The Bernal Story ― Mediating Class and Race in a Multicultural Community

Written by an experienced mediator, this is an account of a multicultural mediation process in San Francisco. The Bernal neighborhood is traditionally a working-class, multiracial area, which has seen changes in recent years. These came to a flash point over the question of what to do with an aging 1970s-era mural on the neighborhood library. Some people saw it as an eyesore on a historic building; others saw it as an important piece of community pride. The book describes the process of intercultural communication and facilitation that led to setting up a mediation group led by the author, and how mediation and conflict resolution techniques led to the community's consensus decision to renovate the mural as a reinterpretation that reflected changing times and included the full population of the neighborhood. The book is written in a narrative style that will engage general readers interested in the subject, but it mainly functions as a case study and how-to manual for mediators and students of mediation and conflict resolution doing multicultural work. Annotation c2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Beth Roy is a long-time mediator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained as a sociologist
at the University of California, Berkeley, she teaches there in the Peace and Conflict
Studies program