About this time two years ago, I was walking around with a lot of questions: about race, about equity, about social justice and my responsibility as a member of a local and global community. While out in public places together, I observed how well I was treated compared to my friends with brown skin. I listened to students I tutored and mentored as they described experiencing racist remarks and acts at school. One day a friend came to me wondering if he was denied a promotion because of his brown skin or the fact that English is not his first language. Or maybe both.

How do I begin to understand these issues more deeply? What is my role, as a white American of European descent, in working to address the injustices embedded in my culture? Do I even have a role? And, how do I go about even discussing this? My daughter suggested I take the Peace & Justice Center's Building Empathy: Addressing Racial Oppression workshop to begin to explore these questions. She had attended the workshop series a few months previously and thought the content, approach and space for conversation would be helpful.