask you to share your personal, local, and immediate experience from a place of vulnerability and authenticity. This requires a lot of humility and work and we are thankful to you for being willing to grow in this way. However, it is imperative to be aware of instances in which that vulnerability and authenticity can inadvertently revive/trigger trauma in others. We ask you to be mindful of possible word triggers that can carry historical trauma. In particular, in our last meeting we had the use of the “N-word” as a part of a story telling process where the objective was to reflect on the damage of the word and deconstruct the word itself. We recommend that, instead of referring to the word explicitly, we say “N-word” out of respect of the historical trauma and connotations that this word carries.

However, we think that is also important to ensure that our preoccupation with the use of words is actually driven by matters of morality rather than with matters of taboo or as an excuse to shame others. While reflecting on this, I came across the articles below that help summarize my reflections:
– The Idea That Whites Can’t Refer to the N-Word (The Atlantic)
– More Harm Than Good (New Yorker)

Our intent is to avoid staying in a superficial level of gravity by “prohibiting” or “banning” a word without talking about its context and history also as a source of strength. We will start next meeting by debriefing Chapter 4, and take the opportunity to have a brave conversation about what it means for us to be growing in our racial literacy journey. As you learned in this first Diversity Champions session, one of the main objectives of the group is to provide a brave space for us to grow and learn, therefore we ask you to trust yourself and trust us in the process, stay engage, embrace discomfort, accept non-closure and please stay personal, local and immediate.

Next Conversation
See you for our next monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 3 at 10 a.m. This meeting should be on your calendars as part of the recurring series, but please let us know if not. We will send information about our guest speakers prior to the meeting.

As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any comments, questions, insights (or to say hi!).

-Your DEI Team