This exercise aims to create opportunities for people to have conversations about issues relating to racism as well as the issue of racism itself. It attempts to do this in a safe way by setting up a number of possible conversations and allowing participants to freely choose which one they would like to take part in.

The possible conversations begin like this:

1st Conversation- “I’m not racist but ………”.

2nd Conversation- “Migration is the history of humanity”.

3rd Conversation- “The moment you include you exclude”.

4th Conversation- “Ethnicity designates or assigns power”.

5th Conversation- “Unpredictability breeds anxiety”.

6th Conversation- “I can’t be racist, I’m black!”

Procedure

1. Each of these statements is written on a poster and the 6 posters are placed in different parts of the room. People then choose which conversation they would like to engage in and go to that place. Participants are given adequate time for a good conversation.
2. After some time participants are invited to move to another poster.
3. To conclude, participants are invited back to the large group to share some of what they talked about and particularly any new insights they may have gained from the conversations.

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Materials: Flipchart, blue-tack