In the first meetings of the group, held in late June of 2020, attendees discussed shared group goals and ground rules for discussion. Comments were collected anonymously using Padlet, and those comments are collected and shared below for continued reference.

Self-Identified Goals for the Antiracism Reading Group

(Comments grouped roughly by topic, but the text itself has not been altered.)

Recognizing racism and taking action

• Recognize racist customs, traditions, and polices in our midst (like in our department) that we can change together
• Learn to recognize aspects of racism that we may not be cognizant of
• Recognizing current social and institutional structures that promote racist policies and ideas so that we can figure out our own personal ways of being a better ally and helping to dismantle those structures
  • Comment 1: Well said. The social/institutional structures are something we need to become much more aware of so we can recognize them more easily.
• Identify racist policies we can change
• Turning our intentions into action
• Taking action
  • Translating thoughts and knowledge about antiracism into action and how to use that in our professional spaces

Communication

• Learn to productively/supportively ‘call out’ subtle/passive racism in non-confrontational situations
• [Create a] comfortable space so everyone can be heard
• Learn how to create an inclusive space

Personal goals/growth

• Becoming more comfortable talking about race
• Educating myself
  • I’d like to educate myself on our history (from which we’ve become increasingly detached), the issues that stem from that history, how systemic racism has gotten to where it is today, and how we can move forward
• Overcome implicit biases
  • Try to recognize ways to make changes in my actions in personal and professional life
• Learn how to talk about these issues
  • How do we confidently have hard conversations (with friends, family, etc.)
• Improving allyship
  • I have experience working with other minority groups, but maybe not racism specifically

Working together

• Discovering as a group
  • We gain more from learning and discussing as a group as opposed to separately
• Find actionable goals for our department(s)
  • Takes the conversation about allyship and inclusion from an “abstract” space to something more concrete
• Work together to come up with practical anti-racist strategies
  • Especially in our shared discipline/situation (lab, classroom, professional societies, etc.)  
• Accountability
  • The reading group specifically will help make sure we get all the way through the book
• Hashing out ideas
  • Understand better what we mean by racist or antiracist, how do we think about racism as a social construct, discern which ideas are helpful and correct and which are unhelpful or incorrect around the topic of race

Self-Identified Ground Rules for Antiracist Reading Group Discussion

“How can we make our discussions mindful, productive, and forgiving?”
(Comments grouped roughly by similarity, but original text unaltered.)

• Define the terms you use as they come up in conversation
• Speak up if you are hurt by someone’s words or actions
• Be specific
  • Use specific examples rather than generalizations; avoid using words like “never” and “”always”
• Focus on topics in the book
  • Point out something specific that happened in the book and discuss perceptions of it
• Speak from your own experience
  • “I” statements rather than observations of others
• Keep the things that are said anonymous
• What we discuss here needs to stay here
  • Don’t talk trash or discuss people outside of the discussion. It’s ok to share the ideas, but not specifics or people

 

• Get comfortable with apologizing
  • If someone “calls you out”, apologize! And mean it! And then move forward – both you and the person who pointed out your mistake
• Accept the possibility of being perceived in a poor light while showing mercy on others who may fear the same – and thus we speak openly
• Acknowledge that others are putting themselves in a vulnerable position to be here, as are you, and try to be compassionate and forgiving, but also trust that everyone here is strong enough to receive constructive criticism as we confront our biases
• Be comfortable sitting with your emotions
• Sometimes conversations may be hard to have but it’s important to have them
• Be comfortable with being uncomfortable
• Listen!
  • Listening is so important – remaining calm and being receptive to what other people are saying, not getting defensive.

 

• Keep in mind that when someone says something racist, it’s a problem of miseducation – not mal-intent. Remember that everyone is here to learn to be better, everyone is here/learning with good intentions, even when they misstep
• Don’t focus on the person, but the words, actions, policies when giving criticisms
• Assume that everyone participating in these discussions has good intentions
• Be mindful of the impact of your words on others, but also forgiving of other’s intent
  • Everyone is here with the intention to learn and grow and do better
  • Comment 1: And recognize that someone’s comment may come from a place of personal experience or pain, so if you are criticized by someone, listen to what they are saying and realize they have been actually hurt by your words
• Focus on the idea or the policy not the person
  • Comment 1: An addendum would be – focus on ideas and actions as being racist, not a person being a racist person. Reframing those kinds of statements as being the ideas or statements as problematic means that we can fix those; it’s harder to fix a person (and doesn’t feel good to be told you’re a racist person; but having a racist idea is something that you can fix)
  • Comment 2: exactly! and as we have just read… all people have both racist and anti-racist ideas or actions (unwittingly or not).  I think that perspective changes everything!
• Talk about policy instead of people
  • Don’t make someone personally feel responsible for systemic racism

 

• When “called in” or “called out” focus on the impact your statement had rather than defending your intentions
• Call out racist actions or statements
  • Don’t be defensive if your behaviors are called out
  • Comment 1: We just had a discussion about the idea of “calling out” is itself inherently argumentative and has the potential to escalate a situation; can we not use this language, and instead focus on having conversations?
  • Comment 2: I agree. Call out culture, in which people gain or lose social clout based on approved demonstrations of wokeness, can make people afraid to try to learn. People in the process of learning are going to screw up and we need to be patient and let people stumble without punishment. It also puts the focus on the person and not ideas
• Create a “call in” culture

 

• Stay engaged: speak your truth; stories stay, but lessons leave; suspend judgement of yourself and others; respect limits and encourage; assume positive intentions; use Ouch and Oops
  • Comment 1: Ground Rules (From 500 Women Scientists) acknowledge impact (Ouch Oops) Stories stay, lessons leave; Suspend judgment of yourself and others; Respect limits and encourage growth; Use “Ouch and Oops”: “Ouch!” is when you are hurt, offended, or harmed by something said or done. “Oops!” is when you have said or done something that did or could cause an “ouch!”
  • Comment 2: I love the idea of using “Ouch” and “Oops”
• Use the “oops/ouch” technique
  • When someone says something potentially hurtful, someone can interrupt with “”oops””. The speaker then responds with “”ouch”” to acknowledge that what they said could have been harmful, and then we can move on (or have a discussion about it)
• Perhaps we will focus on ourselves and what we each learn then the issue of commenting on other people’s discovery will be a minority of the discussion
• Step up step back
  • If you have a hard time talking, push yourself to talk. If you talk a lot, try to step back to make space for others
  • Comment 1: Also don’t keep silent for fear of saying the wrong thing. Everyone’s going to say something wrong sometimes; hopefully we can learn from it instead of getting defensive

 

• Very difficult if it’s a bunch of professors and only a few students
  • Comment 1: invite more students!
  • Comment 2: Would it help to make sure that students aren’t in breakout rooms with profs they have direct relationships with? (advisor, committee member, etc.)
  • Comment 3: I think that’s a good suggestion but I would feel sad that a student of mine would not be willing to speak about these issues (i.e., not research) in my presence… I feel like that in itself is a challenge our department should take on. Our students should be able to feel safe expressing their views.  Indeed, they should be safe to express their ideas about science even more so.
  • Comment 4: I would like to question the assumption that professors are inherently hard to talk to 🙂
• Think about ways to allow everyone to feel comfortable in mixed groups of faculty/students/postdocs
  • We are all non-experts in this realm
• Randomized breakout groups are helpful
  • Its sometime easier to speak out when you don’t have close relationships with the people in your group