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3 - Being the Inclusive Community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

Andrea M. Voyer
Affiliation:
Pace University
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Summary

The Two Towns of Jasper

On October 3 and 4, 2003, I attended my first diversity training conference in Lewiston, Maine. I learned of the event through the sarcastic editorial discussed in Chapter 2, in which the editor of the conservative weekly paper, the Twin City Times, suggested that outsiders considered Lewiston a town of racist “horrible white people” requiring reeducation. I sought out registration information for the event and found a description of the “Lewiston and the Two Towns of Jasper Project” on the website of the Maine chapter of the international anti-racist organization hosting the event:

[We, the organization] invite community members to an open discussion about race.

On June 7, 1998, in Jasper, Texas, James Byrd Jr., an African American man, was brutally murdered – dragged behind a pick-up truck. The crime became the basis for a documentary film about race in America – “Two Towns of Jasper ...”

We will provide a forum to watch the film ... and discuss the similarities and differences between Jasper, Texas and Lewiston, Maine. We will then lead a process to explore a controversial issue that has caused division in the city enabling people to find common ground, move forward, and find solutions. In addition to the opportunities for dialogue, we will provide a day for individuals to learn about welcoming diversity into their lives.”

I registered for the two-day project, paying the requested fee and explaining my status as an ethnographic researcher in Lewiston to the program leaders and, on the first day of the event, to the other conference participants.

Type
Chapter
Information
Strangers and Neighbors
Multiculturalism, Conflict, and Community in America
, pp. 82 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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References

Louise, F., Driscoll, Denise M., and Field, Susannah C. T.. 2007. “Diversity Training: Putting Theory into Practice.” Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 80:27–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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