09:04 AM CST on Wednesday, January 18, 2006

By LUCY JONES / WFAA.com

File / AP

Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I have a dream" speech.

Personal injury lawyer Angel Reyes marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day in what some would consider a very brave way - he invited 11 strangers to his home for dinner.

We were taking part in the Dallas Dinner Table, an annual event aimed at improving race relations, by getting people from different backgrounds together to talk about race.

Our group was certainly diverse – there was an acupuncturist, skincare specialist, student, a soldier who had just returned from Iraq, a real estate agent and businessmen among us. We had quite a few of the race boxes ticked - Hispanic, African American, Indian and Caucasian (although some people thought it was time to rid ourselves of those boxes).

Over dinner, we were given a topic to talk about for five minutes. We were warned firmly by our “facilitator” that she would tug on her ample earring if we exceeded that time. There were also strict ground rules - no interruptions, no debate or cross talk to ensure that everybody had their say.

All of the topics were penetrating, and on subjects that you might not want to talk about with your closest friends, let along strangers. Mine, for example, was along the lines of “what childhood experience do you wish you had had to help you better relate to people of different races or ethnic groups?”

But bringing to the surface experiences and sharing them with people not like yourself is part of the event’s goal.

One African American woman – who prefaced her story by saying she had never shared it with white people before – described how she was affected profoundly after being ignored by a white doctor in a clinic.

One man in answering his rather hard prompt to describe a meeting with a member of a different race or ethnic group which started off well but ended badly, told us how he had helped a Katrina evacuee who he then found out was trying to defraud FEMA.

There were a few moments when we obviously disagreed strongly with each other – particularly in a discussion on whether Africans were better runners and whether or not multiculturalism is a good thing – but given the goodwill of the participants, there were no bad feelings.

When we were asked what we would concretely do to improve race relations in our communities or at work – there were few answers.

At the end of the dinner, we decided that if we didn’t meet again over the course of the next year, we would at least stay in touch by e-mail to exchange information and ideas.

It was agreed that the dinner had been wholly positive. One woman said she had been put off from attending the event by the Highland Park address of the host but would certainly come next year and bring someone who would benefit from the experience.

It is interesting to note that the Dallas Dinner Table originated in Dallas. It was set up in 1998 by the alumni of the Leadership Dallas program run by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. The first event drew less than 100 participants – on Monday more than 800 people took part across the city. The event has now been replicated in Milwaukee and Abilene, Texas.

“You’re not going to improve race relations overnight but it gets the conversation started,” said one of the organizers, Valencia McClure.

“We hope people will have greater sensitivity to race issues in the city… and will make better decisions.”

The event will take place again next year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

E-mail ljones@wfaa.com