The recent grand jury decisions not to indict the homicides of black men by while police officers have created a nation-wide storm of concern and protests. This powerpoint provides some guidelines for doing group work with people who share these concerns. The ideas in the presentation are meant to stimulate creativity and action.

1. SOME GUIDELINES FOR
WORKING IN GROUPS
ON SENSITIVE TOPICS:
THE HOMICIDES OF BLACK
MEN
Jane F. Gilgun, Ph.D., LICSW
Professor
School of Social Work
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA

2. Topics
•Reflections
•What Ferguson means
• to black boys & girls
• To us as agents of social change
•Beginning
•Create a sense of safety
•Ways to structure discussions
•Provide additional information
•Endings

3. Reflections
•Beliefs about race are deep within
• They are located in various parts of the brain
• Conscious: prefrontal cortex (PFC)
• Below awareness: Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
• Times of Stress, as in Confrontations
• PFC shuts down
• ANS activates
•Result: we are on automatic
• What is automatic can be ugly

4. Reflections (Cont’d)
• Is that what happens when white police kill black men?
• Stereotypes in ANS are activated
• Activation leads to action
• If it is, how do we surface beliefs and stereotypes that are below
awareness?
• Meditative techniques
• Guided imagery
• Meditation on a race-based word or images
• Follow up through discussion in group
• Discussion eventually moves to plans for action
• Possible plans are later in this presentation

5. Reflections—Preparation for the Group
• What might the homicides of Mike Brown and Eric Garner and
associated protests mean to African American youth? How about
the decisions of the grand juries?
• Tracine Asberry:
• “Many Black youth, in particular, are experiencing what may best be described as
grief. They’ve lost a covenant they believed they had with this country, its systems
of justice, and its adults, whose job is to protect them” (Asberry, 2014).
• What might the death of Mike Brown and Eric Garner and
associated protests mean to African American parents,
professionals, and policy makers? The decisions of the grand juries?
• What does the death of Mike Brown, Eric Garner and Ferguson mean to
you? The decisions of the grand juries? The protests?

6. Guidelines for Group Work
• .
• LISTEN – children have important insights about how
they’re perceived and treated
• SHOW RESPECT –approach youth with the same respect we’d want
given
• BE SMART, FAIR, & LOVING – show young people we want to
protect them, let them learn, show them how to make amends
when they make mistakes, and treat them as the essential part of
our communities (Asberry, 2014).]
• PLAN IN THE GROUP ACTIONS TO TAKE

7. Beginnings: Create a Sense of Safety
•Typically, members of groups that discuss
sensitive topics know each other
•Have a private and comfortable space
•C0-develop a few ground rules that make
sense
• On sensitive topics there may be a range of views
• Important to respect views of others
•Do the members of the group know and trust
you as the group facilitator?
•Healthy snacks and beverages

8. Beginning
• Summarize the sensitive topic
• Show videos about the shooting by police of young
black men
• Trayvon Martin
• Mike Brown
• Eric Granger
• Another video to show is the harassment of Chris
Lollie in Minneapolis
• Extend group content to members of other groups
treated unfairly such as Native Americans

9. Ways to Structure Discussions
•Open-ended discussions
• Small group discussions/large group sharing
• Talking circles
• Have 3-4 people give brief prepared presentations
Have prepared questions
• Questions for groups composed of social workers
• How do these situations affect your clients?
• How do they affect your sense of yourselves as social workers?
• Do these situations have any personal meanings to you or to
people you know?

10. Ways to Structure Discussions (Cont’d)
• Activities such as collages, collecting further
information, role plays
• Planning for longer-term responses
• Such as development of a curriculum
• A presentation that a group of students might give to
other students
• A poster session students put on for other students
• Planning demonstrations
• Prepare yourselves for work with people with long-term
histories of discrimination and oppression

11. Provide Additional Information
• Examples of info important to young people
• Give info on laws when you are required to show
identification
• When police have a reasonable suspicion that you are
involved in illegal activity
• To find out, you can say
• “Excuse me officer. Are you detaining me, or am I free to go?”
• If police have no grounds for holding you, you are free to go.
• You don’t have to answer any more questions.

12. Endings
• Summaries of the group experience
• Plans for how to use content of group discussions in other
situations
• Plan an activity that takes group members into an experience
of issues related to people from other ethnic groups
• Films, community events, art exhibitions, theater
• Relaxation exercise (to stimulate creative thinking)
• Guided meditation
• Yoga
• Tai chi
• Follow up with group members if you have on-going
contact with them

13. References
• Asberry, Tracine (2014). Building an America that Believes in Black Youth. St.
Paul Youth Services, December 4, 2014.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/2/#inbox/14a154faf1bc43f5
• Basu, Moni & Ann O’Neill (2014). “A thousand Fergusons across America.”
CNN.com, November 25. http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/us/ferguson-mood-reaction/
index.html?iid=article_sidebar.
• Clark, Rachel & Christopher Lett (2014). What happened when Michael
Brown met Officer Darren Wilson. CNN.com, Nov 11, 2014.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/08/us/ferguson-brown-timeline/
• Flex Your Rights website. http://www.flexyourrights.org/faqs/when-can-police-
ask-for-id/
• Man arrested while picking up his kids: “The problem is I’m black” Atlantic,
August 29, 2014.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/the-problem-is-im-black/
379357/
• Reaction to Eric Garner grand jury decision. New York Times, December
3, 2014. http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/the-death-of-eric-garner-
the-grand-jury-decision/