Some conversations are harder than others.

Born out of controversy, the Transforming Community Project and its related Community Dialogues bring people together from all over the University to talk about something that often makes people squirm: race.

In these groups, participants find a safe space to talk about racial issues and then put what they've learned to positive use in the greater Emory community.

TCP began last year following several incidents that increased racial tension on campus. Following explosive arguments between various groups, former journalism professor Catherine Manegold and chair of African-American Studies Leslie Harris felt there was no common ground at Emory for respectful discussion.

Separately, they presented plans to Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Earl Lewis. Manegold called for a lengthy project to research Emory's racial history. Harris suggested a series of community dialogues to address racial topics in a historical context. Lewis combined the two projects into TCP, a five-year effort to foster race-conscious research into Emory history and create safe and productive spaces for dialogue on race.

"TCP looks at what is the University: What does it pretend to be? What does it want to be?" Manegold said. "You can't have that conversation if you're in an emotionally charged place. The goal is to give people information so they can start to talk."

On her first day in her community dialogue group, College sophomore Vanessa Braimah admitted to being a little apprehensive, but excited as well.

"You have all these expectations and goals, and you're scared, and it's all of these weird feelings at once," Braimah said.

Portia Allen, an administrative assistant in the Emory School of Medicine, also experienced some doubt at the first session.

"It was a little bit new," Allen said, "I knew my own experiences as an African-American woman. I didn't know the experiences of the other people in the room."

Allen and Braimah agreed, though, that trust grew among the group members as the sessions progressed.

In particular, group facilitators stress rules for the participants about how to listen and respond to one another. Braimah said the members of her group were instructed to allow pauses in conversation without rushing to try to fill them, and to ask people to explain their points of view when there was confusion.

Even though a sense of trust and companionship grew within each of the dialogue groups, many still experienced plenty of conflict.

"There were times when people were uncomfortable, no question," political science professor Rick Doner said. "If you don't argue, you don't learn anything."

Doner remembered a discussion about the "n-word" in which members of the group debated who should be allowed to use the word and in what context.

Doner said one black participant said whites would just have to deal with the confusion of having a word that only blacks may use.

Doner said he disagreed with her opinion, but that hearing her speak gave him a much better understanding of her point of view.

Despite what many participants feel is the rigorous discussion that occurs in groups, some feel TCP could have a greater impact if it reached new audiences.

Doner feels he is one of few white males, especially among faculty, in the program, and that greater white participation would benefit both whites and the other participants.

"We've got to get more people with, how should we say, 'people without color,'" Doner said.

Doner also feels the project lacks a full ideological spectrum.

Last year, Doner invited then-College senior J.B. Tarter ('05C) to address Doner's community dialogue group on the question of why a conservative white student such as Tarter might not be attracted to participating in the groups.

Tarter said he told the group that the question TCP asks - "What can we do about race at Emory?" - assumes something needs to be done about race, an assumption he said not all would agree with.

Tarter added that to attract him to participate, TCP would need to include in its sponsoring organizations entities like the College Republicans or the political science department, which he says would help bring ideological balance to the project.

College senior Malaika Jabali, co-founder of The Black Star, a black student publication, and a member of The Black Think Tank, said she is concerned that interest in racial issues and in TCP is not spread widely enough among the white community at Emory for the project to impact the community as a whole.

"If it's only black students hearing about it and black groups getting the word out about it, then nobody is going to know," Jabali said.

Several community dialogue group participants expressed concern that the program is self-selecting for people already engaged and interested in racial issues. But many also thought dialogue groups benefit from having all the participants there of their own free will, and interested in discussion.

And all the participants interviewed said the experience of being in the dialogue groups helped them grow in their understanding of issues of race and how to relate to one another.

College sophomore Scot Seitz said even though he has always considered himself to be open-minded, participating in a dialogue group this summer had an impact on the way he relates to other people.

"It gives you a foundation to challenge some of the self-segregation that you've been a part of, or you've seen," Seitz said. "I definitely feel it made me more comfortable being around people of different races."

Emory staff member Marcia Wade, who is white, said she has long held strong friendships with nonwhite women in her division of the University staff, but before now, few of their conversations centered around racial issues.

"I've had so many more conversations about race with my colleagues since I've been in this group than in the whole time I've been at Emory," she said. "What the cumulative effect of all of these experiences of all the hundreds of people going through the groups will be, I haven't a clue."

Only the next four years will tell.

-Contact Jessie Pounds at jepound@learnlink.emory.edu