Great discussion with young adult family today about how to respond when we are in conversation with someone who makes a racist remark.
They wanted to challenge, not be silently complicit, so reflected on recent examples in which they struggled to think of a suitable response.
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They decided to use these recent examples to consider anti-racist responses. They wanted to 'make people think,' rather than simply silence them. They looked for 'go-to' responses that they could use quickly, when encountering a racist comment during conversation.
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I felt very proud of them as they pondered whether calling out the racism was enough, or whether their response should be educational as well as a stop-signal.
All feel strongly that silence signals agreement.
All want to challenge racist behaviours more widely in society.
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They decided that an educational response may be possible sometimes, particularly if they have a relationship with the person expressing a racist view or action.
But they all recalled being unable to think how to respond quickly when they were shocked by unexpected racism.
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Two of these young people have grown up white in UK, & one is of Latin/USA heritage. All now live & work in UK.
All had recent examples of casual racism with assumptions by the perpetrator that they would agree with those values. All were too shocked to respond in the moment.
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Their solution?
When shocked, to use their shock as the trigger to respond 'I'm shocked to hear you say ....' followed by 'Do you think I'm racist? Because that's a racist statement/action & I'm not OK with it.'
They are going to try it out.
Any other tips, Twitter?
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