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Watch what you say
Refuse to use biased language or to tell jokes tinged with racial attitudes.
Challenge assumptions (yours and others’)
Do you see a student on campus and make assumptions about his or her academic or athletic abilities? Do you catch yourself making assumptions about new coworkers, employees or neighbors based on race, ethnicity or national origin?
Expand your comfort zone
Depending on where we live or work, we may tend to be surrounded by people who are very similar to us. Seek opportunities to get to know people of different races and to learn from them. Have lunch with a new coworker or volunteer outside your neighborhood.
Beware of sweeping generalizations
Terms like “those people” are often used to make a generalization about an entire group based on hearsay, stereotypes or an anecdotal experience.
Don’t use race as a reason
When explaining the reasons for a disagreement, do you catch yourself citing a person’s ethnicity, race, national origin, religion or gender? If so, stop and try to identify the true cause of the conflict.
Learn about how racism is manifested today.
Then you can more easily identify racist behavior (overt or “subtle”) in your community, school, organization, etc.
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