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DECEMBER 2020 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net
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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.
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