@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

@futurebird @jduckles
This training was sandwiched between several other types of training for the day. And the day was behind schedule.

So after part 1 of this training, the organizers decided there was no time for part 2. People who had just been insulted or coerced into insulting others were left to sort things out for themselves.

Staff who participated ended up furious with each other (for using slurs) and with the administrators who organized the thing.
3/3