Let’s Talk About Race (and Other Hard Things)

Nancy Dome

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Fear. Avoidance. Division. The safest path can feel like the one without dialogue regarding conversations about equity and diversity. What if you offend the other person? What if they challenge your beliefs? What if you ruin a relationship?

When it comes to hard topics, effective communication skills are an asset, vulnerability is necessary, and forgiveness is vital. In Let’s Talk About Race (And Other Hard Things), communication expert and equity consultant Dr. Nancy A. Dome provides you with a framework to recognize feelings, interrupt flawed patterns, and repair relationships. Utilized in business, education, and communities throughout the country, Dr. Dome’s process makes space for vulnerability and helps participants engage in empathetic dialogue. Conflict is normal and survivable, and you don’t need special skills or experience to navigate it—you just need practice. Complete with extensive qualitative research and case studies, this step-by-step guide shows how to lean into difficult conversations, recognize the role emotions play when we are not in control of them, and create a solid foundation for change, progress, healing, and resolution.

Press & Praise

Dr. Julie Vitale, Superintendent at Oceanside Unified School District

Dr. Dome continues leading the way by guiding us to engage in more productive conversations on difficult topics. During a time in our history when people are anonymously attacking one another or using social media to encourage divisiveness, Dr. Dome provides an alternative. Compassionate Dialogue™ is how we will heal our communities, one conversation at a time. This book provides practical examples on how to effectively internalize the RIR Protocol (Recognize It, Interrupt It, Repair It). I have used the RIR Protocol to lead my school system, improving the way we interact with one another. This book helps us take a deeper dive so that we can engage from a place of empathy. Empathy means feeling what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes, which is the level of understanding we're looking for.

Margaret Wheatley, author of ten books, including Leadership and the New Science and Turning To One Another

Many things about this book delight and inspire me. It is simple, clear, and generous in what it offers, making it highly practical as well as motivating. We all suffer from our collective inability (and disinterest) in taking time for genuine conversations. Using the practical wisdom offered here, may we all commit to engaging with one another. Thank you, Nancy!

Dr. Jacqueline Thousand, Professor Emerita at Cal State San Marcos and long-term professional colleague and friend

The title of Dr. Nancy Dome's book—Let's Talk About Race (and Other Hard Things): A Framework for Having Conversations That Build Bridges, Strengthen Relationships, and Set Clear Boundaries—not only aptly describes the content of this groundbreaking book, but offers us who are living and working in the polarized political, social, and economic environment of the post-Trump presidency a framework for opening our ears and engaging in conversations that can heal rather than fracture relationships. It is the perfect essential read for our times! Through stories illustrating Dr. Dome's compassion-based Recognize-Interrupt-Repair (RIR) protocol, learn how to communicate with empathy so you can "RIR It" in your everyday interactions and in difficult conversations for your own good and the good of all with whom you interact.

Renowned speaker, author, and equity consultant Dr. Nancy A. Dome co-founded Epoch Education in 2014 to provide leaders in education and business with accessible professional development in diversity, inclusion and belonging, and equity. As an educator for nearly three decades, Dr. Dome worked in the Juvenile Court and Community Schools system teaching our most vulnerable students and has served as a Distinguished Teacher in Residence and faculty member at California State University San Marcos. Her transformative approach helps school districts and educational agencies throughout the country navigate complex topics, build bridges, and work together for inclusive, impactful change. For more information, visit drnancydome.com.

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