About Dunwoody reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 2020)
Community | 7 DECEMBER 2020 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net I Conditions: Build or renovate your pool with us and, get a firepit for free". 20% OFF ON ALL POOL CHEMICALS Pool chemicals. Filters. Pumps. Decks. Pavers, tiles and all pool supplies. 8610 Roswell Road, Suite 630 - Sandy Springs - Ga - 30350 470-395-6903 - ruberson@rumostileandpool.com www.rumospoolandspa.com 404-781-0325 Many Services * Online Booking Available www.facebook.com/gehairartists 227 Sandy Springs Place, Suitze 524 Sandy Springs ELEGANT Full Service Hair Salon Specializing in Cut & Color Our Artists are Educated in all Thank you for supporting these local businesses! As Civic Dinners booms, some question diversity, open meetings issues BY JOHN RUCH Civic Dinners is enjoying a boom in the meeting business that has made the Atlan ta-based start-up virtually synonymous with post-protest racial dialogues in such local communities as Sandy Springs. Governments and other organizations praise it as an off-the-shelf method for quick ly gathering hundreds of people to discuss tough topics and inspire new policies. But some participants question Civic Dinners’ own diversity and expertise, especially on ra cial issues. And its inherently private structure may run afoul of state open-meetings laws and other government transparency guarantees. Civic Dinners has been a “highly successful” engagement method, especially for mil- lennials, at the Atlanta Regional Commission, according to Malika Reed Wilkins, di rector of the organization’s Center for Strategic Relations. “It was certainly an innova tive way for us, the ARC, to get input on some of the key regional issues,” Wilkins said. One Civic Dinners participant, a Black woman who asked to remain anonymous, said that, especially on racial issues, the method is too “mild and conservative” and fails to challenge preconceptions of those who join. “We live in a racist society, and not everybody agrees on that point whatsoever,” the participant said. “...I think the thing that’s most appealing for governments [about Civ ic Dinners] is, it’s easy. And easy is not going to solve it.” Jenn Graham, Civic Dinners’ founder and CEO, says she piloted the “structured dia logue” program in 2014 at the ARC while working as a consultant. It uses a dinner-par ty format, with a volunteer host attempting to gather a small but diverse group, each member of which voices their answer to pre-selected topical questions. The method is rooted in dinners in private homes, but has been expanded to large conference-style meetings. In the pandemic, the business has shifted to a virtual platform that Graham says will remain available long-term. Graham did not invent the dinner-meeting concept. In the mid-1990s, “Chicago Din ners” about race and racism were held by a social-justice nonprofit in that city. The Chi cago model has inspired other programs, such as the “Dinners by Design” conducted by Yale University psychologist Dietra Hawkins. Civic Dinners began its own “Inclusive Series” about bias and diversity due to the interest of corporate clients, Graham said. Those topics are helping to drive Civic Dinners’ boom into an international busi ness. Earlier this year, the city of Sandy Springs began an ongoing racial dialogue using Civic Dinners, which drew about 250 participants and is already credited with inspir ing a city “inclusion and diversity commission.” For next year, Graham said, the busi ness has been hired to facilitate Atlanta policing meetings involving the Atlanta Police Foundation and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Civic Dinners is also the platform hired by a similar but separate program called Equitable Dinners that began last year in Decatur but is also expanding rapidly to na tional programming. Equitable Dinners is inspired by Hawkins’ model and is focused on “dismantling racism,” says Adria Kitchens, the program’s manager. An affiliate of Out of Hand Theatre, it incorporates a brief theatrical performance to jumpstart the dialogue. It was set to hold 500 dinners in Atlanta this year before the pandemic post poned the plan. In Sandy Springs and elsewhere, some participants have questioned the diversity of the dinners themselves and the reliance on amateur hosts instead of expert facilitators and note-takers, who can be hired but are not part of the basic package. In Atlanta’s ac tivism scene, some organizers have noted that Civic Dinners is itself a White-led orga nization whose method may encode biases and assumptions, such as preferring “inclu sion” to systemic change. The anonymous participant, who joined a Civic Dinners discussion about White privilege roughly two years ago, said she felt “uncomfortable” with answers given by White participants who appeared to view their mere attendance as a “badge of cour age.” The method prohibited participants from questioning or challenging each oth er on such topics as diversity terminology or claims to have abandoned racist beliefs, she said. “People were just sharing, and that was it,” she said. “There was just not a learning moment.” Graham said that the diversity of her own staff is something she thinks about “all the time” and is “high on my list” to improve. “Right now, we have only two African Americans on our team out of 14,” she said, though that small team also includes three people who are Asian, one who is Latino and four who identify as LGBTQ. Continued on page 8
