Description

One of CIC's primary activities was to hold biweekly meetings called "community dialogues" to discuss broad issues such as racism, police sensitivity, education, and employment discrimination within the city of San Diego. This tape is a recording of one of the numerous CIC dialogue sessions with community groups and city officials. This particular session included representatives the city attorney's office, the Urban League, San Diego Unified School District, The San Diego Union and The Evening Tribune, various churches, the police department, city officials, and the mayor. This recording includes introductions from participants, an overview of the agenda, and a discussion and review of the previous session's meeting minutes, as well as an agreement that certain public officials (the mayor, chief of police, and Councilman Hahn from the Southeast San Diego district) must be present at future meetings. After reviewing these minutes, the group discussed the definition of racism. One participant differentiated between racism and racial discrimination, claiming that San Diego is not racist because racism isn't embedded in its legal structure the way it was in Nazi Germany or South Africa. Other participants concluded that racial discrimination is accepted as normal in San Diego and this issue must be addressed in order to effect change. Mayor Curran also spoke up and stated that semantics makes communication about racial issues complex and difficult. The tape ends in the middle of Mayor Curran's discussion. The meetings were moderated by CIC Executive Director Carroll Waymon, and his voice is often the first one heard in the audio recordings of the meetings. At this meeting the minutes were read at the beginning.