Raging for the right reasons can be difficult because you may not know where to start. Maybe some of you think that you are not racist because you don’t make racist jokes or call people racial slurs, or maybe you don’t see color. (Maybe you should get your eyes checked if that’s the case)
Congratulations, you are at basement level of not being racist.
That is not enough…
We need to be interruptors; we need to step up and speak out. It will be scary, and it will feel like you’re being extra, but who cares? (Actually it’s hard not to care, but doing the right thing gets easier the more that you do it.) We have the ability to break the status quo. We all can probably think of a situation where someone said something really offensive and everyone just kind of looked away because it was awkward and generally not cool, well speaking up will make you cool in my book.
So how do we interact with people who display racism (even if they don’t know it)? How can we be actively anti-racist? And how can we do it without attacking people? Sometimes people need to be condemned and told their actions are wrong in no uncertain terms (hello Jesus flipping tables), but more times people need interrupted in their way of thinking and taught a new way (hello Jesus in most interactions when his disciples being narrow minded).
There is an instagram account called @EverdayRacism_ and they rock. It is currently one of my favorite accounts right now. Recently they had a post called “Direct Ways to Call our Racism.” They list six techniques to help you confidently and assertively stand up in the moment you see someone being racist. I asked if I could share there work with you all, and they said yes, so I will list them here. Since they are so awesome, I want you to give them a follow and check out their other tips (especially in this particular post).
Direct Ways to Call out Racism
- “Before you carry on, I would just like to address what you just said about _ . That is something that I find very offensive because _, and I would like it if you didn’t say that anymore.
- “Would you mind explaining what you mean by that? I would be interested to know where you got that information from.”
- “What you just said made me feel uncomfortable because _ and I would appreciate if you didn’t say that again.
- “I/We are currently learning how to be actively anti-racist and we have realized that saying _ is not ok. I would suggest reading/following _.”
- “You may or may not have meant to come across this way, but saying___ is actually a very insulting thing to say.”
- “I’d be really interested in chatting to you more about this at some point as I think there is more to unpack here.”
The direct link to that post is here: “Direct Ways to Call our Racism” Click it, heart it, and follow them. Read more than you speak, and interrupt your friends’ racism. I’ll give you permission to do the same.
Jeremy P. England 