By Jolie Brownell

Zoom university. No student asked for this. Most definitely no student sought to pay for something like this. But here we are… in the middle of an ongoing pandemic with over 200,000 lives lost, global turmoil, threats of a second civil war, police brutality, ongoing protests, a new president, etc. Chaotic times, to say the least. For many people, these times have become a matter of life and death. It feels so weird to be students who are still expected to show up to class, complete assignments, and almost act like everything is “normal” (wtf does that even mean anymore?). 

Then, on top of all of this, to show up and hear racist, ignorant, and harmful comments made in Zoom-class with no response (or a dismissive response) from a professor is just that more disappointing, frustrating, and invisibilizing.

We already witnessed thousands take to Instagram posting their black boxes — performative allyship at its peak — and have watched individuals “wake up.” Yet, if these times have shown us anything, it’s just how far our country has to go to face the pervasiveness of our systemically racist, capitalist, white supremacist, and settler-colonialist society. 

I write this piece to hopefully provide some avenues to confront all this shit in the Zoom-classroom. Yet, I want to note that I am speaking to different audiences. We should understand why it is a very different experience to speak up towards racism and bigotry as a person of color versus as a white person. Just like it is a very different experience for a queer person versus a straight person to speak up against homophobia and transphobia. This distinction does not negate the challenge, anxiety, and negative experiences that non-POC or cis-gendered and/or heterosexual individuals face speaking up… but it’s not the same y’all. If you want to learn more about why, read anything by Ibram X. Kendi, Kimberle Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Ijeoma Oluo, James Balwin, Angela Davis, etc. 

I point this out because these steps below aren’t just for queer/POC, but these steps are also perfect opportunities for “privileged” folks—white/white-passing cisgender and/or heterosexual students—to show up as allies and speak up, instead of waiting or relying on the (usually) sole person of color or “othered” person to do it. These steps are how you can stand up for yourself, show up for others, and find resources if you need help to take necessary action.

What To Do: 

Tip 1: Directly Call it out - If you hear someone say a racist, homophobic, sexist, and/or fatphobic, (any bigoted comment) and your professor does not say anything, you can respond by calling it out. This is the most direct way to respond, but for many, this is also the “scariest” option. You don’t know how they will respond, but it can be assumed that they may get defensive or even dismissive. 

Tip 2: Pose it as a question - “Is this what you meant to say?” Reframe their ignorant or bigoted comment to give them a moment to clarify what they just said and hopefully correct them. Many times individuals do not realize what they said was ignorant. Doing this may help them catch their implicit bias or blatant racism. 

Tip 3 - Call out through Chat  - Instead of unmuting yourself and speaking up in Zoom-class, use the Chat function and type out your response there. This can help you both determine what you want to say and how you say it. There are many creative ways to respond, here is a list of a few below: 

1. Pose it as a question - Same as above, you can type out the question, “Is this what you meant to say?” Reframing their ignorant/bigoted comment to give them a moment to clarify what they just said and hopefully fix it. 

2. Post a Resource - Posting a link to an article that directly speaks against the bigoted or ignorant comment can be a slyer way to call out the person. It also shares resources for all students to learn more. You can lead with this phrase or something similar: “[@whoever], your comment reminded me of this super awesome/intriguing article I read about [whatever their bigoted comment was about].” Also, posting a powerful quote by an activist or historical figure that speaks to the comment could also be productive. 

3. Share a Personal Lesson - Depending on if you have the time or emotional bandwidth to do this (looking at my white/white-passing cis-gendered and/or heterosexual peers here), sharing a short personal learning moment concerning the comment can be helpful. Something to the effect of, “You know what, [@whoever], I used to think that too until I read/learned about this…”

4. Private Chat is a thing - If you didn’t know this yet (and if your professor hasn’t disabled this feature) with Zoom-chat you can secretly chat with someone. This can be really helpful. If you know the person or are more familiar with the person who said such a bigoted comment, secretly being like “Hey, look, what you said was harmful in this way” can be productive while also not calling them out in front of the whole class. It’s similar to taking a person to the side if we were in person. You can secretly message your professor, as well, to directly address them. 

Now, what if you don’t have access to Zoom-chat or if it’s your professor who's making the bigoted/ignorant/factually incorrect/racist comments? This gets a bit trickier, but hopefully, the tips below are helpful. 

Tip 4: Email after class - You can type up a response after class to let your professor know how such a comment they said or a student said made you or your peers feel. It’s best to not let too much time pass by before sending the email, so the conversations of the class are still in the back of both yours and your professor’s minds. Writing an honest, but respectful email to your professor can start a larger conversation about what took place. Again, I am also looking to my white cis-gendered peers here, because just because a comment was made that didn’t necessarily demean you, doesn’t mean you can’t speak out about it. If a professor receives multiple emails from students regarding what was said, it will be taken more seriously. 

Tip 5: Go to another trusted professor or staff member - If your professor does not respond, or you even want additional help figuring out how to approach your professor, receiving counsel from another trusted professor can be helpful. They can provide additional tips and steps you can take to address these problems. They can also point you to who else to reach out to higher up in the hierarchical chain. You may instead want to go to a trusted staff member. For instance, those who work in the Ethnic and Intercultural Services (EIS) can be great resources as many of them are trained to handle these very situations. 

Tip 6: Report up - If your professor does not acknowledge your email or provide action steps on how they plan to readdress or resolve the issue, then it is important to know that you can report up. You can either email or speak to the Chair of their department, or even the Dean of the college your class is under. 

While these may feel like “extreme” measures for a small bigoted or ignorant comment, research around “minor” events /microaggressions proves otherwise. We all know these comments never come independently, they are reflective of a larger racist, homophobic, sexist, white supremacist culture, and society. Your class environment—yes, even on Zoom—is meant to be one that fosters a safe space for everyone to learn. Silence only condones these problematic behaviors. Doing nothing about it only perpetuates the problem. Don’t let others tell you that these comments aren’t a big deal, this is called gaslighting, which is a super problematic no, no. 

What NOT To Do: 

While I’m sure there are many other tips that you can do to respond to these comments or a silent professor...here’s something you should stop doing: Hearing a problematic/bigoted comment be made in class, doing nothing about it, and then texting your one Black friend in the class or queer peer in the class something to affect of “I’m so sorry that happened to you/or that you had to hear that…” This is honestly and truly not helpful and low-key calls yourself out. You heard the comment, you were a witness, and instead of sticking up for your peers or speaking out against the comment, you chose to do nothing. 

I know while some may appreciate this, others may instead see this response as more about your feelings of guilt for not doing anything, rather than about truly caring about your peers who could be affected by such a comment. If you truly care, reach out AND speak up. Reach out AND email your professor. Reach out AND report it to the Dean. 

What Else Can You Do? 

Have more tips on how your peers can stand up against bigoted comments in the class? Speak up to silent professors? Please share them in the comments. I know many students will find your thoughts helpful. 

Also, please note that this isn’t only about comments made in class. These tips can be used to address other problematic features of the class. From problematic comments to problematic assignments or class materials. Anything that demeans another person, intentionally or unintentionally, needs to be addressed. 

Remember, you and your voice have power. You have power. Use it to stand up for yourself and use it to stand up for your peers. Even if you have no people of color in your class, still, speak up. Speak up in your own way. Speak up because this is the first step to addressing the larger issues. Change cannot happen without pointing out where we need to grow. So please, speak up. 

I recently listened to Brene Brown’s Podcast “Unlocking Us,” where she interviews Ibram X. Kendi about his recent book titled “How to Be an Antiracist.” During the Podcast Kendi explains how stereotyping, or what he calls the “personalization of groups,” is when groups are given individual characteristics that turn out to be vastly false. He uses the common stereotype of the Latinx community being “lazy” as an example of this. Instead of reiterating everything Kendi said by explaining how racist and false these stereotypes are, I want to try another approach. What if, just for this moment, we accepted this stereotype to be true: “All Latinos are lazy.” What are the actual implications for us (non-Latinx) if we accept this?

Okay, So They’re Lazy...Now What?

This stereotype (I mean, now truth) that all Latinx people are lazy, in most cases does not stand alone. I mean that the laziness of these people is almost always used as a justification for something. For instance, “Build a wall so the lazy immigrants don’t come in!” or “All these lazy undocumented aliens just want to get our government benefits.” The point is that these people are not “worthy” of access to certain benefits or even an entire country because they are lazy. Lazy, then, has become synonymous with an assumed lack of moral and work ethic and therefore should not be condoned or supported by any benefits. 

If you accept everything above as true, then you have already accepted another bold belief: the productivity of a body is more important than the existence of such a body. To say a person should not have access to a country because they are lazy, is to already understand, accept, and condone the fact that this country prioritizes the ability, efficiency, and performance of a body more than its human life. If they are lazy and cannot produce (profit) or are unwilling to work, then they are not deserving of any benefits. In other words, we have come to base the worth and desirability of a person on what they can do.

What Does This Mean for You?

Here, then, is my question to you: is this how you understand the U.S. to be? If so, are you okay with this? Are you okay with living within a society that prioritizes what you can produce for it over your very existence? Are you okay with having to earn your basic rights and benefits (such as affordable food, safe housing, second chances, good schools)? Are these things we must earn in the first place? ...Or does simply being a human alone, not already make you worthy of such rights? Are you, being human alone, not worthy of this? 

Pushing even further, where do you think we learned to fuse together the worth of a person with their productivity? Does this feel natural to you, or learned? conditioned? Do you believe that living in the U.S. with a capitalist economic system (which prioritizes profit) has shifted our understanding of what it means to be human? …Do you want to continue living in this kind of society or would you prefer one where you could do nothing, be lazy and still be every bit as deserving of basic human rights? If this still feels wrong to you, I highly suggest you dig deeper into why. 

The things these “lazy” people are fighting for are basic human rights. So to say that they must earn their rights by working… is almost like saying they must earn their way to being considered as human. Eww! I hope that made you cringe as much as it made me typing this. 

Don’t Just Stop Calling them Lazy, Start Allowing Them To Be

I have heard this trope said about the Latinx community my entire life. I even remember back in middle school asking some of my Latinx peers about why they “goofed around” and didn’t pay more attention to the teacher at times (I know, I realize now how I played right into this stereotype). But what shocked me back then was their response: “Why should we work hard, get A’s, when no matter what we do, everyone else will still see us as lazy and undeserving.” I also know all too well how this stereotype has been used upon the Black community (i.e. Welfare queen or lazy Black people trying to scam the system instead of working harder). 

The truth is, are there lazy individual Latinx people? I am sure they are. Am I lazy sometimes? Most definitely yes!! Do you feel lazy some days? I’m sure you do. But, it doesn’t feel right to dismiss an entire group of people as lazy just as a quick way to disqualify them of rights… especially if these very rights shouldn’t be earned through productivity in the first place. 

So what I hope you take away from this, is that yeah we should probably stop stereotyping people and entire communities. But also, I want you to take it a step further. What if we allowed each other to be lazy? What if we remove the moral compass around productivity and just allow each other to rest and create entire lives that aren’t centered around productivity, efficiency, work, and profit? What kind of society would this create? What new liberations would this bring for you?

We should be allowed to rest, to not want to work our whole lives, to be lazy. We should all be given the freedom to just be. human. and supported.

Also, just FYI, to deem an entire group of people lazy, while refusing to understand the complexities of their disparities, is actually quite lazy too ;)

It’s been a couple of months, let’s check-in. 

You posted the black box. You flooded the #blacklivesmatter hashtag. Fuck. You deleted your post. You reposted the black box but instead wrote #blackouttuesday. There, you did it right. “We are amplifying Black voices,” you told yourself, “we are listening.” To what? All I saw were little black boxes. 

All of my pettiness aside, we’re still new to this, right? Three months ago, many of us, came out publicly with our support for #BlackLivesMatter for the first time. It only took a pandemic, but we’re happy you’re finally here. Anyway, it’s been a minute since the black boxes, so let’s check-in. What’s happened since? 

It’s the “Activist” In the Bio for Me

Honestly, I am not here to talk about your beach or brunch posts with captions of “arrest the cops that killed Breona Taylor.” Or the single black box in your feed that strikingly sticks out among the aesthetic photos of your wanna-be perfect life. There are plenty of incredible voices that have already commented about how hurtful, dehumanizing, and ridiculous these kinds of performative posts are. What I want to talk about is the fact that some of y'all really thought this was enough. Box checked. You’re an activist now. Added #activist to your bio. Like LOL, what? 

So in all honesty, if you lost your phone today, how would you prove your “activism”? What else have you done besides post #blacklivesmatter? Incredible books like Stamped: Racism Antiracism, and You and How to Be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi, and So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo have sold out, but have you actually read them? Have you been educating yourself? Radicalizing yourself? Confronting the problematic sides of yourself? Calling your peers out? Having uncomfortable but productive conversations? Calling your senators? Pushing your university to take students of color seriously? Using your passions to make political statements? Using your privilege to uplift marginalized voices? Protesting without centering yourself? Registering to vote? Voting in the interests and investments of those most marginalized? 

It’s been 3 months since the black boxes, and honestly, I don’t really care about what your feed looks like. (But hopefully you’re following more BIPOC people.) More important things to reflect on are questions like How you’ve been decolonizing your own mind? and How have you been doing “the work”?

Activism Most Likely Won’t Make You Go Viral

If it feels like I’m calling you out, it’s because I am (lovingly so). Because the truth is that no true activist work will be found in the performative. Too many of you want to call yourself activists because of all the hype, when in reality, activist work isn't some bandwagon you can hop on. You can’t get credit for doing nothing.

The truth is that doing activist work most likely won’t make you go viral—maybe doing performative TikTok shit might—BUT the point is that we are in a REVOLUTION. WE are the revolution! So let’s learn how to do this right, or at least not performatively. 

Social media was created to reflect your life, interests, and what matters to you, so let your posts be reflective of the real-life work you're doing and not just some facade to make yourself look woke. We see right through that, honey, and it’s not a good look on you.

The Revolution Will Not Be Performative. PERIOD!