LA Author Visits Tulsa, Debuts New Book On Racial Tension

A Los Angeles author and psychology professor was in Tulsa to discuss racial tension in America.

She said one stepping stone to unity is to develop a way of thinking that is “both and” instead of “either or;” so, coming together and starting a conversation, then, understanding it's OK to agree to disagree.

Dr. Shelly Tochluk debuted her newest book Monday night at TCC's Center for Creativity. It's called Living In Tension: The Quest for a Spiritualized Racial Justice.

She said, during such a polarizing time in the country, a lot of people have been called to think about race, who have never thought much about it before.

She said the book is like an introduction for those who want to be good people but don't how to thoughtfully treat racial issues when they come up in conversation.

Tochluk worked on the book for two years but said the racial problems in our country is faced with the today are addressed in the book.

“There's a tension around being one common race and having one common humanity, which, I believe, is 100 percent valid and true. And we are also part of groups that have been socially treated very differently. And so the systems have treated us differently, we've had different experiences and we need to figure out how to bridge that divide between what is common and what's group-specific and different and how that we can heal together around that,” she said.

Tochluk gave a book-reading and hosted a dialogue on how to start conversations about racial understanding.

You can learn more here.