Someone (actually, like 30 people in the last hour or two) told me they have to sit through an antiracist/diversity training for work tomorrow and asked for advice. Here's something you can really do that works:

Ask calibrated questions.

Ask questions about the definitions. "So, when you say 'racist' and 'anti-racist,' you don't mean, like, the normal definition?" Sound confused. This is important. You're there to learn, after all. Don't fight back, just be a *really slow* learner and ask questions to expose.

Ask questions about the implications. Like, "So, if I become an 'anti-racist,' am I still a racist? How do I stop being racist? How does this program make me not racist?" Again, you're there to learn, so sound like it. SLOOOW learner. Try to see if they'll say you can't

And the contradictions. "Wait, so if colorblindness means not seeing race, and that makes me racist, does seeing race make me racist? Is race supposed to matter or not matter?" Slow learner mode, activate. Make them explain it, and make it look hard to learn.

If it's about implicit bias, learn to game the test (it's actually v. easy). Then report this. Sometimes you take it and it gives you a strong pro-black bias. Other times, strong pro-white. What gives? Demonstrate or provide receipts later. See if they admit that it's unreliable.

Ask them really obvious questions like, "doesn't making us focus on race more make the issue more sensitive, and doesn't a reporting system make it harder to work with people we don't trust?" Make them explain the practical failures away and look silly.

This isn't just a fun strategy that can work, especially on the people around you (derived from How to Have Impossible Conversations, btw). It's actually core to their literature. You could even mention it to show what a good, interested student you are.

For instance, Barbara Applebaum says in Being White, Being Good that the only legitimate way to "disagree" is by asking challenging questions to understand to eventually agree. So... do that. Take that vibe and approach. Be a slow learner and point subversively at the problems.

You should come off looking like you want to learn, but your real goals are to waste their time (they'll hold court anyway) and to get them to admit embarrassing stuff or to confuse themselves in front of people. Always sound like you're confused and trying to learn.

It actually takes very little effort to learn enough about this stuff (e.g., using resources I made for http://newdiscourses.com ) to come up with a list of calibrated questions that you can spring at opportune moments to "learn" more while keeping them looking foolish.

Meanwhile, by the way, if you can pull it off, record it. Try to get them on audio saying reprehensible stuff (you don't have to force this; it comes out naturally) or caught up and confused in contradictions or nonsense. Don't get fired. Play along and subvert!

"Wait, so are we talking about real racism or systemic racism?" ... "Ok, if systemic racism is real racism, what do we call real racism so we don't get them confused?" ... "So we can all be racist because of systemic racism even if there's no real racism?"

That's good subverting

"Let's say you say I have white fragility, and I disagree with that assessment. Now, just for the sake of argument, say I know for sure and am correct that my disagreement is not white fragility. Are you saying it still is white fragility even when I know it's not?"

"Since there's no such thing as not racist, if I take up anti-racism, I must still be a racist anti-racist, because there's no such thing as a not-racist anti-racist, right? So do I basically have to keep doing these trainings forever?"

(Don't call it Race Scientology, tho!)

"This training is about helping diversity and hiring more diversity. So if we get a black lady as a boss and she thinks diversity trainings are making things worse and stops them, is that good or bad for diversity? Are black ladies allowed to think diversity trainings are bad?"

"So, it's always my responsibility to use my privileged status as a member of a dominant group to interrupt oppression, but it would be in my own self-interest as an anti-racist to do that, right? Is it always my responsibility to work in my own self-interest, or not to?"

By the way, this will probably infuriate the facilitators, so tread with caution. It's advice for people who aren't cowards and who want to do something but know that fighting it is a lost cause. If you don't, stay silent and hope against hope that it'll all just blow over.

Also, by the way, you can tell it will work based on how mad they are that someone would dare suggest being subversive against their attempted imposition of power, since that's the racket they're trying to run and you might just expose the lie.

Haha, tales from the wild. Interrupting microaggressions while white is "necessary" but also would be a microaggression because it's a white person stepping in, thus speaking over.