Bernard S. Mayer - The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change

The combination of theory, relevant personal reflection, and practical strategies make The Neutrality Trap a valuable resource for any practitioner serious about disrupting structural racism.

Cheryl L. Jamison, J.D., Former Executive Director, Association for Conflict Resolution

In The Neutrality Trap, FontGuzmn and Mayer make the simple yet powerful point that neutralitythe North Star of dispute resolution processesmight serve more as an impediment than as an agent of social change. Having struck a heavy blow to the dispute resolution edifice, FontGuzmn and Mayer help us rebuild it by guiding us on how to avoid the neutrality trap, engage in meaningful dialogue, and prepare to endure conflict. An important and timely contribution to the field.

Rafael Gely, J.D., Ph.D., James E. Campbell Missouri Endowed Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law

If you are a conflict resolution practitioner considering this book, you probably already know (or suspect) that insisting on neutrality in the face of systemic conflicts and prolonged injustices can do more harm than good. Bernie Mayer and Jackie FontGuzmn move the conversation beyond a critique of neutrality. Drawing on their practical experiences, they offer an engaging, thoughtprovoking, and inspiring exploration of the ways we can use conflict resolution practices to engage enduring conflicts that require transformation rather than settlement.

Jayne Seminare Docherty, Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU

The Neutrality Trap brings clarity and hope to the dilemma so many of us mediators face these days: How to reconcile our commitment to peacemaking when our hearts are pulling us toward the social justice movements' cries for disruption. With wisdom and compassion FontGuzmn and Mayer share their own experiencesprofessional and personalto give us a framework for understanding today's polarization and a road map for moving forward. They model the honesty and vulnerability we all need to function in that intersection of conflict resolution and social justice reform.

Lucy Moore, Author of Common Ground on Hostile Turf

Read this book. It will take you into fertile, uncomfortable terrain as it dares to address the bitter divisions in America and beyond that, if unaddressed, will only fester and escalate. Dialogue is not enough. Mayer and FontGuzmn take readers beyond easy prescriptions into difficult, necessary, and fruitful ways to engage and support structural social change. Read this book to change your mind. It can change your neighborhood. Read this book to change the world.

Though the field of conflict resolution has matured, practitioners have clung tenaciously to the cloak of neutrality, refusing to examine what it hides. Mayer and FontGuzmn question who the cloak shelters in a world where systemic inequality is perpetuated toooften by conflict interventions. In a conversational narrative, the authors thoughtfully examine the vexing problems that the neutrality myth has obscured, challenging readers in nuanced ways. But they don't stop there. Nestled in a wide range of stories, they offer ways to advance fairness, equality, and justice. Their book is part challenge, part howtomanual. It deserves to be widely read and applied with courage and heart.

Michelle LeBaron, Professor and dispute resolution scholar | Peter A. Allard School of Law, The University of British Columbia

Thank you for writing this. You've brought to light what is happening in the minds of social justice leaders and groups and have said it eloquently with much reflection. The Neutrality Trap makes me very hopeful for the future and I believe will encourage more people to step up and take an active role in the fight for systemic change.

Moya Mcalister, Board Director of the Black Women of Forward Action (Windsor, ON)

In The Neutrality Trap, Bernie Mayer and Jackie FontGuzmn challenge conflict workers to rethink our role in dealing with the complex and oppressing social problems our society faces. The authors reflect on their previous work with remarkable frankness and humility, thereby helping the reader to see the problem with standing behind the comfortable shield of neutrality, and in so doing, failing to deal with unjust systems that create and perpetuate harm. They pick up this longstalled topic and craft it into a call to reexamine how we see our role as conflict engagement practitioners and as citizens.

Susanne Terry, Editor and contributor, More Justice, More Peace: When Peacemakers are Advocates

Conflict specialists have long struggled with how to balance our role as dialogue facilitators with our commitment to expanding social justice. The Neutrality Trap explains how these two seemingly opposite roles can and must reinforce each other. The authors, Jackie FontGuzmn and Bernie Mayer, describe their own journeys as intervenors and activists through truthtelling and fiercely honest selfexamination. Social change is hard, and sometimes the hardest obstacles to overcome are hidden; this book challenges us to learn how to balance conflict and cooperation to overcome those obstacles in order to achieve real, sustainable social change.

Colin Rule, CEO, Mediate.com and Arbitrate.com

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