‘Healing the Hate’ Town Meeting to Explore the Issue of Racism

Cable’s Lifetime is looking racism squarely in the eye on Sunday with three hours of programming dealing with this issue, primarily through the stories and voices of women, the cable channel’s key target audience.

The topic is first explored in a special two-part episode of its acclaimed dramatic series “Any Day Now,” starring Annie Potts and Lorraine Toussaint as two lifelong friends, one white, one black. The drama opens as M.E. (Potts) is forced to confront her own unconscious racial bias when she mistakes an African American woman in a restaurant for a waitress. The incident sparks a heated debate between M.E. and Renee (Toussaint) and nearly shatters their long friendship.

Following at 10 p.m. is an ABC News special being produced for Lifetime, “I’m Not a Racist But . . . Small Steps Toward Healing the Hate.” Taped earlier in the evening before a studio audience, “I’m Not a Racist But . . . “ will attempt to analyze racism in America and offer suggestions on how to end it.

The panel will be moderated by ABC News reporters, Cokie Roberts and Deborah Roberts. Both Potts and Toussaint will be in attendance and, prior to the meeting, the audience and panelists will see the “Any Day Now” two-parter.

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The town meeting, says executive producer Shelley Lewis, will be divided into three acts. The first will explore how much racism there really is in America.

“Is everybody to some extent bigoted or prejudiced?” she offers. “It’s a challenging question.”

Before the event begins, a Yale psychology professor will give everyone a test that examines unconscious bias in people. “It turns out that 90% of us have some sort of unconscious bias,” Lewis explains.

Among the diverse participants involved in the onstage panel are Lisa Ling of ABC’s “The View”; cultural advocate Tonya Lee; Christy Haubegger, president of Latina Publications; Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu; Felix Sanchez, president of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts; and Beverly Tatum, dean of Mount Holyoke College, who also lectures on race issues.

“[In the second act] we look into where does it start,” Lewis adds. “We look at the school, family and the workplace. We’ll have panelists who can speak specifically from their own experiences. The third and probably largest segment will [focus on how can] it end. It will be about solutions--small steps we as women can take toward ending racism and promoting harmony.”

The program will also include the opinions of younger women. “One of the things that is very interesting is how high school kids really think this is a ridiculous subject,” Cokie Roberts says. “[They think] ‘What is the problem here, grown-ups?’

“For once they are right,” Roberts says. “The world they live in, particularly in a place like L.A. or Washington, D.C., even, it is just so much more diverse than the world their parents grew up in.”