Learning Action: The Ism Prism
Adapted by Pamela Dos Ramos from William Sonnenschein, The Diversity Toolkit: How You Can Build and Benefit from a Diverse Workforce. Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books,1999.
Framing
A large part of understanding racism and racial discrimination has to do with coming to an understanding of how individuals often unknowingly participate in it. Developing this understanding means that we become aware of self in the context of racism—we become self-aware. Becoming self-aware is an ongoing learning process, and begins with understanding:
How we were socialized
What influenced/s us
Our assumptions, beliefs and biases (and how were they formed)
It is important to become aware of our influences as they determine how we interact with others. The Ism Prism Learning Action is intended to help participants understand their biases. We all have biases and unpacking them can help us to overcome them so as to be able to build relationships with people who are ethnically or racially different from us. ↳ See Culture as an Iceberg Diagram
Logistics
General Set-Up: This activity can be done during the workshop or as a pre-workshop activity. The handouts can be provided as hardcopy documents or posted/shared online.
Time Required: 45 - 70 minutes. The setup takes about 10 minutes; the facilitator provides sample answers for participants. Allow 10-15 minutes as a minimum time for participants to complete the questionnaire. The bulk of the time should be allotted to the debrief. For smaller groups, allow an extra 30 minutes.
Number of Participants: Highly adaptable for small and large groups. Smaller groups can be given more questions, and larger groups, fewer. Based on our experience, we would not recommend groups smaller than 6-8 participants, nor groups larger than 40 (because of the challenges with debriefing with a larger group).
Age of Participants: Ages 12+
Materials: Handout - The Socialization and Ism Prism
How the Facilitator Participates
The facilitator speaks about their personal experiences while going through the questionnaire and provides the participants with sample answers. During this process, it is important that the facilitator provides personal examples of how to answer the questions as well as prompting other options for answering. The facilitator's experience with the questionnaire will help to normalize the process for participants.
How Participants Contribute to the Group's Learning
Participants fill out the questionnaire honestly, knowing that they will not have to share their process unless they choose to do so.
Facilitating
Using the material in the Framing section, explain why it is important to become aware of and unpack our biases.
Warn participants that examining and understanding personal bias is not an easy process, and that this process might bring up issues that they find uncomfortable or upsetting. For instance, it is not easy to realize that your favourite uncle was/is biased and that you might have learned some of your bias from him. Reassure participants that they will not have to share any of the information from the questionnaire unless they would like to do so.
Ask participants to think of a group of people that is ethnically or racially different from them. They might choose this group due to a bad experience with someone from the group, not knowing anything about the people from the group, or because they believe that they might have trouble working with or being friends with a person from that group. It is important that participants choose a group of people that has meaning for them.
Discussion/Debriefing
Have each small group share their answers with the entire group, or if you skip the small group, go through the questions with all of the participants, modifying questions when necessary. Encourage participants to be specific with their answers.
Question 1: Was this questionnaire easy or difficult to complete? If easy, why? If difficult, what were the difficulties specifically?
The difficulties participants might cite are: that it is not easy to learn that relatives had biases, that they played games that were racist, that there were gaps in their knowledge when it came to the group they had chosen and so on. Connecting participants' difficult experiences to systemic/institutional racism of the time is important so that individuals do not get stopped by guilt. For example, government policies and practices, or media images that may have influenced their parents or their own perceptions. The questionnaire will provide answers, but the facilitator may have to encourage participants to make connections to institutional racism or the larger picture.
Questions 2 and 3: Did most of the people in your group find the Ism Prism easy or difficult? Were the difficulties mostly similar or mostly different for group members?
These questions are intended to assist participants in examining similarities and differences between group members. If the group’s members are ethnically and/or racially diverse, the differences in their answers may be more evident. If the groups are ethically and racially homogeneous, participants may have experienced the difficulties in similar ways. It is important to talk about why similarities and differences in understanding personal bias may or may not occur between white participants and racialized participants. (See Internalized Dominance, Oppression & Racism)
Participants who share surprises or "ah ha" moments usually provide opportunities for learning for everyone, either through their own insights or through connections that the facilitator can help them make.
The Ism Prism is not meant to "fix" personal bias, but to assist participants to understand their biases and to learn an alternative way of thinking about and addressing them. Being conscious of personal attitudes and behaviours helps make meaning of everyday experiences.
Responses
Based on our experience, here are some of the reactions we have experienced/observed in facilitating this Action (some of which may seem a bit surprising at first, but on further reflection are not so surprising, and can be effectively addressed in the discussion/debriefing):
Resistance from participants
Focus may be placed on the group rather than on personal biases
May attempt to rationalize bias rather than getting personal
Participants may become silent (anger/frustration/confusion)
Expect participants to be at different places in their process of understanding and addressing bias. For example, in answering the question, "What critical incidents happened during my life that might have affected or changed my perception of …?", participants might respond either positively or negatively. It will be important for the facilitator to provide participants with an alternative perspective, not of their experience, but of the attitudes and behaviours connected to the experience in order to move them through the negative experience into understanding their resulting bias.
Facilitator Responses
Discussing resistance and rationalization that may arise with participants before they begin the activity may assist them to move through their resistance.
Reassuring participants that there are no right or wrong answers and that they will not be judged on their answers or process may also help them to move through resistance.
Suggested Reading:
Bonnie M. Davis. How to Teach Students Who Don't Look Like You: Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies. 2nd ed. 2012.