Transforming the Colour of US Peacebuilding: Types of Dialogue to Protect and Advance Multi-racial Democracy

This new article argues that strategies to advance democracy in the US are fragmented with white peacebuilders mainly focusing on using dialogue to reduce political polarisation, and black and brown social justice activists mainly emphasizing the need for shifting power to ensure democratic representation and basic rights already enjoyed by most white people.The Movement for Black Lives is an essential part of peacebuilding in the US. And polarization is too often refered to as a “both sides are bad” approach rather than analyzing that right wing media has been explicit in its goal of spreading disinformation intended to polarize. Peacebuilding requires a power analysis… and peacebuilding should never, in any country, be associated primarily with one skin color.