Introducing KQED's 'So Well Spoken': Let's Improve How We Talk About Race

It seems the whole nation is having some deep conversations about race and culture right now -- conversations that sometimes go very badly. It's easy to end up with your foot in your mouth, offending someone by mistake or arguing over something that seemed harmless. That is why we are launching "So Well Spoken," a special series on how to communicate better in situations where race and culture are factors.

That series starts this morning in a conversation on KQED radio with some of the women who say they were kicked off the Napa Valley Wine Train for "laughing while black" and who are now considering filing a discrimination suit against the train operator. It's a situation that can be fraught with exactly the kinds of misunderstanding we're hoping to examine in-depth -- and it's the perfect starting point for "So Well Spoken."

But it won't be our ending point.

This series aims to be a conversation with our listeners and readers about their experiences, their questions and their stories.

We can't do that without you. Tell us about an encounter or a conversation you had where race was at play (yours, the other person's or both). If it was awkward -- or even awful -- what might have made it go better, or prevented it from happening at all? If it was awesome, what do you think you did right?

Call our voicemail number to be a part of the radio pieces: 415-553-8455

Or post your stories to Twitter and Facebook using #KQEDSpoken.

Look for more weekly conversations airing on KQED and for a multipart series at the beginning of October.