first impulse behind these efforts may have been to inoculate people against racism , so they could be purged of bias once and for all . But as people began to realize the complexity of the issues , and the increasing diversity of their communities , they began to see this as valuable , ongoing work . Instead of settling for a level playing field , where everyone would be treated uniformly by teachers , judges , principals , and police , communities began trying to build arenas where the players acknowledged differences openly , cooperated continually , and recognized each other as equals . In so doing , citizens and local leaders began to see race as a mandate for democratic governance . “ There is a kind of natural progression here ,” says Roger Stancil , city manager of Fayetteville , North Carolina . “ When you get different kinds of people talking to each other , they figure out they have interests in common and they start to act on them . They realize that they won ’ t always agree , but they want to help each other anyway , and they begin to see how important it is that everyone is at the table .” Changing the table ? But while the efforts to engage citizens on race may have brought more people to the table , they may not have changed the table itself . That is , the tactics of successful small-group processes , proactive network-based recruitment , and collaborative action were not incorporated into the way that official public meetings are structured , or even the way that crime watch groups and neighborhood associations operate . Those productive engagement tactics are still used , perhaps more than ever , but they occur almost entirely within the context of temporary projects that focus on a crisis or controversial policy decision . In her essay , “ Participatory Democracy Revisited ,” Carole Pateman argues that most examples of public participation today “ leave intact the conventional institutional structures and political meaning of ‘ democracy .’” They do not , in her words , “ democratize democracy .” In the absence of these more systemic changes , for most American cities the benefits of public engagement on race may have been meaningful but temporary . Certainly the fraying of policecommunity relations , the evidence of racial profiling by officers , and the persistence of race-based achievement gaps in student test scores do not demonstrate great progress in our efforts to build more cohesive and equitable communities . As we consider how we might move forward , in the United States and in other countries , we should bear in mind the natural link between engagement and race , as well as the unfinished business of engagement on race . In order to bring people together on all kinds of issues , you have to acknowledge the differences between people , affirm that all cultures and groups are valued , and give people a sense that their past experiences with discrimination and bias will be rectified , or at least not repeated . In turn , it is difficult to make progress on issues of race without bringing a diverse array of people to the table . The two enterprises , improving engagement and increasing intercultural understanding , complement and probably require one another . Meanwhile , people trying to engage citizens , on race or any other issue , should be thinking about the long term and not just the decision or crisis of the
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