Description
Book SynopsisUsing anecdotes from her practice as a licensed psychologist and as an African American growing up in the South, Walker provides a way for educators and social service professionals to enter into cross-racial discussions about race and race relations. She identifies three essential relational skills for personal transformation and cultural healing.
Table of Contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The “It” Without a Name
- A Brief Survey of Race (as an Essentialist Concept) in America
- The Complexity of Everyday Racialized Interactions: Jo and the Clerk at the Convenience Store
- Race as a Relational Dynamic
- November Morning Redux and the “It-ness” of It All
- So Who Do You Think You Are?
- Reflections
- 2. When the Culture Hurts
- Racial Stratification
- Race and Neuroscience/Your Brain on Race
- Race and the “Dose” Effect
- Beyond the Barrier: Race Dialogues
- Systemic and Built-In Privilege
- Two Models of Human Engagement: Relational-Cultural Theory and Racial Identity Theory
- Multiple-Voiced Narratives
- Reflections
- 3. Race and Place: What’s Power Got to Do with It?
- Power and Powerlessness in Identity Narratives
- Power-Over
- Race, Place, and Power
- Reflections
- 4. Mascots, Missionaries, and Other Illusions of Power-Over
- Strategies of Disconnection
- Internalized Dominance
- Internalized Oppression
- Strategies of Disconnection and Illusions of Power-over
- Reflections
- 5. Sticks and Stones and Words That Hurt
- Aversive Racism
- Language as Codified Racism
- False Narratives
- 21st-Century Linguistic Dilemmas: The “N” Word
- Reflections
- 6. Disruptive Empathy: Beyond “I Feel Your Pain”
- Disruptive Empathy
- The ARC of Empathy
- A Story I Would Rather Not Tell
- Reflections
- 7. Mindful Authenticity
- Mindful Authenticity
- The Three C Mindset
- Mindful Authenticity and Self-Disclosure
- Mindful Authenticity and Productive Conflict
- One True Thing
- Showing Up for Your Own Truth
- Doing Authenticity: Four Simple Practices
- Holding Contradictory Truths
- Reflections
- 8. Dynamic Mutuality: Empowering Action in a Relationship
- Action in Relationship
- Understanding and Misunderstanding Dynamic Mutuality
- Dynamic Mutuality in Practice
- Dynamic Mutuality Is Not Synonymous with Compromise
- Strategies of Disconnection to Resist Dynamic Mutuality
- The Sound of One Hand Clapping and Other Caveats
- Reflections
- 9. Say It Isn’t So . . . and Other Race-Card Games
- Ideological Force Fields
- The “Silencers”
- A Few More Words about Race-Card Games
- Reflections
- 10. Nine Rules for Remaking the Meaning of Race
- Five Good Things: Clarity, Creativity, Zest, A Sense of Mattering, and A Desire for More Connection
- Rule 1: Pay attention to your body: Pause, then breathe your way into new racial narratives.
- Rule 2: Become curious about the multiple racial narratives in your head. You don’t have to believe or act on them.
- Rule 3: If you find yourself becoming highly reactive in a racialized encounter, ask yourself if some deep background story from your own life is getting triggered.
- Rule 4: Acknowledge the necessity of good conflict, and then give yourself permission to set the terms of the interaction.
- Rule 5: Recognize when “wanting to win” is driving the interaction.
- Rule 6: When an interaction approaches an impasse, say one true thing.
- Rule 7: Question the norms . . . notice what surprises you.
- Rule 8: Be willing to learn.
- Rule 9: Know when to walk away.
- Reflections
- 11. An Enlarged Vision of Human Possibility
- About Allies and Racial Privilege
- Remaking the Meaning of Race in Our Lives: A Few Final Words
- References
- Index
- About the Author
