Our poster highlights the challenges faced by educators in having conversations about race, inequality, and other social justice issues in the classroom with a diverse student audience. We note, that both educators and students bring their own unique biases to the classroom, and our goal is to highlight and help others understand the importance of having conversations regarding social justice topics. We found students were engaged in deeper level learning and enriched competency development in social justice issues when we engaged in purposeful strategies to create safe learning environments.