Dayton Dialogue On Race Relations

I’d like to tell you about one of the Dayton area’s best kept secrets.

DDRR.

The Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations, a 501(C)(3) organization, established to provide better racial relations and to decrease racial tension in the Greater Dayton area. We accomplish this challenging task through dialogues between African American and Caucasian men, women and, yes, even children. To date, over 4,500 local residents have participated in these interracial meetings. They have proven to be successful for the participants and beneficial to the area with participants becoming goodwill ambassadors; not just for the dialogues but for better race relations in our city.

While our main focus is still discrimination based on race, changing times have brought two additional concerns, discrimination against different ethnic groups as more immigrants arrive in the Greater Dayton area and the increased acts of bullying in our schools. Of course, all these have similar origins, a lack of respect for the other person, an unwillingness to accept others who do not mirror ourselves, and stereotyping or generalizing about someone, not based upon their character or accomplishments, but upon racial, ethnic and physical characteristics over which they have no control. With every increase in dialogue participation there is a decrease in racial tension. We hope for the day when the dialogues are simply no longer necessary.

We have had dialogues in offices, banks, hospitals and private homes.

We have also partnered with the Dayton Public Schools to deliver “Building Blocks to Inclusion” a youth dialogue program for middle and high school students. Our dialogues require nine hours of participation.


Wright State University continues to use “the dialogue” as the foundation of conversation with students and employees around the issue of inclusion and valuing diversity, while also incorporating the dialogue process into a sociology class.

Consequently, in addition to the thousands we have reached with the dialogue, we have now added hundreds of public school and college students exposing them to the healing powers of the dialogues.

I truly believe this program to be worthy of an award and thereby enhancing and expanding the program even further. I am proud to be associated with DDRR.

Walter Ohlmann