Last month, Concordia, a social partnership organization in Northern Ireland, sponsored 20 representatives of business, agricultural, trade union and voluntary sectors for a week-long visit to study Richmond’s experience of addressing distrust around questions of race and poverty.
In his book Honest Patriots, Donald Shriver describes Richmond as a city which has been “able to host a civic conversation that involves virtually the whole of the American story.” Sparked by this evaluation, Derick Wilson, a senior lecturer at the University of Ulster, and director of Future Ways, an NGO working for trust building, contacted IofC's Hope in the Cities programme in the US. Last month, Concordia, a social partnership organization in Northern Ireland, sponsored twenty representatives of business, agricultural, trade union and voluntary sectors for a week-long visit to study Richmond’s experience of addressing distrust around questions of race and poverty.
The group walked the historic Slave Trail, and discussed the creation of America’s first Civil War Center, which attempts to tell all sides of the story, with its founder, Alex Wise, the descendant of a Confederate General. Reflecting on Richmond’s attempt to claim a shared history, the Irish said, “You have allowed one community to face its pain and the other to face its shame, and to do it together.” Catholics, Protestants and people of no religious affiliation, the group took part in a workshop on dialogue and how to tell the story of a conflict from the perspective of the “other” facilitated by Hope in the Cities.
Following the exercise, one participant said, “I feel liberated from the fear of the unknown. When you think about the other side, you exorcise your demons. It is more than tolerating; it is respecting, but not necessarily agreeing.” Another said, “At first I felt disloyal to my group.”
Another reflected, “Telling the other side of the story is quite a responsibility. You ask yourself, have I got this right?” The Irish met senior police, consulted with leaders of affordable housing and environmental organizations, visited schools and met with Mayor Douglas Wilder.
Becoming comfortable with diversity is important, said one Belfast participant, because investment goes to those cities “where people can say, ‘We feel safe’; where there is space for everyone. Economic development follows diversity.”
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