START THE CONVERSATION
The disproportionate rate at which people of color are harmed in interactions with the police is a difficult reality to confront. If you’re on the I Fear for My Life website, you want to see things change—for the better. As you begin this journey, it’s important to set the right T.O.N.E. These steps should help you as you think through this topic, which we encourage you to do as a conversation and dialogue with others.
Set the T.O.N.E.
T = Team Up: Who are the people who you can learn with? Who are the people you can be in conversation with as you seek to understand the issues that have created so much fear in so many different communities? Who would be interested in partnering with you in your community to form the core of a working group dedicated to increasing the safety and security of all members of the community?
O = Open-up: Be open to new ideas and perspectives, to hearing beliefs and world views with which you do not agree. Trust that the people offering their perspectives are not trying to antagonize or be disrespectful to you. Listen for the things you may have in common.
N = Network: Be careful not to create an echo chamber as you move more deeply into the conversation. Solutions often come from having people at the table who come at the problem from different directions. Seek out other individuals and organizations who share the goal of increasing the safety and security of people in the community even if they have very different ideas about how to get there.
E = Engage: Engage the I Fear for My Life site individually and in community. How can we move toward reimagining what’s possible while learning from one another, growing together, and decreasing the fear that leads to destructive outcomes?
Begin the Conversation:
As you set the T.O.N.E., you’re preparing to enter dialogue about one of the most urgent issues of contemporary times. In the first video Dr. Chenelle Jones offers some suggestions for how to have those conversations with others as a way to strengthen your community. In the second video Ms. Kendra Goheen offers additional insight on how to move the conversation from one of reaction to a place of peaceful response.
As an organizer or facilitator, you may not know who is entering the space you’ve created or what their level of preparedness is to have these conversations with you. In addition to the resources on this site, having a deep toolbag to engage your audience and participants is essential to building a welcoming environment where people can feel both challenged and supported. Here are a couple we recommend:
Choose your Focus
This site offers you a variety of ways in, and invites you to consider multiple perspectives as the foundation for building community and consensus about the need for changes that will lessen fear and increase safety during police interactions with citizens. With a topic as heated and complex as this one, we encourage you to choose a focus for your group so that you and others do not feel overwhelmed by the work. If you’re looking for suggestions as to how to proceed, we offer 3 stages as a basic blueprint of how a group might progress through the content on the site.
Stage 1: To get started we suggest that you begin by identifying or building a group that is interested in having this conversation. As you build the group that will think about these issues together, use the materials on this site as a starting point for conversation and dialogue. The video and questions that we used in our conversations with young people can be the basis for your early exchanges, too.
-
What is the role of the police in our society? Are they doing what they are there to do, in your opinion?
-
Which one or two cases of police killings of an unarmed black person stand out in your mind? Why? How did you find out about those cases? What details do you remember from the case? Generally, how do people your age find out when one of these incidents happens?
-
How has the steady stream of such killings, in a short period of time, make you feel? How are you feeling now? What kinds of conversations about these incidents do you have with your friends and family? Who gets how you’re feeling? Who doesn’t quite understand
your feelings?
-
If you were about to have a minor encounter of some sort (traffic stop, police called to party, seeing them in mall while you’re shopping, etc) with an officer, what would go through your mind? How do you think would you act and why?
-
Imagine the person who is your opposite in every way that you can imagine. How might that person be feeling about these same incidents?
Stage 2: We’re hoping that after you’ve had some conversations in your community centered around the I Fear video and questions that we’ve asked focus groups, you’ll find that you want to continue to work together to understand the complexity of the issues represented on the site. When you believe your group is ready to continue, engage some additional resources available on the site.
Case Studies - as you consider one or more of the Case Studies, there are questions at the end of each Case Study that your group can use to begin your exploration.
Timeline of cases not represented not represented on the site - The timeline included at the end of the Case Study page includes other deadly encounters between law enforcement and African Americans. Your group could choose any of those cases to explore on your own, following the model that is provided on the site to engage each other in substantive conversation. What are the issues raised by each case you consider? Are there commonalities with other cases? What turned the encounter to a deadly one and what could prevent future outcomes like this? How would others in your community answer that question?
Widening the Frame – Widening the Frame includes a collection of resources that you and/or your group can work with as you think more deeply about the issue of police use of deadly force.
Next Steps: From Dialogue to Action
Stage 3
If you and your community group have made it through the Choose a Focus section of the I Fear for My Life site, you know the work before us is not only to understand how we have arrived at the place we find ourselves as a community and society, but also to begin the challenging work of imagining and enacting meaningful change that will lessen the fear that structures police interactions with citizens of color.
As your group continues to work together, we encourage you to also engage the important work of imagining solutions. The resources we offer here could be great conversation starters themselves, and might spark some transformative thinking and planning for a better future.
Building personal understanding and community dialogue is a process that is likely to take time.
At any stage in your community dialogues, you can choose to expand the reach of your group by inviting others to the conversation.