Bystander anti-racism can aim to stop the perpetration of racism, reduce its escalation, prevent the physical, psychological, and social harms that may result, and/or strengthen broader social norms that should reduce racism in the future

Nelson et al., 2011, p. 265

NEED CONTENT SUMMARIES

Today, you will explore major concepts related to bystander intervention. Specific topics to be explored are:

• Who is a bystander?
• What is the bystander effect?
• Who is an empowered bystander and how is this different from a bystander?
• Community Responsibility
• Bias and Microaggressions

Required Material

Not Racist vs. Anti-Racist

Most of us are non-racist. But although this leaves us with a clear conscience, it doesn’t really do much to help fight the very real injustices occurring in the world. Watch the short video below where Marlon James explains what this means.

Marlon James. (2016). Are you racist? ‘No’ isn’t a good enough answer. The Guardian. [link]

Duty and Responsibility

Post Reports. (2022). George Floyd and the ‘duty to intervene’.  [link]

Murrell (2020). Why someone did not stop them? Aversive racism and the responsibility of bystanders. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal Vol. 40 No. 1, 2021 pp. 60-73. [link]

Implicit Bias and Microaggressions

Abrams, Z. (2021). How bystanders can shut down microaggressions. American Psychological Association, Vol. 55-6. [link]

Filax, G. (2011). On Bias and microaggressions: Social Power, Inequality, and the ‘tone of voice’ argument. Blog. [link]

Nelson et al (2011). Bystander Anti-Racism: A Review of the Literature. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011, pp. 263-84 (Read 263-66). [link]

Nelson, Dunn, and Paradies offer a literature review highlighting bystander anti-racism as necessary for an effective anti-racist social policy. Recently, definitions of bystander have shifted from conceptualizations of a passive witness to an emergency or event and have focused on the documented effectiveness of the bystander as an active, helping agent in addressing everyday interpersonal, institutional, or systemic forms of racism. Bystander anti-racism tasks bystanders with taking actions that confront a racist act, utterance, joke, or attitude; and provide support to targeted members or groups. The aim is to stop racism, prevent its psychological and social harm, and reduce its escalation. Strengthening its effectiveness requires recruiting bystanders that are not part of the racially targeted group to demonstrate an intolerance of racism as the desired objective. While active bystanders confront racism as individuals, acting against racism occurs in various everyday social contexts such as schools, workplaces, etc. Bystander anti-racism calls on individuals to change social norms by making racism unacceptable. The authors’ review of relevant literature suggests that there is a lack of investigation into the effectiveness of applying a bystander framework to anti-racist social policy. Doing so makes confronting racism a collective social imperative in which everybody holds the responsibility to non-violently intervene against racism. However, the authors also review obstacles to bystander intervention. Notably, bystanders are more likely to intervene when they identify with the targeted person. In other words, White women were less likely to intervene to help a Black woman. Also, White women are also less inclined to help a Black woman when there is a perceived risk, or more effort or time is required in comparison to their willingness to respond in assistance to a fellow White woman. For bystander anti-racism to be effective, onlookers need to be equipped with efficient strategies of assertive anti-racist responses. Another obstacle to anti-racist intervention stems from impact on interpersonal relations and consequences of bystander intervention in the workplace. Often, racist statements are perceived as function of maintaining status quo or group status rather than the promotion of racist acts. Additionally, underdeveloped social norms towards intolerance of racism impacts action against racist behaviour. There are notable discrepancies between how individuals believe they would respond against racist behaviour and how they react when confronted by racism. Onlookers are more likely to express condemnation of racism when other group members condemn racism and are more likely to condone racism if others in the group condone it. Effective bystander action is taken when messages of disapproval are clearly communicated and strike a balance between maintaining interpersonal relationships and expressing distaste towards racism. Striking this balance demands that bystanders avoid inducing defensiveness in the person invoking racism. This can be accomplished by asking questions rather than making statements against the individual – statements induce defensiveness; questions invoke answers, thought, and deliberation. The use of bystander tactics offers insights into shifting social norms of intolerance towards racism. However, more exploration is required to examine effective, everyday strategies that mitigate interpersonal consequences and leveraging  prosocial behaviour to influence commitment towards action against racism.

Priest et al., (2021) Promoting proactive bystander responses to racism and racial discrimination in primary schools: a mixed methods evaluation of ‘Speak Out Against Racism’ program pilot. MC Public Health, 21: 1434. [link]

NOTES – FRANKIE

Illustration of microaggressions – why it’s important to interrupt the small things – most of the bystander work is at the lower end of the continuum (the more subtle behaviours – ongoing presence of non-belonging, judgment, and being “less than”)

Why it’s important to intervene – it catches you off-guard and you often don’t know what to say in the moment, and think about it afterwards… what would you say to disrupt (touching someone’s hair, commenting on food, etc.)

Buzzfeed video about is Black people spoke like white people. (currently in week 11, should it be in Week 10 or?)

“Microaggressions, subtle everyday interactions that convey bias towards a marginalized group, are often disguised as compliments or innocent questions” (Abrams, 2021)