Beyond Intractability: A Free Knowledge Base on More Constructive Approaches to Destructive Conflict

Introduction: Silke Hansen talks about the delicate nature of naming an event in the context of her work with the Community Relations Service during the Rodney King "event."

This rough transcript provides a text alternative to audio. We apologize for occasional errors and unintelligible sections (which are marked with ???).

Terminology
Silke Hansen
Senior Conciliation Specialist, Community Relations Service

Interviewed by
Julian Portilla
2003

What became interesting was what terminology you used became critical in this mediation. If you went into the African American community and called it a "riot," they would say it wasn't a riot, it was a revolution or it was a disturbance. So I have come to call it the Rodney King event, and responses to that and consequences of that "event" because just how you define something becomes an issue in different communities.

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Featured Links
Organizations Making Noteworthy Contributions to Efforts to Promote More Constructive Conflict

EMU Center for Justice and Peacebuilding

Other Resources from
Beyond Intractability

Make Your Own Knowledge Base Textbook
How to build your own textbook using Beyond Intractability!

Nobel Peace Prize Winners

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
1965 Nobel Peace Laureate

Beyond Intractability Version IV
Copyright © 2003-2007 The Beyond Intractability Project
Beyond Intractability is a Registered Trademark of the University of Colorado
Project Acknowledgements

The Beyond Intractability Knowledge Base Project
Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess, Co-Directors and Editors
c/o Conflict Information Consortium (Formerly Conflict Research Consortium), University of Colorado
Campus Box 580, Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: (303) 492-1635; Fax: (303) 492-2154; Contact