American Love Stories . Dialogues

"Race relations seem to be one of the hardest things to talk about. I appreciated being able to talk to all of you so openly. I thought more about what keeps us apart, what helps us build bridges and what more I can do to help make the climate in this country a little better."
-- closing message from a dialogue participant

Dialogue status

Thank you for visiting the dialogue section of American Love Stories.

The dialogues that took place on this site during September and October 1999, following the broadcast of “An American Love Story” on PBS have been recognized as pioneering online discussions about race in America. Press coverage about the dialogues in particular, and the Small Group Dialogue technique that was used to make it work, is highlighted below.

While the dialogues are no longer active, we are delighted to be able to make the complete dialogue archives available.

Explore the dialogue archive
on the Web Lab Web site

Press Comments

“None of these people have ever met in person, but for the past week, they have been revealing emotional details about their personal lives in a unique online forum. Spurred by the engaging PBS documentary series, ''An American Love Story,'' these intimate strangers have volunteered to participate in an ongoing dialogue about race, relationships, prejudice, and other provocative topics. It's an experiment masterminded by a New York operation called Web Lab, which aims to show that the Internet, despite its crass commercialism, can foster intelligent communication among diverse groups.”
— A Safe Place to Sound off about Race
The Boston Globe, September 17, 1999

“Since the 10-hour documentary "An American Love Story" aired Sept. 12-16 on PBS, the "lovestories" Web site has hosted a series of sustained, intimate group dialogues.
...The resulting on-point discussion can be rare in the anonymous and newish world of the Web. But the film, and topics that bloom from it, provoked a free flow of ideas, advice and self-searching.”
— Dealing With Differences
Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1999

“Web Lab [is] building new kinds of Web forums designed to foster a more useful debate.”
Washington Post, February 1, 2001

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