Responding to Racial Conflicts
People involved in racial conflicts, either disputants or potential intermediaries, can do a lot to transform and resolve such conflicts if they design an effective response strategy. The following checklist offers things that intermediaries and disputants should think about, and it offers links to many sources of further information on each of the question topics.
The links are of two kinds. First are links to essays on related topics from the Beyond Intractability website and project. Second are links to relevant sections of interviews with CRS mediators, in which they discuss related issues.
Reading the essays will give you general background knowledge about the topic, and then reading the interview segments will be like sitting with a group of highly experienced and skilled mediators at a cocktail party or office de-briefing, where they tell stories about what they did, how they did it, and how it worked in real-world situations.
- Conflict Assessment
Have you done a thorough conflict assessment?
For more information
about this topic, see:
Also consider the following assessment-related questions:
- Identify Stakeholders / Interest Groups
Have you identified all of the interest or stakeholder groups (as well as individuals) who are likely to
become involved?
Have you determined how these
groups are likely to react to the situation? Who will be allies? Who will be
opponents? (Here, it is important to recognize within-group differences in
interests and positions.)
For more information on this topic, see:
- Clarify Goals
Are you clear about the parties' underlying goals
and interests? Do you understand how these are different from the parties'
positions, and why the distinction is important?
For more information
about this topic, see:
- History
Do you understand the history of this conflict, including
the underlying issues that led to it?
For more information on this
topic, see:
- Determine the Conflict Stage
Is the conflict latent, developing,
or fully escalated? Has it become intractable? Is the conflict ripe for
resolution, or do the parties involved feel it is in their best interest to
continue with the status quo?
For more information about this topic, see:
- Intervention Options
Have you considered all the available intervention options?
For more information
on this topic, see:
- Intervention Processes
Have you considered how to convene a meeting? How to structure the meeting? How to facilitate the process to increase the likelihood of a successful conclusion?
For more information on these topics, see:
- Culture and Conflict
Are cultural misunderstandings contributing
to the conflict? Are there differences between the parties in things like
nationality, language, gender, or age? Do you know some strategies for
overcoming cultural differences?
For more information about this
topic, see:
- Persuasion
Do you have a strategy for explaining the
stakeholders' goals and actions to each other? For persuading them that the
other stakeholders' goals are reasonable and equitable? Or that negotiation or mediation is a viable approach to the problem?
For more
information on this topic, see:
- Reframing the Issues
Have you thought of ways to get the parties to "reframe" the issues to make them more negotiable? To identify areas of common ground?
For more
information on this topic, see: - Beyond Intractability Essays: Frames, Framing, Reframing, Interests, Rights, Power, and Needs Frames, Cultural Frames, Process Frames, Competitive and Cooperative Frames, Identity Frames, Stereotypes and Characterization Frames, Enemy Images, Prejudice, "Into-the-Sea" Framing, Fact Frames, Worst-Case / Loss-Oriented Frames, Reframing
- CRS mediators' discussion of reframing
- Trust
Have you been able to help the parties build trust with
each other?
For more information on this topic, see:
- Power / BATNAs
Are you clear about the nature of power and how
it affects the parties' "alternatives to a negotiated agreement?" Are you
clear about the powers available to other stakeholders? Have you been able to
demonstrate to people the powers that the parties are willing to use to defend
their interests? (Here you should consider legal, political, and economic
power as well as the ability to resist violent assaults.)
For more
information on this topic, see:
- Misunderstandings
Do you know how much of the conflict might be
attributable to misunderstandings? If not, do you know how to set up
communication processes that might be able to answer to this question? And, do
you know how to set up communication processes that might limit these
misunderstandings?
For more information on this topic, see:
- Emotional and Psychological Dimensions
Do you know how much the
parties' responses are due to emotional and psychological dimensions such as
anger, fear, or prejudice? Do you know what is causing these reactions and how
to defuse them?
For more information on this topic, see:
- Fact-Finding
Do you know how much of the conflict is
attributable to disagreements regarding the basic facts? If not, do you know
how to set up communication processes that might be able to answer this
question? And, do you know how to set up joint fact-finding processes that
might limit factual disagreements?
For more information on this
topic, see:
- Escalation
Do you know how much of the conflict is attributable
to escalation and polarization? Have you developed and implemented effective
steps to limit or reverse this effect?
For more information on this
topic, see:
- Violence
If the conflict becomes violent, do you have a strategy
for de-escalating the violence? Is it possible for you to prevent the violence
or is there anything you can do to decrease the suffering caused by
it?
For more information on this topic, see:
- Dispute Systems Design
Do you expect a continuing series of
similar disputes? Do you know about options for developing a system for the
handling of routine disputes?
For more information on this topic, see:
- Unrightable Wrongs
Does the conflict involve a history of
unrightable wrongs? Are you aware of options for transforming such
conflicts?
For more information on this topic, see:
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