From the Center for Social Justice Dialogue Directors

For some, the holidays are a season of joy, connection, and shared traditions. For others, they can be emotionally demanding, a careful dance around long-standing tensions, lingering conflicts, polarizing political disagreements, or generational wounds. A friend once told me, "I love my family, but three hours is all I can manage." Many of us prepare strategies, invite "buffers," or brace ourselves just to get through the meal.

Holiday tables have always held complexity. This year, though, many of us are feeling the weight of that complexity more intensely than ever.

As directors of UMBC's Center for Social Justice Dialogue, we want to offer our Retriever community tools to navigate this season with grounding, compassion, and intentionality. Whether you're entering difficult conversations about identity, politics, justice, or family history, the competencies of dialogic community building—critical self-reflection, cultural storytelling, generous listening, and loving accountability—can help guide your steps.

Here are some tips, tools, and practices to consider. 

Care + Critical Self-Reflection

Before we enter dialogue, we begin with ourselves. Critical self-reflection calls us to look inward at our identities, experiences, triggers, the stories we carry, and the assumptions we bring to the table.

Ask yourself:

• What am I feeling in my body as I anticipate this gathering?

• What topics or comments tend to activate strong reactions in me?

• What boundaries do I need to hold to maintain my well-being?

• How can I show up in ways that contribute to community care?

Radical self-care reminds us: you can opt in to dialogue, and you can opt out as an act of protection and love. If a conversation becomes unsafe, dehumanizing, or overwhelming, it is valid to pause or walk away. Your well-being matters.

Community care reminds us: how we show up impacts others. Our presence, tone, boundaries, and choices can contribute to a safer, more compassionate environment, even when disagreements arise. Community care invites us to hold ourselves with compassion and to consider the collective well-being of those around us.

Cultural Storytelling: Sharing Truths and Lived Experience

Dialogue deepens when we share the stories that shape us, not to prove a point, but to build understanding.

Cultural storytelling invites you to:

• speak from your own experiences rather than speak about others,

• connect present tensions to personal and community histories,

• illuminate the values, traditions, and identities that shape your worldview.

This practice helps shift conversations away from abstraction and toward authenticity.
It also supports relational connection—"Here is where I come from, and here is how it shapes what I believe."

Generous Listening & Practicing Generous Questioning

Generous listening is the heart of dialogic community building. It requires vulnerability, patience, wonder, and the willingness to pause your assumptions to consider someone else's perspective truly.

This kind of listening sounds like:

• "Help me understand how you came to that belief."

• "What experiences shaped that view for you?"

• "I hear your intention. Can we talk about the impact?"

Generous questioning invites deeper reflection rather than defensiveness. It widens the possibility of connection, especially across difference.

Loving Accountability: Offering Truth With Care

Dialogue doesn't mean avoiding conflict; it means engaging conflict with compassion and clarity.

Loving accountability includes:

• naming harmful language or behavior with respect and honesty,

• recognizing when someone's disagreement denies your humanity,

• setting boundaries without shaming,

• aligning your tone and words with your values.

You can say:

• "I want to stay in this conversation, but I need us to slow down."

• "That comment felt hurtful to me. Can we talk about why?"

• "Your intention matters, and so does the impact."

As James Baldwin reminds us, we can disagree and still love each other—unless that disagreement denies our right to exist.

Loving accountability holds us all to a higher standard, not to win, but to grow.

When You Are Triggered: Return to Your Body

If you feel overwhelmed, flooded, or frozen:

1. Breathe deeply to reconnect.

2. Body scan: Where is tension showing up?

3. Name your reaction if you want:

• "I'm noticing I'm having a strong reaction right now."

This is part of loving accountability, to both yourself and the relationship.

After the Dialogue: Ground, Reflect, and Replenish

When the conversation ends, ask yourself:

• What emotions linger in my body?

• What did I learn about myself?

• What support or community care do I need now?

• What joy practices can help me reset?

Choose rest. Hydrate. Journal. Move your body. Connect with people who affirm your dignity and wholeness.

In Community, With Courage

As you move through this holiday season, remember that dialogue is not about perfection. It is about showing up with intention, curiosity, and heart. Whether you are leaning into connection or protecting your peace, you remain part of a community dedicated to justice, equity, and humanity.

May you find moments of grounding, clarity, and care wherever you gather.

In community,

Ciara and Jasmine
The Center for Social Justice Dialogue Directors
UMBC | Division of Institutional Equity
#UMBCtogether #SocialJusticeDialogue