Agree to Differ

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People put into situations like this may sometimes hold racist

views that are rooted in pain, insecurity and fear.

In this context, the Fourth World People’s University offers

a framework for beginning to overcome both racism and

poverty by providing a forum where neighbours can discover

what their struggles have in common. Dialogue helps break

through the prejudice and resentment that may be fed by

public discourse. When people who know how hard it is to

struggle with poverty choose to come together in a People’s

University session, the most valuable thing that they offer

one another is a high quality of listening. For people who

have experienced humiliation and the denial of their human

dignity, it is all the more important to take the time to listen

to one another and to engage in respectful dialogue.

What differentiates the People’s University from other

discussion groups is that sessions are planned by people who

“have gotten bashed around by life too much,” as participant

Nadia Chafi put it. At each session, participants meet to speak

freely, exchange ideas with a guest speaker and think together

about themes they choose, such as:

• Facing the same difficulties, supporting one another for a

world without racism

• How do we live together in our neighbourhoods?

• How do I try to make life fairer for everyone?

• Europe today: All together, all foreigners for someone else.

Participants prepare each session over several weeks by meeting

in small groups to explore the theme. Because of the chaos

and stress of poverty, each meeting begins with the possibility

of venting frustrations freely. All participants agree to refrain

from interpreting anyone else’s words. Some academic research,

which treats people in poverty as objects to be analysed instead

of as knowing subjects, can manipulate their words by refram-

ing them according to the researcher’s lens – even when the

research is well-intentioned and aims to ‘give voice’ to margin-

alized people. In the People’s University, if a person’s words are

not understood by others, that same person is asked to restate

them differently. Dialogue is often enriched by other techniques

like those used by the Theatre of the Oppressed. Developed

in the 1960s by Augusto Boal, this technique empowers the

disenfranchised to initiate change. In Belgium, for instance,

participants in the People’s University acted out a scene where

an argument broke out on a bus among passengers, some of

whom used racist slurs. The scene was then replayed several

times so that other participants could take the place of passen-

gers in order to try to change the outcome of the situation.

Of course, the challenges are many. Because poverty and

exclusion erode trust, newcomers may hesitate to join the

People’s University even after many invitations, sometimes

over several years. It takes persistence to reach people. One

man explained his reluctance, saying: “When you’re out of

work, you’re nothing. I don’t interest anyone. People look

right through me.” What may seem like indifference or

animosity often masks a strong sense of isolation and despair

that can be overcome only with mutual respect and hope.

Imane El Mokhtari, who helps organize the Belgian People’s

University, explains how dialogue counters potential cultural

misunderstandings and tensions:

“As they speak out, people gain self-confidence, whichmakes it

possible for them to speak to ‘the other’, who gradually becomes

less of a ‘foreigner’ on whom we can project fears, and more of

a familiar face. When asylum seekers reacted to political-party

“Struggling with poverty matters more than the fact that people are

not from the same country.”

“When a man from Cameroon explained that he knows no one here

[in Belgium] and has nothing to do on weekends, a Belgian woman

invited him to spend Saturday with her family.”

“When we get to know each other with our hearts, no one is a

foreigner anymore.”

– People’s University participants

Image: ATD Fourth World

People’s University discussion sessions are planned by people who “have gotten bashed around by life too much” – participant Nadia Chafi (left)

gree

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