Volunteers acknowledge social problems only after they are already solved.

Evidence

Volunteers were certainly not oblivious to social problems; they could talk about them if there was something upbeat to say, if the problem already had been solved. … They could release the tension with gales of laughter and a story, but only because everything had already worked out fine. An interracial meeting that did not turn sour was a relief; that was what made the story so funny. The assumption was that racial tension was present; the problem could be acknowledged, but only after it had already been overcome. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 256

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the core reading question — solidarity formed positively but only by pre-resolving or ignoring ongoing problems; parallels the ‘close to home’ avoidance mechanism in Eliasoph’s own broader work. — connects to: Volunteers deliberately shrink concerns into unpolitical tasks to sustain a message of hope — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 191; Volunteer groups lack respect for open-ended discussion of unresolved issues — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 221; Volunteers silence political problems to keep the empowering feeling alive — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 182 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Volunteers silence political discussion to preserve their can-do optimism #corroborates (0.92) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 204
• Volunteers silence political problems to keep the empowering feeling alive #corroborates (0.90) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 182
• Volunteer groups suppress political talk even though members privately care #corroborates (0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 192
• Volunteer groups lack respect for open-ended discussion of unresolved issues #corroborates (0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 221
• Volunteers spontaneously raised environmental and racial concerns rather than avoiding them #contradicts (0.80) — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”, 64
• Civic volunteers deflect principled proposals by responding only to trivial practical details #corroborates (0.75) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 344