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We have two dead and smelly elephants lying on our community living room floor. We tiptoe around them, don't directly discuss them, and allow them to taint the culture we need to reach our potential.

The first and largest is the elephant of racial mistrust, exploitation and politicalization. We just allow it to lie there and engage in an unproductive, approach-avoidance dance without the honesty, depth of dialogue, self-awareness and skills to fully engage. Not to discount other racial tensions, but in Greensboro and our region, it is currently largely a black-white issue and neither color is blameless.

Like it or not, racial mistrust is the common denominator for many of our community issues. The necessity and financial structure of a downtown hotel, the lawsuit-laden soap opera of our Police Department, the just-below-the-surface anger that a white conservative won the mayoral election over our first black woman mayor, and the debate over Tasers and discipline in our public schools are just current manifestations of the same issue.

Building trust is a two-way street. It requires whites to truly understand the depth of the legacy of violation felt by many African Americans. It calls for patience and perspective at what can be perceived as unfair use of the race card or self-serving exploitation and politicalization of racial issues.

Likewise, African Americans need to understand the frustration and anger felt by whites when honest criticism and pragmatism is labeled as racism or intolerance. If we are to create the kind of a culture that will let us move forward and reach our potential as a community, we need to confront the disease and stop being distracted by the symptoms.

The second, smaller but equally smelly elephant is win-lose rigidity, labeling and polarization. It is our inability to put things in context, seek pragmatic solutions, and move on. At the national level, Congress is polarized and incapable of creative compromise. A review of past letters to the editor in this newspaper reveals a similar phenomenon. Liberals are bad; conservatives are good; or exactly the reverse. Too often, we and our elected representatives become trapped in self-fulfilling prophecies and act out our labels without regard to context or the practical value of compromise.

Pragmatism is a uniquely American philosophy articulated by people like William James and John Dewey. It allows us to accept ideas and actions based on their practicality, not because they ideally fit a preconceived political ideology. We need to understand and accept its value and help our elected representatives do the same.

We won't get rid of the elephants by changing our elected representatives. The United States is the most individualistic of all national cultures, and we continue to suffer under the illusion that by changing key people, a cultural change will automatically follow. Nationally, Obama-bashing is replacing Bush-bashing as the invalidity of this illusion sinks in.

Locally, we don't lack opportunities to reinforce the illusion. Longtime Guilford County Commissioner Steve Arnold is leaving, and Commissioner Billy Yow has exchanged his well-digging gear for a lance and is, Don Quixote-like, charging the windmill of national politics, attempting to replace 6th District U.S. Rep. Howard Coble. We have a new Greensboro mayor, a police chief who soon plans to resign, a new city manager and a relatively new county school superintendent.

The reality is that even if Yow manages to get elected, Arnold's replacement is less narrowly dogmatic, or, even if by some quirk of fate, commissioner Skip Alston either leaves or becomes less self-serving, without a basic cultural change our Board of Commissioners will still be largely dysfunctional. Similarly, we can replace leaders in our City Council, Police Department and school system, but without a shift in the underlying culture, the elephants will still decorate our living room.

The way to rid ourselves of these two bloated, reeking elephants is to have the courage to authentically engage each other around the underlying issues. As responsible citizens, we need the skills and fortitude to have a mutual dialogue, not a contentious debate. A dialogue leads to deeper understanding and builds trust. A debate leads to polarizing win-lose outcomes, stereotypes and mistrust. We need to step back from the false comfort of political stereotypes, think for ourselves, avoid polarizing ideologies, and seek pragmatic outcomes that will allow us to move forward. We need to insist that our elected representatives do the same thing and hold them accountable for elephant removal.

For sure, we can't just rotate our representatives and hope that the underlying culture will change, because it won't, and the elephants will only become more cumbersome.

David Noer writes a monthly column for the News & Record on leadership, organizational behavior and community issues.