 More than 15 Bemidji nonprofits came together today to discuss the tough topics of race, racism and the history that shapes the world we live in. Reporter Cheryl Moore takes us into the workshop that's hoping to bring positive change in the area. The meeting room of the Northwest Indian Development Center in Bemidji was packed with nonprofit executive directors, board members and employees today. The group dove into the tough topic of race, racism and our history and how it still affects us today. We really are challenging some of those injustices and thinking about ways that we can change our organizational policies, how we can be more inclusive with the way that we are doing the work that we do. The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits set up the workshop called Re-Learning the Past and Informing the Future. The presentation went into various topics such as U.S. presidents, language and culture. I guess the sentence is that history told by the hunter will always glorify the hunter and so there's a lot of stories that we're missing and so a lot of the context of the presentation is understanding and bringing in those voices and those histories that we're not hearing so that we have a fuller picture with which to work with. Twenty different nonprofits from the Bemidji area were a part of today's workshop and they all come from different areas whether it be arts, healthcare, mental health and housing. MCN says that a lot of these workshops are held down in the Twin Cities but their goal is to bring more to greater Minnesota. Our goal is to really think greater than the metro to think of outstate Minnesota too and so it's really intentional about bringing this workshop up here so that people don't have to travel down to the cities. They don't have to commute down to the metro for workshops, bringing the excellent talent up to our region. At the end the groups are asked to share what they plan to bring back to their organizations. Many said they hope to utilize language in a positive and inclusive way. I hope people walk away with the idea that their worldview is not the only worldview and that if we really are interested in having a society that is a human culture that is inclusive, that is based on equity then we have to be mindful of how we add different worldviews to our general perspectives. Reporting of Bemidji, Shromor, Lakeland News. MCN will be continuing the discussion on culture and equity with a roundtable discussion hosted by the United Way of Bemidji. It will be held at the United Way's office next Tuesday at noon and is open to the public.