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Strategies for Response

“What If ‘They’ Call Me a Racist?” and Other Discussion-Stopping Concerns Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D. . Strategies for Response. As you prepare for your class, spend time thinking about what your real fear is about being called a racist. *

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Strategies for Response

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  1. “What If ‘They’ Call Me a Racist?” and Other Discussion-Stopping Concerns Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D.

  2. Strategies for Response • As you prepare for your class, spend time thinking about what your real fear is about being called a racist.* * I am using race as a model. The same strategies apply to dealing with all areas of identity-based oppression.

  3. Strategies for Response • Think through your fear to its natural conclusion (as opposed to your imagined one). What is the worst that could really happen? What would you do then?

  4. Strategies for Response • Think about the impact that your color, gender, role and/or position have on how others hear what you say.

  5. Strategies for Response What weight do your words carry simply on the basis of who you are and what you look like? How does who you are grant you institutional privileges that others aren't granted?

  6. Strategies for Response • Remember, it is not our intent that others are affected by; it is our behavior. So, even if our intent is good (from our perspective), the only thing others have to go on is our behavior.

  7. Strategies for Response • Introduce issues of race (gender, heterosexism) yourself throughout the semester.

  8. Strategies for Response Acknowledge from the start ways that racism impacts all aspects of an institution.

  9. Strategies for Response • If you are called a racist, don't say "I am not!" or "This has nothing to do with race." Both are conversation-stopping responses that lead to a power struggle rather than to genuine dialogue.

  10. Strategies for Response Another response to the person calling you a racist might be, "That is what I am here to learn about." What we need to know are the specific behaviors that are upsetting the person speaking to us. We also need for the person to know that we are taking her/his concerns seriously.

  11. Strategies for Response If you are a white person, telling a person of color when something does, or does not, have to do with race, can be experienced as: • silencing • arrogant • denying someone's experience

  12. Strategies for Response Remember: Race is always a possible element in an interaction; it is not always the issue, but it is always a possibility and it needs to be held as such.

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