For millennia, Evening Prayer ended with “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and defend us from the perils and dangers of the night.” Now, it needs to be changed, because it’s racist.
My Dad was in the Navy in the late ‘60s – early ’70s, as the Navy was rolling out “Race Relations Training”, aka “Prejudice School”. Being the Navy, they didn’t require everyone to go, just that every command send a certain number each year, and usually it was the “New Guy”. Due to random timing of transfers, Dad got to go three times. Said it made him “the most prejudiced man in the Navy”.
The first two were the sort of bland lecture you’d expect. The third time, he said, was really interesting, even though it started out looking like a disaster in the making.
First thing, they separated the groups in the room, Blacks on one side, whites on the other. (Great start, right?). Then they asked each group to write down what they thought of the other, and what they thought the others thought about them (oy!). But then, they went a couple of layers deeper (what you think they think you think…). The discussion then did a good job of bringing out not just your own preconceptions, but your preconceptions of others’ preconceptions. What you believe others think doesn’t match what they actually think, but why do you ascribe those incorrect views to them?
jmworacle over 4 years ago
Change must come from within.
aKG1 over 4 years ago
If everything had changed and mutual respect and understanding resulted then skin color doesn’t matter at that point.
Dani Rice over 4 years ago
For millennia, Evening Prayer ended with “Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, and defend us from the perils and dangers of the night.” Now, it needs to be changed, because it’s racist.
Good Lord, deliver us!
tghllama over 4 years ago
My Dad was in the Navy in the late ‘60s – early ’70s, as the Navy was rolling out “Race Relations Training”, aka “Prejudice School”. Being the Navy, they didn’t require everyone to go, just that every command send a certain number each year, and usually it was the “New Guy”. Due to random timing of transfers, Dad got to go three times. Said it made him “the most prejudiced man in the Navy”.
The first two were the sort of bland lecture you’d expect. The third time, he said, was really interesting, even though it started out looking like a disaster in the making.
First thing, they separated the groups in the room, Blacks on one side, whites on the other. (Great start, right?). Then they asked each group to write down what they thought of the other, and what they thought the others thought about them (oy!). But then, they went a couple of layers deeper (what you think they think you think…). The discussion then did a good job of bringing out not just your own preconceptions, but your preconceptions of others’ preconceptions. What you believe others think doesn’t match what they actually think, but why do you ascribe those incorrect views to them?
So it can work, but it’s not easy.