{"id":14,"date":"2007-02-27T17:32:25","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T21:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/pon1\/2007\/02\/27\/tough-stuff-in-mediation\/"},"modified":"2007-02-27T17:33:30","modified_gmt":"2007-02-27T21:33:30","slug":"tough-stuff-in-mediation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/2007\/02\/27\/tough-stuff-in-mediation\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough stuff in mediation"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past weekend, I attended the final sessions of mediation training that I talked about a few entries ago.\u00a0 Again, it was a fantastic experience, and it certainly gave me a lot to think about.\u00a0 But one issue in particular is really troubling me, and it\u2019s caused me do a bit more thinking about mediation as a process and a vehicle for change.<\/font><\/p>\n

One role-play that I observed was a case involving a landlord whose tenant owed her four weeks of rent.\u00a0 The case seemed fairly straightforward, except for one major issue:\u00a0 the landlord refused to sign a welfare form that would have enabled the tenant to receive rent money from the government.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the landlord was morally opposed to welfare.\u00a0 She simply did not accept \u201cthat kind of money\u201d for rent, and refused to condone the use of welfare by signing her tenant\u2019s form.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Earlier in the training, I had wondered what would happen if a party in a mediation said something racist or discriminatory.\u00a0 What should the mediators do?\u00a0 What is it their job to do?\u00a0 If they protested the party\u2019s attitude, their comments may seem directive or judgmental, and they would seriously risk losing perceived neutrality with both parties.\u00a0 But is it right to let destructive attitudes and personal attacks sour the discussion and potentially ruin the mediation?\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

I think I was finding this dilemma especially tough on a personal level.\u00a0 The realistic half of my brain tells me that there\u2019s no way that a two-hour mediation session could change a person\u2019s deep-seated beliefs about life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always believed very strongly (for no real reason, just as a gut feeling) that staying away from dialogue on these types of tough issues, and refusing to talk about them because they seem unchangeable, is at best unproductive and at worst destructive.\u00a0 That there must be a way to confront prejudices without judging the people who hold them, and to understand how biases originate without attempting to correct that history.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

In this landlord-tenant role play that I observed, the mediators consciously chose not to probe the landlord when it became clear that she was prejudiced against people on welfare.\u00a0 This makes sense to me in a way, but it is also troubling.\u00a0 These types of issues are definitely wrapped in a host of strong emotions, but why does that mean that we as mediators can\u2019t \u201cgo there?\u201d\u00a0 To me, the emotional element is all the more reason to try and unpack prejudicial attitudes in a mediation.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

But I think it\u2019s also important for me to remember that although this approach might work for me, other mediators may not feel comfortable confronting these issues \u2013 and that\u2019s okay.\u00a0 Mediators are neutral, but they have their own personalities, styles, and comfort levels (mediators are people, too!) \u2013 and that might mean that it\u2019s not always appropriate to confront prejudice as a mediator.<\/font><\/p>\n

Put bluntly, I think\u00a0one of my biggest challenges will be\u00a0to accept that I can\u2019t change the whole world in a mediation session.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Clearly, the unrealistic half of my brain wins out most of the time.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend, I attended the final sessions of mediation training that I talked about a few entries ago.\u00a0 Again, it was a fantastic experience, and it certainly gave me a lot to think about.\u00a0 But one issue in particular is really troubling me, and it\u2019s caused me do a bit more thinking about mediation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":920,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pon-intern"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/pon1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}