HomeStories and NewsSuccess StoriesSyracuse marks a decade of dialogue to end racism

Syracuse marks a decade of dialogue to end racism

by Julie Fanselow

March 13, 2007 | | Syracuse, New York

Ten years ago, board members of the Syracuse, New York, Community Wide Dialogue planned to spend a year talking about race and racism in their community. They soon realized, however, that one year of dialogue on such an important issue would not be nearly enough. In fact, they decided a decade wouldn’t do it, either.

In 2007, as the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism (CWD) marks its 10th year, leaders report they’re halfway to the goal of having 10,000 people who have talked deeply about race and racism, and who have the skills to take action against the ways racism still hurts the community.

You don’t have to look far for signs of progress. At 7:30 a.m. one snowy winter morning, more than 575 people packed a banquet hall to honor CWD on its 10th anniversary. A giant puppet led a procession of people—all races, all ages, both genders, many religions—to their seats. A community choir sang the gospel classic “When All God’s Children Get Together” and “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent. And Beth Broadway, CWD director, saluted one group that has met regularly ever since it started, 10 years ago.

A slide show flashed glimpses of 10 years of hard work and fun, everything from new friendships forged in dialogue circles to the Duck Race to End Racism—a signature fund-raising event that’s turned into a major community festival. (See sidebar.) Current CWD advisory board co-chairs Shiu-Kai Chin and Jacqueline Jackson-Young paid tribute to founding co-chairs Edward S. Green and William L. Pollard, giving each man—and founding CWD director John Landesman—a kaleidoscope, symbolic of the many colors of Syracuse and the many

different ways of looking at the world. Though they arrived in a dawn snowstorm, the sun was shining when people left the event, re-energized and recommitted to the task of ending racism, and confident they were not doing the work alone.

The Community Wide Dialogue is a project of InterFaith Works of Central New York, formerly known as the InterReligious Council of Central New York. InterFaith Works also runs programs to resettle and support newly arrived refugees; provide chaplains to area institutions; support senior citizens; and develop and manage housing for low-income families and people with disabilities.

In his anniversary breakfast remarks, executive director James Wiggins noted that the new name reflects the growing religious diversity in the Syracuse area, as well as the idea that faith must be accompanied by action. CWD, he added, is InterFaith Works’ “most visible commitment to pursuing racial justice,” noting that interfaith and interracial work go together.

In fact, that’s always been the case in Central New York, which has a long history of working for social change, justice, and empowerment. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and others were pioneers for women’s rights. (The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls, near Syracuse, in 1848.) The Underground Railroad operated throughout the region during the fight to abolish slavery. Six American Indian nations collectively known as the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, have a worldwide reputation as activists for peace and environmental preservation.

CWD continues that tradition. Since its founding 10 years ago, more than 5,000 people—including corporate and community leaders, faith communities, students from elementary schools and 11 high schools, as well as college students—have met in 317 circles. Community support runs strong, with 48 corporate sponsors and 42 nonprofit partners enlisted in the effort. One circle was even televised on local public television station WCNY as a seven-week series, “Facing Racism,” giving viewers a look at 10 of their neighbors sharing their personal struggles and insights.

Here are some other ways dialogue is making a difference in Central New York:

•  

  Third-graders from East Syracuse and Fabius Pompey take part in CWD's exchange program. Courtesy: CWD

  An exchange program pairs third-graders from city schools with their peers in suburban or rural areas. (See sidebar.) Area high schools also have formed partnerships, and a middle school program will launch soon.
• After a study identified racial intolerance as a major barrier to local economic growth, the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York launched a “Corporate Cultures” program to help businesses create and promote diverse workplaces. (See sidebar.) Participants gained an understanding of how structural racism and persistent “white privilege” hurt minority workers. One African American woman who participated with a senior male colleague says it transformed their relationship. “We have this quiet connection,” she says. “He’ll lean over during a meeting and say ‘That’s white privilege,’ and I’ll say, “It really is. Now do something about it.”
• CWD established a spin-off program in the small city of Auburn, New York, 28 miles west of Syracuse, where Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman lived late in her life. Despite its strong abolitionist history, Auburn has experienced tense race relations including a threatened march by neo-Nazis. Organizer Imam Abdur-Rahim Muhammad says the dialogue circles helped diverse Auburn residents view one another as “advocates rather than adversaries,” and work on such issues as lowering the school dropout rate for African Americans. “Hopefully, what we’ll see is not only a better atmosphere, but that our young people have a future in Auburn,” he adds.
• Under the leadership of a new chancellor, Syracuse University has made a strong commitment to on-campus dialogue, in coursework and in the residence halls. (See sidebar.)
•  

  Inmates at a local corrections facility pose for a group shot after completing CWD-sponsored dialogue circles. Courtesy: CWD

  CWD has held dialogue circles for men and women at a local corrections facility. Participants read Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” reflected on their own experiences, and adopted an “Abolish the N-word Contract.” Jail officials said the dialogues had a great impact on morale and on inmates’ ability to respectfully discuss divisive topics.
• Dialogue circles lead to insights and valuable personal connections. After taking part in a circle with several people in the banking industry, the Rev. Nebraski Carter, minister of a predominately black congregation in Syracuse, realized his church could get a better deal than its expensive balloon mortgage.
• Dialogue groups identified the problem of people of color being followed while shopping at a local mall. Participants approached mall management about the issue and worked to create a “Shopper’s Bill of Rights.” Subsequently, a mall manager became a member of the CWD board and donated a $1,000 shopping spree as a top prize for the Duck Race to End Racism.

During his remarks at the anniversary breakfast, CWD co-founder William L. Pollard—now president of the University of the District of Columbia—told the audience of a New York City teen filmmaker, Kiri Davis, who recently recreated the 1950s-era experiment in which black children were asked to choose their favorite doll. Half a century ago, most of them picked a white doll. Fifty years later, Davis’ experiment got the same heartbreaking results.

“We have to talk about the real impact of racism and what it does to our children,” Pollard said. “Why, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, do black kids dislike themselves and believe it’s better to be white?” It’s a maddening question—one that points to a need for more role models for children of color, more recognition of structural racism, and unceasing efforts to create substantive change in all areas of society.

 Beth Broadway and other CWD leaders say they know the road to end racism is one they may well still be on 10 years from now, but they’re willing to keep driving.

 “One of our responsibilities is to keep the community’s attention on the issue,” says Broadway.  “I see us shining a light on the community, whether to say ‘Great job’ or ‘There’s a problem.’ ”

“Facing racism and white privilege is like having a bright light turned on in a darkened room. The light hurts our eyes at first,” she adds. “But eventually, we realize we can see better with the lights on. Once we’ve opened our eyes, we can open our hearts.”

Community Wide Dialogue's ongoing work to end racism

Exchanges unite urban and rural schools

In 2001, a team of adults came to Fabius-Pompey Elementary School—a rural school 23 miles southeast of Syracuse—to award a grant. The children appeared awestruck by one of the visitors, an African American man. Was he a star athlete? An actor?

Principal Jan Barker and her staff were stunned to realize that many of their students had never seen a black person, except on TV or in the movies. They turned to the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism, which—working with the Syracuse City School District—paired Fabius-Pompey with Edward Smith Elementary, a multiracial school in Syracuse.

Six years later, the partnership is thriving. Over several months, third graders at both schools prepare for their meetings, exchanging letters and photos, and talking about ways their lives are different and the same. Finally, students gather, one day at Fabius-Pompey and another at Ed Smith, where—in small, diverse groups—they read a book about skin color, play games, and make drawings using markers in the full spectrum of skin colors. Parents from both schools volunteer for the exchange, so they, too, have the opportunity to meet “and experience their children’s wonderment and discovery,” says Andrea Barnwell, CWD associate director.

“I see the benefit of the partnerships and the collaboration most importantly for the kids, but also for the staff and the community,” adds Anthony Tolbert, the former principal at Edward Smith who is now director of elementary education for the Syracuse City Schools.

The school exchange program continues to grow. In 2002, Rob Hughes, then an assistant principal from suburban Fayetteville-Manlius High School, took students to Syracuse to see the Ernest J. Gaines play A Lesson Before Dying. “But he wanted to do more,” notes Sheryl Aiello, a CWD board member and educational consultant. CWD arranged for the school to join forces with Nottingham High School, in Syracuse, for dialogues. The two schools remain partners, eight other area high schools have done exchanges, and a middle school pilot project is planned for spring 2007. High school dialogue circles are led by pairs of teen facilitators, with an adult standing by, for support.

Through these partnerships, CWD has circled back to a question first posed in the early days of dialogue in Syracuse: “What kind of a community do we want for our children?” One answer may well be: The kind of community where children from all walks of life can talk, play, and learn from one another, free of fear and misconceptions.

Back to the top

Dialogue is on the rise at Syracuse U.

Most college classes are heavy on lecture and light on student participation. It’s just the opposite in the Intergroup Dialogue classes at Syracuse University. In these three-credit courses—offered through the sociology and women’s studies departments—students share personal stories and learn to live more effectively in a multicultural society.

No one falls asleep in these classes. In fact, for many students, this is an eye-opening experience—their misconceptions shattered by their classmates’ stories, as well as by their own moments of personal sharing. One particularly powerful exercise uses a visual and tactile aid, the “Web of Oppression,” to tie together the many ways prejudice still permeates our lives. 

The web includes cards with thought-provoking statistics revealing, for example, that the poverty rate for African American children in Syracuse is more than double that for white children, and that two-thirds of the Onondaga County residents who screen positive for elevated levels of lead in the blood are black.

“They come to realize that white privilege and oppression for people of color is part of the ‘air pollution’ we all breathe,” says Judy Hamilton, who directs the Intergroup Dialogue Research Project on campus (and who earlier introduced dialogue to SU via the Honors Program). Syracuse is one of 10 universities taking part in the Multi-University Intergroup Dialogue Research Project, designed to learn more about how college students grapple with issues of race, and to develop a rich curriculum to guide those explorations. (See more about the project.)

James “Dr. D” Duah-Agyeman, director of SU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, says students continue to question assumptions about race, long after the class ends. Recently, Dr. D received a letter from a Syracuse grad who recalls the course as among the most powerful of his college career. Duah-Agyeman adds that the class has a similar effect on its facilitators, noting, “These classes continue to challenge me to be in tune with my own thinking and my own ‘hot buttons.’ ”

The course is one sign that dialogue is becoming part of the culture on campus. Another is the Conversations About Race and Ethnicity (CARE) program, which invites students to take part in residence hall dialogues and follow up their dialogue with an action project.

Created jointly by the Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism and Syracuse University, CARE dialogues on campus are an example of how CWD dialogue circles are becoming embedded within organizations in the Syracuse community. In fact, completing the CARE program is now a requirement for every residence hall advisor at SU. “It’s important for us as we try to set a tone for the residence halls,” says Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz, director of the Office of Residence Life at SU. If students can talk about deep subjects, “then hopefully small issues like noise will be easier to handle,” she adds.

Another project, the Diversity Institute, is a full day of on-campus activities involving the SU campus and students from the CWD high school exchange program. It serves as a kickoff for classes on race and culture at the high schools, and offers college students the chance to help other young people learn how to have meaningful dialogues on these issues.

University faculty and staff credit Chancellor Nancy Cantor, who arrived on campus in 2004, for insisting that dialogue become a bigger part of the university’s mission, as well as for breaking down barriers between campus and community. “I just feel we’re incredibly lucky,” Hamilton says. “The Community Wide Dialogue is 10 years old and more visible, and Nancy Cantor’s arrival is bringing us into the community. It’s like the stars are lined up right now. It boggles my mind what might be possible.”

Back to the top

 

'Don’t duck racism!’

Lots of communities have a duck race for charity every year, but only one has a Duck Race to End Racism. This annual fund raiser for Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism has grown in five short years to be one of Syracuse’s favorite summer events—the “place to be” on the second Saturday in June.

The Duck Race to End Racism started with modest ambitions. “We thought we’d raise $10,000 and call it a day,” says CWD director Beth Broadway. But fueled by an enthusiastic and creative army of volunteers, the event quickly morphed from a simple sweepstakes, featuring toy bathtub ducks, to one also boasting beautiful life-size “decoy”-style ducks. The former are sponsored by donation; the latter are decorated and donated both by area businesses and by third-grade classrooms. (Fifty-three classes took part in 2006, up from 17 the first year.)

Race Day also brings a parade, lots of goofy costumes, international entertainment, a food court, featuring free ice cream from Byrne Dairy (a local dairy that supports CWD), and much more. In 2006, 1,500 people turned out under sleet-filled skies to cheer on the ducks and raise $76,000 for the Community Wide Dialogue. In 2007, organizers hope to raise $100,000—half of CWD’s annual budget.

The Duck Race to End Racism has inspired other interesting projects. One teacher from a mostly white suburban school said her students didn’t simply want to decorate a duck. They wanted to meet children from other backgrounds, so they started a school exchange program independent of CWD.

The event gets strong support from business. Organizers encourage Duck Race corporate sponsors to do more than give money: they are asked to take a look at how they might increase diversity and eliminate racism within their own companies.

Melanie Littlejohn, an executive at National Grid, says the happy childlike image of a rubber duck (sometimes accompanied by the slogan “Don’t duck racism”) offers a fun way to help citizens grasp the serious idea of ending racism. “The Duck Race is something everyone can rally around,” she says. “Everyone wants a better world for kids.”

Back to the top

 

Businesses commit to ending workplace racism

By Beth Broadway

In 2004, the Metropolitan Development Association (MDA), a business leadership and economic development agency for the Syracuse region, launched The Essential New York Initiative to address the transformation of Central New York to a knowledge-based economy. The findings included:

• A region’s quality of place, its reputation for tolerance, and its cultural diversity play important roles in attracting and retaining members of the creative class.
• Central Upstate New York lacks significant diversity, threatening the region’s competitive position.
•  In the past 10 years, the Syracuse metro area saw an increase in total African American population, yet lost college-educated African Americans.

Catalytix, a company that helps foster creative local economies, found that the Central Upstate New York region performed poorly in measures of tolerance and diversity compared to other key regions. The evidence was clear: If the region is to compete in an increasingly diverse world, it is essential to acknowledge the problem and take steps to address it.

To that end, the Metropolitan Development Association and Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism formed a partnership to promote diversity and understanding across the color line. Five dialogue circles were held in the past year with leaders of fifteen different businesses, community organizations, faith communities, and elected officials. Companies committed to:

• Improve recruitment strategies in order to attract a more racially diverse candidate pool;
• Increase the number of new hires and management trainee positions for people of color;
• Build diversity and inclusive corporate work environments into strategic plans;
• Allow employees the opportunity to volunteer for inner city agencies that serve youth in order to level the playing field for all children;
• Encourage their employees to participate in dialogue circles with CWD.

All five groups met at a summit to hear the results of the circles and a report on an extensive evaluation conducted by Syracuse University. It was an ideal opportunity for all group members to recommit to the work of ending racism in the workplace.

This was only a beginning. In 2007, the Community Wide Dialogue will hold two new dialogues between corporate and community leaders, in conjunction with the MDA.

Back to the top

Learn more: Racial Equity

Tell us your story now!