Dear Nancie Given the challenging nature of some responses to your message, I am wondering how open the space feels for you right now?
I am also wondering if this open space requires protecting, how open is it? Thankyou for your courage, which I encourage. Bryan K. **************************************************************************** ************** "Things are probably not as simple as that" -Sigmund Freud Bryan Kidd HyPerformance Team Works Melbourne Australia [email protected] ---------- > From: biver <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Subject: Racism and Open Space > Date: Wednesday, 19 April 2000 0:08 > > Hi folks! > > I'm new to Open Space and have been exploring it as a way to build > university-community relationships. This has given me the opportunity and the > necessity to take a serious look at racism and the way it is affecting us - in terms > of who has power, how service systems ultimately breed dependency, debilitating > affects of the criminal justice system, just to name a few things. I'm also new to > understanding the construct of institutionalized racism in the US. So I've been > thinking about the role Open Space does/could play in all of this. I can see how > open space can provide a way out of our racist constructs in that - it breaks down > power. Anyone willing to take personal responsibility can have power. But where > I'm wondering about the limitations includes that many of the groups that we > collectively work with are doing open space within their own boxes - that is, Public > health is still public health talking about how they can do health to poor > communities rather than inviting those directly affected to participate in the open > space. This is clearly a limitation.... not sure what to do with it and what it > means for open space collectively... > > I'm also wondering if there are any people of color out there in open space land > benefitting from the monetary fruits and labor of open space. And if not, why not? > As this has been my year to begin to become more politically and socially aware, I > can't help but notice that in the United States the environmental movement, the > spirituality/new age movement, the sustainability movement, and community service > movement include mostly white people. Is the Open Space movement the same way? > This book that I'm reading called Undoing Racism says that until we "undo racism" > that everything else that we do will be for the benefit of white people. That was > obviously true with the women's movement - we should have called it the white > women's movement. I am also noticing the community service movement includes a > majority of white people - incidently doing service mostly for people of color. Is > the Open Space movement capable of taking us out of the boxes that we're doing open > space in - you know what I'm saying?? Can Open Space move the movement beyond > racism as well as the limiting organizations/business we're working with? > > I would be very receptive to some dialogue about this. Open Space and Racism seem > to be the focal points of my research that I'm wrapping up and can't help but > question things.... And it seems like an important thing to question... > > > Nancie T. Biver > National Service Fellow > America's Promise and Higher Education > [email protected] > www.tulane.edu/~amerprom > 504-862-8000 x1538 > New Orleans, LA > > "There are those who see the world as it is and ask, Why? And there are those who > see the world as it could be and ask, Why not?" -George Bernard Shaw
