DEI Resource of the Month
BY THE WSBA EQUITY AND JUSTICE TEAM
Many workplaces tout themselves as safe spaces that do not tolerate hate and strive to create places of comfort free from conflict and criticism.11 Merriam Webster defines safe space as “a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.” Building safety in your workplace is important. However, organizations that falsely equate safety with comfort allow people to retreat from conversations about racism and oppression, which perpetuates inequities.
Talking about racism and oppression is deeply uncomfortable. Listening to news stories about systemic brutality against marginalized groups or hearing about experiences of bias from clients or staff activates a fight-flight-freeze response in all of us. These responses may come from feelings of guilt or defensiveness in those who have never experienced such brutality or bias, or grief and trauma in those who have.22 Resmaa Menakem details the ways that learned racialized trauma shows up in all our bodies in the book My Grandmother’s Hands. Visit www.resmaa.com for more resources on evidence-based practices for overcoming this fight-flight-freeze response. All those feelings are normal and nothing to be ashamed of—but everyone suffers when we’re afraid to face them.
Staff or volunteers who notice instances of interpersonal or institutional bias may feel unequipped and afraid to acknowledge and interrupt them for fear of creating conflict. Leaders and managers may mistakenly label as combative and issue-causing those clients, staff, or volunteers who draw attention to policies or practices that cause harm or exclusion, instead of addressing the real source of their discomfort—acknowledging and exploring the possibility that they or the organization may unintentionally be perpetuating racism and oppression. All of this creates an administrative racism cycle where people feel uncomfortable and unequipped to talk about racism and oppression and refuse to name it, while it’s showing up and actively harming staff, volunteers, and clients.33 Anthony Starke, Nuri Heckler, & Janiece Mackey outline this cycle in their article “Administrative racism: Public administration education and race,” available at www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15236803.2018.1426428.
Although this article centers on public administration curriculum, organizations and firms can incorporate teaching about racism and building brave space to activate an anti-racism cycle.
In order to interrupt this cycle, organizations must teach staff and volunteers to prepare for and navigate that discomfort,44 Stanford University’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Access Initiative has a great resource about preparing for difficult conversations and navigating discomfort in talking about racism and oppression, available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/19TiFhieRaPFxU50Vqs6DbAusmyKwwgzk/view. while also facilitating brave spaces,55 Break Away, an organization focused on justice-based trainings and education, offers a succinct comparison of safe spaces and brave spaces in their blog post “Do We Need Safe or Brave Spaces?” available at https://alternativebreaks.org/safe-or-brave-spaces/. or intentional spaces where group members hold each other accountable to individual learning, allow space for diversity of thought instead of forced assimilation and agreeableness, and create generative conflict—all of which bring members closer together while also interrupting interpersonal and organizational bias.66 The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Talking About Race hub contains toolkits for individuals, groups, and organizations to learn how to talk about race. See https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race. Only then can we move toward true safety for
all.
NOTES
1. Merriam Webster defines safe space as “a place (as on a college campus) intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations.”
2. Resmaa Menakem details the ways that learned racialized trauma shows up in all our bodies in the book My Grandmother’s Hands. Visit www.resmaa.com for more resources on evidence-based practices for overcoming this fight-flight-freeze response.
3. Anthony Starke, Nuri Heckler, & Janiece Mackey outline this cycle in their article “Administrative racism: Public administration education and race,” available at www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15236803.2018.1426428.
Although this article centers on public administration curriculum, organizations and firms can incorporate teaching about racism and building brave space to activate an anti-racism cycle.
4. Stanford University’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Access Initiative has a great resource about preparing for difficult conversations and navigating discomfort in talking about racism and oppression, available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/19TiFhieRaPFxU50Vqs6DbAusmyKwwgzk/view.
5. Break Away, an organization focused on justice-based trainings and education, offers a succinct comparison of safe spaces and brave spaces in their blog post “Do We Need Safe or Brave Spaces?” available at https://alternativebreaks.org/safe-or-brave-spaces/.
6. The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Talking About Race hub contains toolkits for individuals, groups, and organizations to learn how to talk about race. See https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race.