Goodbye bystanders, hello active upstanders
This story was written as part of Designing Courageous Conversations for Impact, a course at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (d.school) during the fall 2020 quarter. This project was led by Catherine Randle, Judith Ned, and Katarina Klatt.
Would you believe anti-Black racism happens at Stanford? What if we told you yes, it does and quite often? Based on the lived experiences of two Black women on our team, we know that it is absolutely crucial to change the culture at Stanford, particularly for Black staff. It is no secret that staff are often forgotten on university campuses, with much of the attention on students and faculty. Yet, without staff the university would grind to a halt.
Recognizing this, our team felt it essential to answer the question: how can we protect staff against anti-Black racism? In answering this question, our team wanted to ensure that the solution we developed was not for the Black community to shoulder but for allies of the Black community to be activated. While the country gained awareness of racial injustice through the horrific murder of George Floyd, the Black community at Stanford waited for more than a solidarity statement from the university administration. As the Black community continues to wait, it has become clear that raised awareness and empathy do not drive lasting change. According to the NeuroLeadership Institute, lasting change is achieved through the three pillars: defining anti-racism as a priority, effectuating systems that support anti-racist work, and enacting anti-racist habits. Stanford needs to reaffirm its priority to diversity, equity, and inclusion work. To achieve this, they must act on their current mandate by implementing systems that reinforce the habits needed for cultural change. We can no longer wait for a change of heart, it must be a change of habits. This will ensure a safe environment for Every. Single. Person. to exist on our campus.
Our goal is to shift the culture on our campus by activating upstanders against racism throughout the university. Upstanders are individuals who speak up in the moment when they see or hear racism. We recognize that although many people may want to speak up in the moment, most of us are not equipped with the tools to do so. To this end, we developed Pivot, an 8-week program that teaches individuals how to identify and respond to racist behavior. As a first step in our design process, we convened a focus group with diverse university staff to discuss anti-Black racism on our campus. Together, we brainstormed ways of confronting racism in the moment. During this focus group, we saw the power of storytelling to propel allies into action against anti-Black racism. We also learned that upstander behavior needs to be the standard and in order to achieve this goal we must normalize giving and receiving feedback.
In our next focus group, we united allies from across the university. Some attended our first focus group, while others were new to the conversation. We worked together to brainstorm ways to further initiate upstander behavior. We all agreed building a shared language framework that includes terminology, such as microaggressions and stereotypes, is critical to laying a foundation for people to have conversations about racism. We also agreed that being comfortable with being uncomfortable would have to be central to the Pivot program. Following the focus group, we collectively created anti-racist spaces by leveraging the current virtual format and changing our video conference backgrounds to include the anti-racism ribbon or Black lives matter emblem. After over 400 reviews of the backgrounds, there were zero negative responses. Thus far, 20 individuals have reached out to participants after seeing the backgrounds to discuss racism on campus.
The culmination of our design process included a formal presentation with senior administrators showcasing our plan to activate and train upstanders at Stanford starting in January 2021. We concluded with four clear asks: 1) pilot the Pivot program in teams or departments, 2) visually create anti-racist spaces on (virtual) campus, 3) continue to collect stories of anti-Black racism, and 4) share a flyer with departments outlining steps to stand up to racism. After hearing our presentation, a senior administrator stated: “Their presentations were carefully planned and perfectly delivered, and the products of their work showed attention to detail and strong alignment to the needs/users they identified. I’m sure these will move forward, and we at [university department] are happy to help however we can.” We are currently meeting with various senior administrators to discuss piloting our idea in their departments.
In order for Pivot to become an embedded piece of Stanford’s cultural fabric, lived experiences from Black staff must be acknowledged and valued. It is incumbent upon the Stanford community to prepare for and respond to anti-Black racism so that all people are empowered to drive change for a more inclusive environment. Pivot was not an academic exercise, it is an intentional model to create and enact new cultural norms. The time is now for Stanford to unequivocally address anti-Black racism.
