 Given my background in cultural studies, communication, and difference, I have learned over the years, over the many years, specific strategies, conversations, theories, concepts that work in the classroom. I've learned about critical race theory, which definitely talks a lot about systemic racism, institutional racism, structural racism. I look at the spiral of silence theory, which is something that my students learn about. And how is that actually applied? We look at perceptions. How do we perceive each other? And what my students learn is they learn about the different factors that impact the way we see the world. Based on our upbringing, our culture, our religion, our socioeconomic status, etc., all impact the way that we see the world and the way that we see each other. In communication, one of the things that we talk about is listen to what is not said. Listen to what is not said. Our nonverbal communication speaks much louder than what comes out of our mouth. We must take the time to truly listen to what is not said. Nonverbal communication speaks louder than what comes out of our mouth. The way you make someone feel, the way you look at someone, the way you treat someone, maybe a gesture that you make can really impact somebody in a negative way. So we all must understand that it is our responsibility to not only just read about difficult conversations or listen to videos or watch videos, but what is important is that we must internalize what it is and then we must take action. You can read all that you want to read, but if you're not putting it into action and making action part of the change, nothing will be accomplished and we will be having this conversation, not just 400 years later, but 500 years later and so forth. This is the time. The time is now to have these conversations, have them in the classroom, have them in the workplace, have them sitting around at the dinner table in different social settings, make it a part of our lives, integrate it, use it, talk about it. There are a number of different suggestions that I would like to offer to people doing this work and people who are thinking about doing this work but are a little bit hesitant because they're wondering, does this really fit with my department, my field? And the answer is yes. You can talk about this in science, math, English, communication, business, sociology, etc. It can be discussed anywhere. So how do you do this? Singleton has an excellent book that talks about courageous conversations about race. And there are different guidelines which are also known as either community guidelines or another thing that you've probably heard some ground rules, but one of them is to stay engaged. Secondly, expect to experience discomfort. Everything is not going to be comfortable and we need to understand that. These are important conversations, so expect to experience this comfort. Speak your own truth. When I talk about speaking your own truth, as stated in Singleton's book, is truly to talk from your perspective. Don't speak for another group, speak for other people, but speak your own truth. Expect and accept a lack of closure. So as you're engaging in these conversations, there are times when you're not going to have a conclusion, some type of closure, because we're not done. We are not done and that is okay. In our society, we try to just finish everything, get it done, get it done kind of thing, but please expect and accept a lack of closure. Next, share the air. We don't want to just hear your voice. We need to also hear others. So taking a role of being the observer sometimes is great. So share the air. Listen for understanding. Don't listen to ambush the other person, but listen for understanding. Respect others. So you might have viewpoints that you don't agree with, but respect it.