Book Outlines

Here is a sample of my upcoming outline of "Reducing Social Tension and Conflict Through the Group Conversation Method" by Rachel Davis Dubois and Mew-Soong Li

 Notes: "GC" stands for Group Conversation, The FangSong font is my personal input, [] is deleted or altered lines.

Outline of Reducing Social Tension and Conflict

Chapter 1: What is Group Conversation?

I.      The despair induced by the disorientation and dislocation develops soon into hostility and loss of faith.

A.     Communication channels among the many disparate elements that mount quickly in a community at odds with itself become drastically reduced at a time when open minds are most necessary to unify efforts towards constructive, deliberate action.

1.      Few American communities are not affected by these dynamics.

a)     They assume different structural specifics, but the psychological impact of the circumstances takes on a similar cast.

b)     The result is such an assault on the elements and resources of a particular aggregation as often to lead to a paralyzing inability in the group to deal with the problems which ensue.

2.      How can we transcend exacerbating circumstances so that the community can experience some redemptive healing relationship for those who live and work in the area?

a)     There is a need for approaches that are fresh, renewing, creative, where heart can reach out to human heart in joy and love.

b)    We can transcend these circumstances by recognizing dehumanizing illusions that our differences and the false perceptions we have of them create.

·           Race, age, social status, ethnic background, religious faith, religions, economic income, and educational sophistication.

c)    Detailed reports of group experiences in which many of these blocks were removed because differences came to be seen as assets will be found throughout this book.

B.     A widely tested method that works

1.      Some solutions [that aim to unite us and eliminate our perception of “otherness”] have been less relevant, less complete, less direct that others. Generally, however, they have reawakened  attributes and abilities of the persons gathered, bringing to the group’s deliberations and concerns such resources and energies as to make their experience together a meaningful one.

2.      The way toward a solution is usually illuminated with a new sices of mutual trust and discovery [].

a)     Of new insights about oneself.

b)      About each other.

c)      About the group.

d)     About getting together on the problem,

e)     About renewal.

C.    This restructuring of the situation to bring a wholeness of the group focused upon a particular concern, we see as a key for the group to sue in dealing with problems which our society has allowed to alienate us as

a)     Persons

b)     People

c)      Communities

d)     A nation

D.    There are, then, many reasons for the use of Group Conversation by the alert group worker. Among these reasons are:

1.      To help make for an easier access one to another just as persons, without the socio-economic trappings and status that so often block direct communication.

2.      To help leaders to become more aware of their own feelings and be more sensitive to the feelings and needs of others

3.      To help counteract stereotyped attitudes often found among members of various racial, religious and cultural groups, and by releasing the potential mutual enrichment in such groupings to promote understanding among and active interest in them, leading to a richer common [] live.

4.      To cultivate among all members of an organization, new and old, a deeper sense of belonging and fellowship.

5.      To integrate the newcomer, the person from another ethnic group, the student from abroad, the refugee, the member of another generation, the migrant worker, and so on, into the fellowship of the group.

II.   The Unique Qualities of Group Conversation

A.     When a small number of persons – from 10 to at most 30 – take an hour in which to exchange memories of experiences of joy or sorrow in a group experience based on spontaneity, a warmth and closeness develop quietly and quickly. When this sharing is directed around a universal theme, even a very mixed group can see and feel the oneness of the human family and can gain an appreciation of the beauty, significance and wondrous qualities inherent in diversity.

B.     Group Conversation is this face-to-face sharing of experiences both of the past and of the present in a spontaneous atmosphere which quickly produces rapport.

1.      This kind of sharing helps to break down the fears and suspicions that separate us because our culture has taught us to see our differences of age, race, ethnicity, creed or class as liabilities.  

2.      While the initial phases of the give-and-take in a Group Conversation are not problem-centered, they help build a basis of faith and trust upon which the participants can more effectively work out their problems of living together in home and community.

v     This is the uniqueness of Group Conversation – its ability to quickly produce confidence and trust among its participants.

C.    The method described in this book seeks to change the group situation in such a way as to transcend the fear, suspicion and hostility so that these forces do not stand in the way of our dealing positively with them as they arise in our day-to-day transactions with life.

1.      The process we call Group Conversation is a way of using a group to center on each of its members and a way of helping its members to develop into a real group.

a)     I like to think of a real group as a team.

2.      Its impact on the individual helps him become more sensitive to life’s moments and often to motivate him to bring about needed change, both within himself and within his environment.

3.      It is the kind of change which brings deeper, more sincere and satisfying communication between individuals and thereby gives a richer quality to our common American life.

D.    The authors of this book have [] found that Group Conversation can be quickly learned and practiced by group leaders in

1.      Community centers

2.      Government agencies

3.      Schools

4.      Teacher training institutions

5.      Churches

6.      And even in homes.

E.     Psychological Roots of Group Conversation’s Success

1.      Group Conversation is a way of helping members of a group to experience a sense of our common humanity by first reaching back into the past for memorable experiences to be shared around a topic of universal moment.

a)     The method is designed to facilitate real and spontaneous communication by developing the social climate which fosters mutual regard and confidence.

2.      Leaders in social psychology and group procedures see Group Conversation as a unique and important step in the development of the group because it…

a)     Its effectiveness of this simple informal method for quickly establishing rapport.

b)     Participants are brought into greater readiness for

·           Encounters

·           Discussions

·           Problem solving

·           Decision making

·           And other levels of social thinking and action.

3.      Group Communication breaks though to unifying feelings because it leads participants to the kind of communication that reaches the hart of a human situation.

v   Gordon Allport says, after experiencing this process, said, “The participant does not think himself into a democratic way of acting (as lecturers, preacher, and writers ask us to do) but rather acts himself into a democratic way of thinking. This is sound psychology.”

F.     Group Conversation Revives a Lost Art

1.      The name Group Conversation comes from the simple fact that your having a conversation in the setting of a group.

a)     Like any other good conversation form, that much lamented lost art, it requires a willingness to share and a willingness to listen creatively with tenderness and firmness.

2.      Understanding and real communication can come only in wholeness and freedom.

a)     If we reflect on these attributes, we realize that they are requisite to all human relationships, of which person-to-person conversation is a highly developed and yet spontaneous form.

3.      Spontaneity is of the essence, and a well-conducted session can be a moving and profound experience.

a)     This seeming paradox implies a delicate balance of trust and expectation.

b)      It requires that the leader not only be open to all the magic that can be touched off in a group, but that he be alert as well to catch the sparks that can set it off.

c)      It means that he must be able to convey this faith and sense of ease to the group; but, as with any art, this ability comes with practice.

·           The leader learns to be spontaneous and to trust the group because time and time again something comes spontaneously from the group which is so much more moving than anything he may have thought during planning.

·           In fact, he learns so much from the group – gets such a sense of self-fulfillment and inspiration – that sometimes he sues the phrase, “There is magic in a group.”

d)     This unifying feeling is so necessary to the strength of a group that all group leaders might well consider using regularly some method to produce (or, shall we say, release) this feeling of belonging together.

·           In the most dangerous phase of the civil rights struggle in the South no march or demonstration ever took place without spending at least an hour’s time in singing freedom songs.

·           The leaders knew the time was well spent, for it was this feeling which carried and upheld them in facing electric prods, dogs, clubs, and even jail.

·           The Religious Society of Friends uses the unifying process of a period of group silence [].

G.    Extra Points

1.      After experiencing common feelings around some universal topic, the participants now had enough mutual confidence and trust to be able to bear the thrust of honesty and challenge of an encounter group even when voices were raised and harsh things said.

2.      Group Conversation aims at helping to start flowing in a group that spirit of mutual confidence and trust needed when members enter later an encounter group which by its nature consists of being honest if it hurts.

a)     Very often encounter groups. Starting first with expressions of anger, end on a note of anger with less than a sense of growth.

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Outline of Reducing Social Tension and Conflict

Chapter 2: Group Conversation Enhances Other Methods

I.      While sometimes Group Conversation is used alone as an enriching, esthetic, even an entertaining social experience in itself to help a group reach its goals of social action more easily and effectively, it is most often used in connection with other group methods.

·           This method is more than an ice breaker, more than merely getting to know the names of those who have come together and a briefly-told fact about them.

A.     Facilitates Group Discussion

1.     Group Conversation is not group discussion but moves into it when relevant. Group Conversation purposefully uses a minimum of structuring of the group so that discussion of problems is not invited at the outset of the meeting.

a)     The controversial aspects of an issue are intentionally postponed until a mood of acceptance has been developed so that the members of the group are able to enter the discussion phase when they are ready to enter into it constructively and with a sense of trust, openness and directness.

b)     Most experienced leaders know that, until the feeling of strangeness, suspicion or even hostility is cleared, little real business in any meeting can be taken care of.

c)      When the feelings are complicated by many kinds of differences, not to mention those of nationality, religion or race, the blocks to real group development can be serious.

2.     If we assume that a group goes from discussion to problem solving and decision, thence to commitment and action, then Group Conversation may be seen as a prior step to this progression.

a)     Group Conversation prepares for profitable discussion by helping to point up the basic and strategic aspects of a problem so that the group can look squarely at what is of issue, then work on it. 

b)     Too often we cover up what is fundamental by cluttering the issue with nonessential; we loose sight of the goals of a program or the crux of a problem.

c)      We consciously and purposely hide certain crucial data from others, or unconsciously secrete them out ourselves.

3.     Group Conversation can be especially helpful to bring up to the level of awareness much of the material which we either as individuals or as a group, have pushed below with our rationalizations.

a)     Sharing earlier experiences of having been made to feel strange or different or queer, or of being rejected or of rejecting, may, for example, bring importation facets and depth to the exploration of some aspect of the issues (fair employment or school integration)

b)    The kind of data we should need to look for, how we could best go about getting at them – in fact, the very way we formulate a problem – could be uncovered by the kind of interchange at this level of emotional involvement.

4.     The discussion phase may flow directly out of concerns pointed up in the Group Conversation and become one continuous process if the leader feels at home in both techniques. Or the discussion may follay a coffee or refreshment break.

a)     The topic for the Group Conversation need not necessarily be related to the problem to be discussed, though often it is.

·           For example: A meeting between white and black men who are real estate operators, meeting together for the first time to consider first steps they might take toward open housing in a Southern city, matched their memories of boyhood games at the start of the evening. The release of tensions through laughter about those early escapades, and they were very similar as they were to all American boys, gave the group the momentum after coffee to make some first steps together on the thorny subject of housing.

b)     Group Conversation serves as a prelude to the workshop. It establishes an atmosphere that inspires the participants to share the kind of experiences that will bring deeper meaning to the impact of the total workshop.

B.     Impetus to Conference Progress

1.     For introducing the theme of a conference, seminar, or workshop, Group Conversation can be very effective.

a)     It can help a group, meeting for the first time, and for a short period, to move into the matter at hand much more rapidly and directly.

·           Not only can the necessary details of introduction be taken care of, but attendant anxieties to establish identity and “protocol” (a need so much more pronounced in the frenzy and briefness of conference encounters) can be allayed.

·           Members are more ready to buckle down to business, in sufficient depth to proceed with intensity and progress.

·           Many leaders who have worked a Group Conversation into the schedule find that the time is more than compensated for by the speed with which the rest of the meeting moves into the heart of the discussion and action.

b)     There may be occasion to use several group methods with Group Conversation.  

·           As an initial event on any program, Group Conversation can be valuable for the reasons given above. It may be used at anytime in a schedule to open up a session, or a discussion, or a new structuring of the group.

·           If the assembly is a large one, the different units may be set up in a concurrent round of Group Conversation.

­       A skilled leader can work with a very large group, but should not look for as deep penetration in the individual experiences.

­       Through vicarious participation, however, a group mood can be developed even in a large gathering which carries over into other parts of the program.

­       If the conference is on urban renewal and housing, for example, a Group Conversation, carefully planned to elicit emotional experiences around home or rooms with which we can identify deeply, can be a potent discussion dynamic.

C.     Provides Warm-up for Buzz Groups

1.     Group Conversation can be used very effectively to warm up a large group preparatory to its break-up into buzz groups in which case real thought must go into structuring the questions that are to be buzzed.

a)     The leader should be reminded also that the dividing of the groups should be done as quickly as possible

b)     They should, however, enhance or sharpen the areas of personal as well as group relevance and identity.

·           In such situations differing groups can learn from each other. 

D.    Sets Up Role Play

1.     For the leader who is trained in role playing and can see applicable incidents to play to for elucidation or for psycho- or socio- dramatic impact, Group Conversation is a particularly fertile sources for this kind of material, easier and more relevant to deal with than incidents imagined before the session by the role play leader.

a)     Here, the experience to be re-enacted, with the full potential and range of role playing, is oftentimes the more dramatic and meaningful because it arises in the context of the group’s sharing and situation.

2.     The Group Conversation leader need not be the one to stage the role playing. Often it would be well for the two functions to be lodged in different persons, especially if both are sensitive to group phenomena and to each others leadership style.

a)     Perhaps for those new to the method, it would be better for the role playing to follow the completion of the Group Conversation phase

b)     It may not be easy for the novice to keep hold of the mood or direction of the Group Conversation although, by and large, both processes operate on the dimensions of the emotions.

3.     As one familiar with the dynamics and procedures of role playing is aware, the closer to the evaluation of the experience the re-enactment can come, the greater the psychological impact.

a)    Because the incident is the emotional property of the group, it can be used with effect at anytime in the context of the group.

·           Emotional property is valuable for all of the reasons stated above, but because of its unique relationship to the group it is a powerful force in the battle of otherness in its unifying function.

4.     The experienced leader of role playing will see that its use in the contest discussed is especially effective in problems of social or self-inquiry and understanding.

a)     Where the group is small and is on ongoing one, it is very often effective to play out the incident as it is offered in the Group Conversation, in any or all of the ramifications that may ensue in role playing.

5.     Very often we have found that the playing out of a highly relevant experience becomes the moving and impact-filled climax of a meeting.

a)     It becomes, that is, the dramatic ending of the Group Conversation session.

b)     Whether the group moves from this point depends on its resources, needs, and maturity as a group, and on the awareness, imagination, and creativity of its leaders.

c)      The fullness of the moment can be translated into many kinds of assets on which can be built dimensions of growth as an individual, as a group, as a community, as a people.

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Chapter 5: Reducing Group Tensions

I.      Group conversation has been founded on the concept that a healthy self-acceptance precedes the acceptance of others.

A.     The healthy person who wishes can begin by trying to understand why he rejects others; in so doing, he can start to change his own attitudes. We underline healthy, for Group Conversation is not planned to work primarily with the psychologically crippled person, ill with deep and serious conflicts. This is the province of the psychotherapist.

1.      Laurens van der Post speaks of race prejudice as a form of self rejection. The individual who cannot accept himself cannot accept others because his hatred and fear of certain aspects of his own nature onto others.

a)     I think this is a great insight that ties loosely into karma and ties strongly into Jerry Jampolski’s extension of a course in miracles work, Love is Letting Go of Fear, where he talks about the idea of getting what you give. If outcome is a result of your minds lens which with you look through, prejudice and other forms of fear cannot come from anywhere else but inside the individual.

b)     Thus the problem of race prejudice [or any other manifestations of fear] is interpreted as the rejection of oneself reflected in others who in turn tend to look for still others to reject who they feel are below them in social order; and so the rejection goes on from individual to individual and from group to group.

2.      This self-rejection is a part of the loss of identity

a)     The prejudiced [or fearful] attitude of many white southerners also fits into this pattern of self-rejection causing hatred of the other. The South is the only part of our country to have every suffered defeat in a major war. Not only did this result in almost irreparable psychological as well as economic damage, but Southerners have been either looked down upon or romanticized by Americans from other regions.

a)     One understands the resentments and fears of many white Southerners as well as Northerners; but today we need to learn ways to develop mutual understanding [] and thus break the cycle of hatred and release the spirit of cooperation[].

3.      We have only to look within ourselves to see how difficult it is to apply to our own thinking and feeling an understanding of this self-rejection-projection process.

a)     We who have assumed the role of leadership of “GC” have encouraged each other to seek [] help in understanding our own attitudes and actions towards others.

·         This is because of bullet (Ch 5,I,A,1,dot) above. If we (the leaders) do not know what we are unconsciously projecting into the group. We are likely to A) miss it in others and B) cloud or tarnish some of the progress that could be made. I like to think of it as taking people on a trip in an airplane, you don’t want to be a “little off” in the beginning because that will lead to being drastically off course as things progress.

b)     Depth psychology tells us that creative, mature action in facing and action on today’s problems comes not by loading onto there problems our feelings of personal guilt. In that way we become immobilized.

·         Real guilt comes only out of real life situations. The individual’s commitment and action emerge when they are not held back by his sense of guilt.

·         These individual problems must be resolved before our inner energies are to be freed to work in creative, effective ways on our social problems.

·         This is to [prevent making a social problem out of a personal one]. You are converting energy. Life is growth weather we like it or realize it or not. Step back and ask what am I growing? Are you contributing to the growth of the “tree” or are you the mistletoe that is draining the life out? What are you putting energy into or feeding?

c)      We offer here our first faltering steps in the use of “GC” in helping people to understand their own attitudes. We offer it with a plea that others also experiment, feeling with van der Post that “there is a new kind of human being living ahead of the meaning of our time and knowing that the meaning has to be lived before it can be really known.”

·         The quote above means to that “to know and not to do is not yet to know”-Zen saying, to me. Another way I look at it is, “you can act you way into thinking, but you can’t think your way into action.”- unknown

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Unedited

Here is a sample of my upcoming outline of "Reducing Social Tension and Conflict Through the Group Conversation Method" by Rachel Davis Dubois and Mew-Soong Li

 Notes: "GC" stands for Group Conversation, The FangSong font is my personal input, [] is deleted or altered lines.

Chapter 6: Uniting People for Community Needs

I.      We need equal opportunities for all people as we work together to solve our problems of living together.

1. The Group Conversation Method is unique because it can be used with other methods to enhance its productivity in individual’s unique social roles – the home, school, church, and place of work – to relate to the same goals.

1.      I take this to mean group conversation can provide a path to get opposing sides to unite and get on the same team to fight a common enemy.

a)     I also think it would be cool if after uniting as humans that participants could use their differences to supplement others who are lacking insight or skill in a given area

·         Kind of like different positions on a baseball team working together VS fighting over which position is better!

2. Many projects [] are being conducted. So often, however, these projects do not tend to move communities forward as a whole, for they have been too fragmented and unrelated in their social action activities.

1.      I can see this in programs that have a common goal, like fighting blight and poverty in an area to go about it totally different ways.

a)     One group or organization could hold an black tie event

b)     Another organization could organize a food donation program or something more hands on.

2.      While this is happening, the two groups operate in separate factions while trying to achieve the same goal. Their lack of social connection and the walls it creates form a barrier to unity and clarity.

·           Although this is a simple example and situations seem to be more complex most of the time, it illustrates how lack of a whole, or to use Ken Wilber’s term “Whole Parts”. Projects that have common goals without "constancy of purpose" (Dr. Deming's term for one of the 5 deadly diseases...link on other post) are bound to fall short. The different parts need to bee interdependent. I may have to have a separate post explaining this in detail as an intro to my endeavors in communications.

3. Local leaders will realize that the use of Group Conversation is a part of an ongoing process of aiding individuals of various kinds of backgrounds to believe in one another as persons, so that they will make the attempt to work together more productively, whether as community workers, volunteers for social action projects, talented suburbanites, welfare recipients, or concerned parents.

II.    Motivating Social Action Volunteers

·           In the past posts I have left out some of the examples and case studies to just get to the root of the concept. However, I feel that the study in this chapter will give some needed context and clarity to the subject matter in this out line. So here it is word for word.

SITUATION: The Ecumenical Task Force in a Northern city set up a committee to prepare themselves and others to use effective ways to involve mainly middle-class whites and blacks in becoming active as volunteers in the civil rights struggle and other social action programs in the community.

First step: training workshops in the use and follow-up of Group Conversation. Thirty persons of different races, sexes and backgrounds – Catholic nuns, Protestant pastors, public school teachers, and housewives.

Second step: follow-up. After their training, each team of two recruited their own participants for a five-session, weekly series of meetings in their own homes, using Group Conversation followed by discussion, This let to the involvement of many participants as volunteers in several social projects.

TOPICS (used in the home meetings, with one session on each):

1.      Becoming acquainted.

2.      Our own prejudices – to recognize them in or past and present experiences.

3.      Institutional racism – to understand how the system works and what it does to us.

4.      Black consciousness and Black Power – to understand and respond creatively.

5.      What we can do – to see institutionalized racism where we are and to design strategy to overcome it.

LEAD Questions:

Our own prejudices. Introduction by leader: psychologists generally agree on two main causes of prejudices, one being simply that most children tend to imitate the prejudices of their parents and other adults. Later these persons may throw off such prejudices when they move in other kinds of social worlds or acquire facts showing the untruth of their prejudice. The second cause of prejudice is more serious, for it fees demands of a personality frustrated in childhood to such an extent that it gains satisfaction in bruising others by action out their prejudices. (Note to leader: Postpone the discussion of these theories now; look first at their own experiences.)

1.      Earliest memories of being given a sense of importance by grown-ups. Did any of them seem to pick us out and give us praise for something? How did we feel?

2.      If we did not get such praise and attention, do we recall doing something on or won to gain attention? Were we punished for any of this? Did we feel we were unjustly punished?

3.      How did we treat other children, siblings or neighborhood friends? Ere we ever the bully, or were we at the mercy of a bully?

4.      Did we have normal or above normal feelings of being lonely of frustrated? What did we do about it? (Note to leader: Do not allow participants to voice any informal analyses of other participants. This is NOT group therapy.)

5.      Can we admit any prejudices we may have now toward groups of people? Have any of us succeeded in overcoming prejudices? What societal frustrations hit us today: Vietnam war? Escalating prices? Racial crises? Can we share any personal frustration of disillusionment?

6.      What is meant by scapegoating?

CLOSING: What is it that helps us to live with our frustrations, rather that hurting others? Can we share our philosophy of life, some inspiring words, or special hope for the future?

Institutional racism. Introduction by leader: Without defining racism at this point, let us look at the main institutions we have been a part of since birth – home, school, church and business.

1.      What was or earliest contact in our home with people from other races, religions, and countries? Were these contacts on a basis of mutual respect, equality, even of appreciation and love? As a child did  we feel differently about these contacts that did our parents our other adults?

2.      What experiences come back, showing that as children we were “open” to the different person or the stranger? Do we express these feelings? Or did we conform and finally come to feel the same way as so many of the adults around us felt? Can we ask similar questions about our experiences in school, church, and business world?

3.      Black consciousness and Black Power. To respond creatively is to strive to restrain, at least temporarily, whatever adverse feelings we may have toward anyone, to try to put ourselves into his shoes, to feel with him. If we can do this as whites in or relationships with blacks, perhaps some new, creative ideas about black consciousness and Black Power may be engendered within us, Because music and poetry are so effective in strengthening these positive and potentially creative feelings, we utilized such recordings as these:

Big Bill Brooszy Sings Folk Songs, FA2328A and FG3586B, Folkways Records (165 West 46^th Street, New York, N.Y.).

The Glory of Negro History, Narrated by Langston Hughes, FC7752A, Folkways Records.

Tapes and recordings of sermons and addresses of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., available from Martin Luther King Speaks, Inc., 260 Audubon Avenue, Suite 32G, New York, N.Y. 10033

What can we do? How can we prepare ourselves? Do we need to deepen our spiritual roots to understand and control our own feelings, especially anger?

DISCUSSION RESOURCES: These thought- and discussion-provoking materials were given to the Ecumenical Task Force leaders for suggested use with their participants. Additional sources of similar materials will be found in the Bibliography.

1.      Statement of Jesus: “I am the vine, ye are the branches.” What other biblical statements assure us that all peoples are a part of one organic whole, and therefore when one part suffers, all parts suffer? How is this universal truth expressed in other faiths- Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism? Teilhard de Chardin rejoices that, because combining of individuals and races, “The only climate in which man can continue to grow,” he observes, “is that of devotion and self-denial in a spirit of brotherhood; in truth, at the rate that the consciousness and the ambitions of the world are increasing, it will explode unless it learns love.”

Are we trying to radiate these or similar spiritual truths to all around us in words which they can understand? This may demand special efforts to share these truths as never before with our close friends and relatives. Can we engage strangers on buses, on sidewalks, in parks, or anywhere in such conversations?

2.                  When our white friends express anger against all blacks because of the violent actions of some blacks, it is wise to permit the anger to be expressed, but to try to redirect it against the true causes of our frustrations and anger today – the war, high taxation, inadequate incomes to meet family needs, social injustices of all kinds, How can anger be channeled for personal and societal growth via “righteous indignation”?

Whenever we bring friends and acquaintances together in formal or informal groups, perhaps in purely social gatherings in our homes, we can utilize the occasion to help them develop a better understanding of the plight of our Negro, Puerto Rican, Indian, Mexican, and Oriental citizens. We should forearm ourselves with facts and present them in whatever ways are most natural and effective for us to use.

It could be pointed out, for example, that most race riots occur in city ghettos. Do we really know what it is like to be forced to live under ghetto conditions? We should have at our fingertips data such as these about Newark, N.J. (or other similar ghetto cities. Preferably ones as close to home as possible):

Newark has the highest grime rate, the highest tuberculosis and maternal mortality rate, the highest substandard housing rate for any city its sixe in the country, and the lowest per capita income. The unemployment rate is 8.2% as against 3.8% for the rest of the country. In the ninth to twelfth grades, the dropout rate is 32%. [These data worsened after Ecumenical Task Force sessions were held.]

Nothing done in the past twenty years has directly touched the plight and hardships of the majority of blacks – not civil rights marches, nor the recent enactment of civil rights laws, nor the several court decisions that have undergirded the legislation. These positive forces still have not removed the roots of the hopelessness and despair felt by blacks. We should not attempt to apologize for or excuse the episodes of violence; but we should explain the causes to our friends, and remind them that responsible Negro leaders assert that 95% of the blacks oppose rioting. Do we know the names of these leaders, read their writings, or printed interviews; go to meetings where they are speaking? Shouldn’t we seek such leaders out in our won communities and offer them whatever help they need and want from us?

3.                  In these discussions with our friends we should be prepared to present facts about valuable contributions blacks have made to American life and to western culture generally. Such examples serve to reveal the potentials which our faith in them and our giving them truly equal opportunities could release among blacks. Beyond citing outstanding Negroes, we can point to the fact that the unpaid labor of black slaves helped to transform the Southern wilderness into prosperous plantations some two endured years earlier that whites alone could have done it. We can also cite the musical contributions which have permeated our culture: spirituals, jazz, blues, folk songs, and much of the rock and folk-rock music of the younger generation. Many of the lyrics reflect a profound sense of social injustices and “establishment” hypocrisy, and often at the same time reveal great hopes for changes today and tomorrow.

4.                  Bring into the open our own fears as well as those of others, relating to major areas of life.

Work. So we unconsciously fear the economic competition when blacks and other minority groups are given equal employment opportunities? If so, we should understand that the chief causes of general unemployment are inadequate educational preparation for jobs, dislocations caused by automation which necessitate job retraining, the reduction of buying power caused by inflation, increased taxation, high interest rates for loans and home mortgages, etc. – all of which apply equally to white and black youth and adults.

Education. Do we fear the lowering of educational standards for our children when de facto school segregation is eradicated? Our far-seeing educators insist that this need not be so if we will give adequate financial support for enrichment programs, sufficient guidance counseling personnel, and remedial specialists to pull the disadvantaged students up to the level of the advantaged. This, they maintain, can provide good quality education for all pupils.

Marriage. Do we fear the possibility of intermarriage if blacks become completely integrated into all phases of American life? There is, of course, no biological reason to prevent intermarriage. Much race mixing has already taken place in American life, most of it prior to the Civil War. Statistics show that there is less now but sociologists observe that new attitudes toward intermarriage are emerging, particularly among the younger generation. It is both a cultural and a sociological problem. What is needed is more premarital counseling and better education in family life so that any marriage will have a better chance of being successful.

EARLY RESULTS (as reported by the coordinator)

Home groups often went on informally for hours after the evening’s Group Conversation was over. For many participants, this was their first experience in an interracial social situation.

One white woman, born in England and married to an American Negro, said, “I never knew people could be so nice. People have acted awful to me ever since I’ve been married.”

A black who grew up in Harlem told a group the story of his childhood. His sharing of theses memories was so effective that the group decided to start a Street Academy in their city in cooperation with the city’s Youth Board.

In the sixth week, all “home” group members were convened in a large meeting room, Almost immediately, 75 people signed up for local volunteer work; examples: some participated in the Street Academy; some surveyed pricing practices in local supermarkets; some helped to organize a center for welfare mothers. A leadership training workshop for volunteers won 30 recruits.

ONGOING RESULTS: A teenage coffee house; a series of Catholic-Protestant dialogues; a continuing Group Conversation training program in a Presbyterian church. [Most volunteers are still working in the various projects which they joined.]