And Then Satan Said:

We are going to separate into breakout groups of five people, after 8 min. each group will present what they discussed in the main group.

@futurebird genuinely curious: is it any better for you if the report out from the group is done in a document, and nobody is put on the spot to report out? I guess I’m asking which part is the most annoying in the experience for you.

@jduckles

I think the annoying part is that the topics being discussed are either:

1. too complex to hash out in 8 min
2. too vague and poorly defined so all you get are pithy platitudes

I've been asked to develop an anti-racism policy like this, to discuss how to make a school community welcoming, just wild stuff for the format--

It's OK for helping people get to know each other, or for the most surface level kinds of consensus building.

I guess it's the feeling time is being wasted.

@futurebird @jduckles
This brings to mind a horror story/cautionary tale:

In the early 2000s, a friend told me of an incident where some (white and cleanly clueless) college residence life administrators were tasked with coming up with and implementing a diversity training program for staff.
1/x

@futurebird @jduckles
Not sure where they got the idea for this specific exercise, but what they came up with consisted of two parts:

1) Break out group members were required to share all the slurs they could think of regarding each other.

2) Then they would discuss their feelings about these words.

Already this sounds like a possibility recipe for things to go badly (as some staff warned the organizers). But they went ahead with it anyway and it gets worse:
2/x

@PTR_K oh my god