Race Conversations Blitz Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Enquirer has launched a historic blitz of neighborhood conversations about race that hopes to reach every city, village, township and neighborhood in the region, 145 in all.

The goal is to get people talking about – and maybe doing something about – racial tensions in a city where the April shooting of an unarmed teen-ager sparked allegations of police misconduct and the worst rioting in 30 years.
Last month, four weeks into our effort, 131 neighborhood groups had signed up and 52 had already met. Everyday on the Metro front, we run a report from a conversation, communicating in drumbeat style what people are planning to do to ease racial tensions.

Most exciting is that more than half of those who have met have decided to meet again to do something as a group.

After the riots, we wanted to add to our coverage of breaking news, investigations and powerful storytelling to contribute something as a leader and a citizen. We sought out some tools of civic journalism to do this – tools that were relatively new to our newsroom.

Moreover, we started developing this civic muscle in the midst of a big, running story – spanning a police slowdown, a summer crime spree, an economic boycott, a federal investigation, a new strong-mayor form of government and three police trials that ended with verdicts of not guilty.

In August, while our steering committee was making plans for the neighborhood forums, we conducted a landmark poll on racial attitudes. On Sept. 2, we launched a five-day series detailing how starkly different blacks and whites view their lives in Cincinnati.

Then came Sept. 11 and our momentum ground to a halt. After all, who wanted to talk about race when the country was staring down war?

Nevertheless, a month later we stubbornly announced our “Neighbor to Neighbor” initiative and, on Nov. 11, kicked it off. Two weeks later, we ran a Page One story about what people were saying. For art, we took a group shot of about 70 volunteers who are helping to lead the conversation.

The project has taken off, thanks largely to our “air-traffic controllers,” David Hofmeister, assistant local news editor, and James Jackson, director of Cincinnati.com. With members of our citizens’ steering committee, they have created a database that helps us match advanced, intermediate and beginner facilitators with complementary partners and the communities they’ve requested. They’ve also done much of the personal outreach needed for the recruiting.

Building Momentum

The initiative has attracted more than 140 facilitators, 111 sponsors and 131 hosts. Its progress is being followed by members of the Cincinnati Media Collaborative, an unprecedented partnership created for the purpose of public service on race relations.

The goal of “Neighbor to Neighbor” is to hold a facilitated, solutions-oriented conversation on race in every municipality and neighborhood in the region, each led by an African-American and a white facilitator.

The conversation model comes from the Kettering Foundation, where the National Issues Forums are helping people discuss tough topics like race. We made some changes to the model so that the conversations end with some concrete conclusions.

Each group answers these questions:

• What three things can people like us do? How?
• What three things would we like to see our community leaders do? How can we make that happen?

The outcomes are published, one at a time, in a daily Metro front feature called “It’s Your Turn.” The feature allows people to keep up with what their neighbors – and people in other neighborhoods – are saying.

Doable Ideas

It’s really rewarding seeing these reports. The participants are not proposing big stuff. It’s doable, little stuff.

For instance, an elderly white man in Northern Kentucky says he’s been a bigot his whole life but maybe his church can help him change. An elderly African-American man in Cincinnati says maybe it’s time to let his grandchildren play with white children. A middle-aged suburban white woman suggests holding neighborhood parties where whites and blacks can get to know one another.

Some people are investigating ways their churches can bring diverse people together. Some are inviting police officers to a neighborhood conversation. People in one neighborhood are starting a book club. One group has decided to meet with the school board to talk about ways to end racism in their neighborhood schools.

To overcome trust issues in covering these conversations, we created two media ground rules. A reporter can’t name a participant without his permission and photographers may shoot pictures only in the last half hour of the discussion.

Good Facilitators

We have learned that the quality of the facilitation is key to a conversation’s success.

To find facilitators, we approached the local National Conference for Community and Justice, the community leader on racial dialogues, and dozens of volunteers signed on. The American Marketing Association’s local chapter brought more than 40 market-research facilitators to the table.

Dave Patton, Ohio State University professor of civic life, held two- and three-hour training sessions for the volunteer facilitators. To ease fears about the sensitive conversations, we wrote a script for what to say and do. We also put together a kit with ground rules, survey forms and tools for group voting exercises. Those who complete the training receive a certificate from Ohio State’s Civic Life Institute.

The Poll and the Media

In August, we polled 1,112 Greater Cincinnati adults to quantify, in some measure, how blacks and whites view their lives, themselves and each other. The results, presented in a five-part “Divided by Race” series, showed two different Cincinnatis.

“Picture two starkly different Cincinnatis: In one, many white people feel safe and secure in their homes and neighborhoods, optimistic about their jobs and the futures of their children.

The poll, funded in part by the Pew Center, brought an outpouring from readers, who suggested numerous ways to improve race relations. On Sept. 9, The Enquirer published two pages of reader responses. The Enquirer’s Newspapers in Education department also tailored the poll for use in classrooms.

The project helped cement a history-making alliance of every major news media outlet in the city – 29 in all.

So far, the Cincinnati Media Collaborative has produced two television shows and a Web site, called Matters of Race, that features each outlet’s best race coverage. Local television stations also have produced three news reports on “Neighbor to Neighbor.”

Success Stories

Daily in the paper, in addition to neighborhood discussion reports, we are running a feature, called “Joining Hands: Diversity Success Stories,” that showcases individuals or organizations working to bridge the racial divide.

We have received about 200 ideas since it launched in November. Some have become larger stories. We’ve written about a personal friendship between two women, one rich, one poor; a dance troupe that employs a disabled person; a hockey league that targets minorities and girls; a Christian women’s weekend retreat on racial issues; and a three-day canoe trip that paired a white police officer with black teens.

The feature “has stretched my ideas about what is news, and it has given me and several reporters broader opportunities to tell the stories that aren’t conflict-based or reactionary,” said Editor Denise Amos.

Again and again, we find that the public-service side of our coverage informs our reporting.