In a reversal of standard protocol at middle-school cafeterias everywhere, diners filing into the Chaska Event Center on Tuesday evening were instructed to sit with strangers who didn't look like them.
"Please sit with someone you've never met and, based on looks alone, you believe to be very different from you," Marnita Schroedl told them.
By the end of the evening, the hope was that many of the 220 people attending the free community dinner — more than a third of whom were people of color — had found they had more in common than they might have thought.
The event, hosted by the city of Chaska and Eastern Carver County Community Education, was part of an effort to strengthen ties after a series of race-related episodes in the past year demonstrated that relationships in the community could use some work.
"I believe in developing community unity," said Dontá Hughes, a black Chaska resident with three kids in high school. "That doesn't mean I keep looking for problems. I've got to be part of the solution."
The event, called "Engage! A feast and conversation about getting involved," was organized by Marnita's Table, a Minneapolis-based organization founded by Schroedl that works with cities, businesses and other groups to encourage interaction across lines of race, class, age and other demographic divisions.
Residents have been riven by discord since last spring, when some parents in the Eastern Carver County School District reported that their children had experienced racist harassment in the schools. School officials apologized and beefed up the district's equity program.
Opponents of the equity program, contending that it put white and Christian students at a disadvantage, staged a campaign linking it with the district's November referendum even though the equity program was primarily funded by the state. Two of the referendum's three parts were rejected by voters, forcing the district to find $14 million to cut from its budget.
