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people were involved in the project. In the small-group dialogues, participants had talked about the fact that one lowincome neighborhood had no grocery store, forcing residents to shop for food at convenience stores. A task force set up at the action forum began working with the city, the county, a local supermarket chain, and a minority business development organization to explore the idea of a new grocery store. The task force members, several of whom had business expertise, conducted a market survey and drafted a ﬁnancing plan. They found that the city and the minority business development group were arguing about how to spend their Community Development Block Grant funds. The task force helped to settle the dispute and promote the shopping center idea as a way to provide job oppor- tunities and basic services for lowincome citizens. Two years later, the Dunbar Shopping Center was built. As these programs proliferated, local leaders realized the importance of involving rank-and-ﬁle public employees in the small-group discussions. When teachers, police ofﬁcers, social workers, or city planners were in the room, the solution ideas developed by the group were usually more informed and more inﬂuential. Action efforts were more likely to succeed because they were backed by stronger citizen-government relationships. Challenging assumptions about race As these processes proliferated during the 1990s and early 2000s, they seemed to be challenging three basic assumptions about race: 1- The participants in these processes were questioning the notion that racism is just an easily identifiable, individual sin – that we are all either racists or nonracists. When people take a closer look, they usually begin to see racism as a blurry spectrum, a series of individual and institutional biases that get progressively more inaccurate and damaging. Rodney King’s question, “Can’t we all just get along?,” was a basic plea for tolerance, but once citizens begin to talk about race, they usually go much farther than that, addressing complex issues of institutional racism as well as simpler forms of prejudice. 2- Participants were examining the belief that we should learn to tolerate, compensate for, and eventually ignore the cultural differences between us. Citizens cherish their cultures and traditions, and want to hold on to them. As they begin to recognize just how diverse their communities are, they often acknowledge that these differences will probably always affect how people interact with each other. Diversity is both a strength and a challenge: sometimes you celebrate diversity, sometimes you have to deal with it, but the challenge is how to do those things effectively, not how you can make differences disappear. 3- People were testing the assumption that a “level playing field,” where every individual has a uniform opportunity at happiness and success, is the best outcome we can hope for. In its place, their actions seem to suggest a field where the players are equal but different, and the focus is on helping them work together. As communities delved deeper into issues of race, and began to make some progress, their motivations for address- ing cultural difference were transformed. Initially, race was a mandate for dialogue and personal growth: the 44

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