UTD joined host sites for the Dallas Dinner Table (DDT) race dialogues throughout the Dallas area on March 19 at 6 p.m. with a dinner and discussion in the McDermott Suite.
DDT events usually occur once per year, though frequency and date is flexible. Participants sign up online, host sites donate dinner and a space with tables small enough to permit conversation and trained facilitators encourage and moderate conversations about race and racism.
Throughout the McDermott Suite and on tables, small signs reminded participants to "suspend judgment," "listen to understand, not to agree," and that there should be "no cross talk or debate."
DDT committee member Tracey Brown said about 1,000 people in Dallas county and Collin county gathered on sites across the metroplex. She said the focus is always on personal experiences with race, racism and race relations, but never politics or debate. The organization is run by volunteers and online signups allow organizers to ensure each event is diverse, she said.
Magaly Spector, vice president for diversity and community engagement, said she hopes to institute a similar dinner dialogue program on UTD's campus, with events occurring as frequently as each month and topics that encompass all types of diversity. She said Multicultural Center assistant director Danny Cordova volunteered UTD as a host site before she joined UTD faculty in January 2008.
UTD president David Daniel called the evening a "case study" to determine if a similar format at UTD would promote dialogue and awareness on campus.
"College provides a person the unique opportunity and time to open their eyes to different people and points of view… and challenge their prejudices and thoughts about other people. I'd like to think when a student leaves college, they're a smarter person because they've learned more about themselves through others," Daniel said.
Spector and Daniel welcomed students and community members to the event and participated in table dialogues themselves.
The DDT organization formed in 1999 when the Leadership Dallas Alumni Board set out to improve communication in their community. According to the DDT website, the board's efforts were inspired by racial tensions within the Dallas school board and the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in Jasper, TX. Board members realized few conversations about race and ethnicity rarely occurred in multi-racial settings and began to develop the dinner dialogue format to promote understanding.
Poornima Hanumara, a telecommunications engineering sophomore, is secretary of Global Village and signed up for DDT after receiving an email from their adviser. She said each of the ten people at her table described specific personal experiences with racism, some as targets of racism and others as witnesses.
"Initially my opinion was that racism wasn't that prevalent today, but after hearing more and more of what people had to say I was surprised at how many people had stories. A lot of people were like, 'wow, I never thought that happened now,'" Hanumara said.
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