How to have courageous conversations about race

In June 2020, we at College Success Foundation declared our commitment to dismantling systemic racism within our work and our organization. To advance our focus on antiracism, our board established an antiracist agenda. This agenda involves actionable steps toward a more inclusive, equitable culture—beginning with the investment in antiracism training for all board members and staff.

Since our declaration, we have required all existing and new members of our national organization to virtually engage in an antiracism training called Courageous Conversation®. Courageous Conversation® is an “award-winning protocol for engaging, sustaining and deepening interracial dialogue” in order to help organizations more effectively and authentically address racial disparities, discrimination, and bias.

The Courageous Conversation® antiracism training

During training sessions, all staff members are remotely led by an expert team of training facilitators who tee up the Courageous Conversation® framework. This framework helps to simplify complex conversations about race into more fruitful dialogue.

We began by examining the significance of race across our history and culture. From there, facilitators introduced several checklists to help us differentiate our beliefs, feelings, thoughts, and actions. By understanding which of these four points-of-view is driving our mindset in a conversation, we can more appropriately communicate where we are coming from.

Courageous Conversation® is centered on four tenants that ground the conversation in respect, honesty, and commitment. Once these tenants are agreed to, the framework encourages participants to more attentively acknowledge immediate subject matter, multiple perspectives, and common definitions. 

Utilizing the framework, we were encouraged to share our own racial perspectives. Together we reflected on collective political trauma. We emphasized heroism of undocumented experiences. We expressed the pressure we feel to do right by students who deserve truth in increasingly censored scholastic environments. In smaller breakout rooms, we learned about one another’s racial, ethnic, and national identities and practiced skills of deep listening and inquiry. Lastly, we examined how the role of whiteness impacts safety, empathy, and fairness within our workplace culture and individual consciousness. 

Antiracism beyond the workplace

Although the daily work of our organization seeks to close the equity gap for low-income students of color, we are eager to more explicitly dismantle the systemic and institutional barriers that prevent true racial justice. It starts with awareness. Thanks to Courageous Conversation®, our ability to deliver our mission of making a college degree attainable for all while standing for our values of equity, inclusion, and continued learning is pushed to new heights.

Learn more about Courageous Conversation® and how you can take part.