I got to the venue before the administrator from my school did, so I ended up waiting a bit. I got to talk with some of the others from my group a bit while she arrived and picked up our badges. We all had different workshops we planned to go to, so we agreed to meet up together for lunch, and again in a few weeks to go over our notes.
Morning Keynote: Getting Underneath Our Perceptions of Race: How Implicit Bias Works, Dr. Samuel Y. Song
Organizers led by acknowledging that we are on Duwamish land, with a culture and history of its own predating those that now occupy the space.
Lecture underlined the ways in which implicit biases affect every moment of our lives, from our interactions to our spaces, and these biases can and do injure us. He linked implicit biases to covert and overt violences; the ways unchallenged and largely unconscious biases lead directly to overt violences and the more covert violences which reduce access and opportunity. Challenging our implicit bias allows us to combat racism and other oppressions systemically.
Morning Workshop: Who’s (NOT) in Your Space?
This was a student-led workshop and it was really excellent! The presenters began by introducing themselves and by welcoming a list of potential identities and groups to the space. (i.e. We welcome all races, gender identities, cultural heritages, sexual orientations, and abilities, etc.) It was pretty thorough and made it easy to speak up in the next step when they asked if we had any accessibility needs they should be aware of. We then all introduced ourselves, gave our pronouns, and explained why we’d chosen this workshop. Then we were assigned random breakout groups and asked to remember a detailed sense memory of a time when we felt we did not belong.
For a number of us, it took some time to pinpoint one example we remembered clearly enough, having too many memories to choose from. Then we described the scene to the others in our groups. We were asked to focus not just on the people who made us feel unwelcome in our memories, but also the sounds, smells, colors. Was there music? Was there food? What kind? What languages were spoken, or what jargon was used?
After some reflections and thoughts were shared with the larger group, we talked about how many different aspects to a situation add up to an unwelcoming space. We considered the aspects above, as well as how much physical and emotional space is taken up and by whom, power differentials among the members of a group.
When building inclusive and safer spaces, we need to begin by considering the needs and backgrounds of those who will be using the space, and especially for those who will be served by the space. We then need to actively maintain the inclusivity of the space, taking care to ensure everyone can fully access the space.
I really enjoyed this session!
Afternoon Keynote: Awakening to What Works: Practical Approaches to Deep Social Change, Dr. Leticia Nieto
Dr. Nieto has a really vibrant and engaging style; she reminds me a lot of my queer studies professor. She began by leading us in singing Leonard Cohen’s Anthem, and then led us quickly through a hell of a lot of Marxist breakdown of societal organization, but rather than what I’m used to, she’s broken it down to power, rank, and status.
Power is her individual identity level. Its our level of empowerment and energy.
Rank is constant, it’s how we’re perceived in the world, and the social baggage we bring with us. Perceived group membership lives here.
Status defines our actions, draws on our power, and is colored by our rank.
We also discussed target and agent group memberships. Honestly there was a lot going on in this session and I’m still unpacking it, but it was a great new lens to view interactions through.
Afternoon Workshop: Recognizing and Interrupting Racial Microaggressions
This was, weirdly, the most contentious session of the day. If I’d had more time to think about my plans, I may have been prepared for that, but I wasn’t and it left me a bit bewildered. What I mean is, there were a bunch of people in the workshop who clearly didn’t believe microaggressions are even a thing, or were unwilling to approach the idea as it was presented. This meant we wasted a lot of time bringing those people in and up to speed, which was frustrating. (Though it did help me work on the discourse a bit.)
As a result, we didn’t spend as much time as I’d hoped we would on ways to interrupt and counter microaggressions. On the bright side, they did prepare handouts which covered a fair bit of this.
Anyway! We defined microaggressions as a category, and then went over microinsults (i.e. “your english is surprisingly good!”,) microassaults (i.e. crossing the street to avoid a black man,) and microinvalidations (i.e. “They didn’t mean that, don’t make such a big deal about it.”)
The most useful interrupt seems to be asking the microaggressor why. Asking why they say or do that requires them to pause and consider their actions. The answer given in the moment may not be constructive, but there’s a possibility they will reflect later.
We felt it was also important to consider our impact and safety. Is it safe for us to speak up? Will we be heard? When interrupting as an ally, will our actions help or might they actually rebound on the victim?
It was really good to have this session, though I wish we’d had more time.
Closing ceremony and call to action
The call to action was pretty great, but then, attending a race conference kind of implies a certain amount of readiness to make change.
The rest of the closing ceremony was a performance by an international dance troupe that specializes in challenging social issues. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.
The performances were incredible; their dancers and choreographers are very skilled, and I really liked that the troupe has a wide range of skin tones and body types. I had trouble focusing on much of the performance though, since the dancers depicted domestic and sexualized violence in what I’m sure would have been a powerful performance motivating action to challenge these violences if I hadn’t felt terrified, angry, and trapped. They also had a piece on mass shootings that focused on intervention, but I was already pretty panicked and basically had an awful night full of anxiety. (Also, fucking really? Can we maybe talk about toxic masculinity, male entitlement, white supremacy, and gun culture instead of “ooh we should make sure they’re not mentally ill and left out!” when it’s been made brutally clear that nearly all mass shooters are sane and acting out of a sense of bruised white male entitlement. Ugh.)
I really would have appreciated some trigger warnings at the beginning, especially since then I could have moved to an aisle seat for a quick escape.
They did a closing performance that was significantly more positive and helped a little.
I totally want to go again next year, though I might skip the closing ceremony next time yikes.
