It was January, 2011 that Wake Up! It’s Serious became a reality at North Carolina State University. After the repeated occurrence of anti-black and anti-gay graffiti, students in my “Interpersonal Relationships and Race” course were fed up.  In the context of what I taught in that course, they asked “…who are we?”  “Will we let those who profess hate be taken to represent our university.”  My students answered their own question with a resounding, “…No!”  So they began decided to create a campaign for change. 

    In their own words “Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign for Change” is a campaign designed to help individuals learn how to speak up in the presence of intolerance  by refusing to be silent when another person uses derogatory group terms.

     Refusing to be silent?  What does that mean?  Well, when I teach about the fact that there are no innocent racial slurs, I also teach that to reduce people’s ease with using anti-group slurs each of us has a responsibility to confront a person when they do so.   That is why Wake Up! is also a student campaign for change that is designed to spread awareness of intolerance and motivate personal responsibility for taking action and managing emotion in the face of intolerance. So we show up and participate in activities like “Respect the Pack” which was put on by student government to raise awareness of the problems the intolerant language causes on our campus.

 

    Ok, but is spreading awareness enough? People always say that lack of education and understanding is the problem.  But, the truth is those of us who think it is wrong for anybody to speak in anti-group (racial, gender, ethnic, religious) slurs are already aware.  So awareness is not the issue. 

     Yes, you are right.  That is why Wake Up! is also a student campaign to advocate taking a stand in the face of intolerance and to teach our student body strategies to do so.

     Strategies?  Yes, strategies… you see, as part of my course I teach students how to take a stand against intolerant language in the moment that it happens.  That strategy is not based on my opinion; the strategy I teach comes from research by other social psychologists who have studied what are effective methods, strategies for standing up for change.

     Through a set of three experiments, Czopp, Monteith & Mark (Czopp, A. M., Monteith, M.J. & Mark, A. Y. (2006). Standing up for change: Reducing bias through interpersonal confrontation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 784-803.)  investigated (1) whether white students’ use of racial stereotypes decreased after being  confronted about using a racial stereotype, (2) whether reactions to the confrontation were influenced by the race of the person making the objection and (3) whether a confrontation in one situation influenced the use of racial stereotypes in another situation. What did these researchers find?

     First off, race of the confronter made no difference.  It did not matter whether the person objecting was black or white the confrontation had the same effect. Second, the research shows that people’s interpersonal fears are accurate.  The research confirmed that when confronted, the person confronted shows anger and irritation toward confronters. But the research also shows that when not confronted, perpetrators act as if they have been encouraged to continue.  By not confronting a person who uses demeaning group language, the perpetrator acts as if you have encouraged them to continue and say more in the same vein.  So the question is what are you prepared to live with interpersonally?

     Songwriter and singer John Mayer has suggested that many young people today want change, but don’t know what to do to bring it about.  According to Mr. Mayer, young people do not behave to cause change because they don’t think they have the means.  So young people, Mayer says,

“…just keep waiting…

…waiting on the world to change.”

   Yet the findings of the research by Czopp, Monteith & Mark indicates that in social interaction we don’t have to stand around waiting on the world to change. One thing the research suggests is an interpersonal strategy for dealing with another person’s use of offensive racial slurs or stereotypes.  Turns out the confrontation does not have to be harsh and loud.

    One of the basic principles for managing interpersonal conflict is speaking for your-self. When we are confronting a interpersonal conflict episode in our relationships, we have to admit our preferences; say “I” not “You.” Make the statement an honest self-disclosure. Be not accusatory; name calling is just name calling.  Following on this for the case of group offensive slurs and stereotypes, an effective strategy is to say:

 •     I would prefer that you don’t use that kind of language around me. I find it offensive.

 •     I really don’t like to hear slurs about a religion. I find it offensive.

 •     I really don’t like that you refer to people in stereotypes. I find it offensive.

     The research by Czopp, Monteith & Mark shows that these kinds of confrontations are effective in that they have specific effects.  One, in the immediate situation, these kinds statements reduce the perpetrator’s use of stereotyped language and claims.  Two, these kinds of challenges cause the perpetrator to experience negative self-evaluations.  These effects are both specific and socially significant. So it turns out we don’t have to wait on a hero. 

     Members of “Wake Up! It’s Serious: A Campaign for Change” have realized that reality; no heroes will come; there will be not be another Martin Luther King Jr.  These young people have come to understand what Dr. King meant when he said:

 The greatest tragedy of this age

Will not be the vitriolic words and deeds of the children of darkness…

But the appalling silence of the children of light.

     Members of Wake Up! have come to understand their role as “…children of light.”

 

    That picture is from the very successful Open-mic that Wake Up! put on in the Fall, 2011.  Look closely at the neo-diversity of the people who turned out and stayed to be in that picture.  Have no doubt that on the campus of North Carolina State University, there is a set of students who have dedicated themselves to pushing students on our campus to “Wake Up” to the reality of the neo-diversity of the 21^st Century.  That reality being that interaction between groups is unavoidable, and that negative group language is only going to get in the way of our growth as a nation.

    These students were among the Wake Up! group who have made this commitment.

  

    Will you join the campaign?  Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wake-Up-Its-Serious-A-Campaign-for-Change/143249339096798 and like us.

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