As many of you know, for several years I have been a volunteer facilitator for Better Angels, a citizen's organization uniting red and blue Americans in a working alliance to depolarize America.
Better Angels meetings were designed by Bill Doherty, a professor in the Dept of Family and Social Science at the University of Minnesota. He has been doing another project, in his home town of Minneapolis, since 2017. You can read about it here. But here is a brief overview.
The project's goal is to forge connections between police officers and African American men that can lead to better partnerships for community safety and law enforcement. It grew out of concern following the high-profile police shootings of Black men in 2015-16. Initially the meetings involved five Minneapolis police officers (three White and two Black) and six Black men from the community, and was facilitated by Bill Doherty.
"The Minneapolis Police Department approved the project. All group members come as individuals speaking for themselves and not as representatives of an organization. Beginning in January 2017, they agreed to meet every other week for a year or more to build relationships based on honest communication, and then decide on action steps. Meeting places alternate between a community setting and a police setting.
The first set of meetings focused on relationship building: storytelling to understand one another’s backgrounds and experiences. Over time the group got into more and more difficult conversation including negative personal experiences, the history of policing in Black communities, sources of current mistrust, and different perspectives on recent police-involved shootings. The group kept returning to the table, forming close personal bonds, coming to understand each other’s perspectives, and evolving a common vision for change.
Clearly this project's work did not prevent the death of George Floyd, even after almost two years of meetings. Yet, I believe police and citizens talking together, as they do in this project, is vital. Of course, talk has to lead to changes in policy and laws, but laws and policy alone will not change people's hearts and minds - that only happens person through person to person conversation.
I have learned through the many Better Angels meetings that I have led, that when people come together in facilitated and well designed conversations, they leave with greater respect for each other and a willingness to "seek to understand" each other. I support the Black Lives Matter protests. I support the much needed legislative changes. I support changes to the role of police in communities. But most wholeheartedly, I support bringing together the police and the black community to hear each other's stories, fears and hopes. How else do we change hearts and minds on both sides?