To be read by all attendees before the conference
-
- Don’t assume our identity. Resisting whiteness is a collective of queer and trans people of colour. Do not assume anyone’s pronouns or gender, and respect how they choose to define themselves. This applies for our conference speakers and audience members.
- Tone policing. Racial oppression is exhausting, insidious and inescapable. It is part of our everyday lives. Sometimes talking about issues of race gets emotional and heated; do not tell a person of colour to “calm down” or accuse them of getting overly emotional. We have a right to be mad.
- It is not our job to educate you. Resisting whiteness works to facilitate conversations and learning opportunities, and we welcome questions, but we are not required to answer all or any of your questions (particularly those that can be Googled). Learning is a two-way street, please take up your side of the bargain.
- Boundaries. Not everyone will want to engage in social interaction, physical contact or sustained eye contact. Be mindful that not everyone is neurotypical, and your comfortable boundaries of interaction may not hold true for others.
- Privilege. Take a moment to consider which privileges help you move through the world (race, sexuality, gender, class, neurotypicality, ability, language, etc.) before engaging in discussions.
- Volunteers. Please be respectful to our volunteers and committee members, and remember that, as people of colour themselves, they may also be processing difficult content throughout the discussions of the day.
- Safe Spaces. We will have two rooms available for anyone who needs to remove themselves from the conference because they’re feeling overwhelmed/overstimulated or uncomfortable, or because they just need some time to calm down and relax in a quiet environment. The Braid room is a safe space for only people of colour, and the Cheviot room is available for anyone who needs it. Please be mindful in these spaces that anyone else using it may not want to talk. These rooms will be used for the workshops between 12.00 – 13.15 pm and 17.00 – 18.15 pm.
- Violence. Violence will not be tolerated. This includes physical violence, violent language (racist, sexist, transphobic or ableist slurs, misgendering, dismissal of experiences and pain).
- Audience questions. This conference is designed to give people of colour a platform to talk about their experiences and expertise in the context of anti-racist organising and resistance of oppression. Because we want to amplify the voices of people of colour, priority will be given to questions from people of colour in the audience. If you are a white person in the audience and you still have a question after the panel has ended, please feel free to share your questions with a member of the committee or our speakers then.
WE DO NOT TOLERATE: SEXISM – RACISM – ABLEISM – AGEISM – HOMOPHOBIA – FATPHOBIA – TRANSPHOBIA – CLASSISM – HATEFULNESS
Resisting whiteness 2019 