Participants in the conference agreed it was a timely topic. With the changing ethnic makeup of cities like Atlanta, the issue of racism can go beyond simply white and black. One participant described his Indian client is considered white by the black community, black by the white community and a victim of racism from both sides.
Racism can affect a mediation in a variety of ways. Other examples offered by the audience included issues arising from the growth of the Hispanic community in Atlanta. A well-respected neutral related he was surprised to receive a poor evaluation because a participant thought he was a racist. Racism can play a prominent, if unspoken, role in environmental cases in which it must be determined which parts of town receive what share of compensation.
“There’s no monopoly on racism, it comes from both sides and mediators have to be aware of it,” says Sistrunk.
All these examples, according to Sistrunk, prove his point — that race is an element of American life and therefore, will be an element in a mediation that must be addressed.
“Peeling back the onion layers to find the real core of the problem is the first step to a successful mediation,” according to Sistrunk. “As a mediator, you have to get race out of the way. If you don’t recognize it as an element of mediation, then you are missing a chance to drive to a resolution.”
What works for him is discreetly discussing the issue with the attorneys, although he recognizes that the attorneys themselves are sometimes the problem.
“It’s not a bad thing that race is an issue. It just is. As mediators, our job is to make differences coalesce so we can find the ‘alike’ issues that get us to settlement. Therefore, we have to acknowledge something that could hinder that settlement. There’s no literature on race in mediation. My goal is to be sure you neutrals leave the conference aware of the issue and hopefully are more willing to bring it to the fore.” |
