AWARENESS
What is Awareness?
Awareness means consciousness and attentiveness. It is about an appreciative interaction with each other and about reducing discriminatory and violent conditions. The goal is an atmosphere that allows people to take responsibility for themselves and for each other, that respects personal boundaries and allows everyone to feel safe. Organizers and participants canthus develop an attitude and practice that counteracts discrimination and other violence. It aims to dismantle structures of inequality and exclusion (Initiative Awareness, 2019).
Real Name
When dialing into the event, all participants are asked to enter their real names as user names. This facilitates the assignment and promotes a more protected framework. The clear names are used exclusively for this purpose, are not passed on to third parties and are not stored beyond the date of the event.
Pronoun
Gender can neither be guessed nor read from the first name. Therefore, all participants are invited to provide their username with the personal- or neopronomen (Equal Opportunities Office of the Technical University of Dortmund, 2021) with which they would like to be addressed. Those who do not use pronouns or persons who do not care which pronouns they are addressed with can also indicate this. At the same time, no one should feel compelled to out themselves. Those who do not wish to use pronouns can do so. Organizers and participants are requested to pay attention to the use of the respective pronouns.
Examples:
name_(he/his)
name_(she/her)
name_(xier/xies)
name_(no pronoun)
name_(pronoun doesn’t matter)
Trigger warning
Trigger warning, also called content warning or content information, refers to the advance information that a subsequent content (description, text, video, etc.) may be hurtful, discriminatory or retraumatizing for some people; e.g., with topics such as queer hostility, sexual violence or racism. This should be pointed out before content that could potentially trigger such things is shown, and those affected should be given the opportunity to turn off the sound and video or otherwise disengage and take care of themselves. In general, it is advisable to consider in advance how explicit content needs to be and where it can be omitted.
Awareness Person
During the symposium there is at least one awareness person who is familiar with the relevant discourses. This person is appointed by the organizers at the beginning of each event and this is communicated to all participants. This person actively monitors language, behavior and potential discrimination. This person is the contact person for all participants. If participants notice discriminatory behavior, including behavior by the organizers themselves, they can send a private message to the awareness person in the chat during the entire event. The names of these participants will be treated confidentially by the awareness person and will not be passedon to third parties, not even to the organizers. At the end of the event, the awareness person gives a short feedback with his observations and the anonymized feedback of the participants. The goal is a collaborative learning process and the joint work on a Safer Space.
Even after the event, participants can contact the awareness person via the following e-mail address:
awareness-beim-symposium@posteo.de
During the symposium, there will not be a quota list of speakers. We therefore ask all participants to reflect on their own speaking behavior and to give priority to first-time speakers, for example.
Safer Space Breakout Room
We want the symposium to be a discrimination-sensitive space and for all participants to feel comfortable and safe. We are aware that a digital space is even more difficult to make safe and that border crossings can often happen faster and more anonymously. Thus, there can be no such thing as a “safe space.” This means that it is even more important that we all work together to create a safer space.
We, as the awareness team, are committed to helping create this space during the symposium. However, we would like to point out that we cannot offer any further professional help, e.g. psychological support.
For BIPoC and FLINTA* people, we offer exclusive online breakout roooms where you can empower each other and network.
– BIPoC (Black, Indigenous & People of Color).
– FLINTA* (Women, Lesbian, Inter, Non-Binary, Trans Persons, Agender).
→ You will receive the invitation link to these special break spaces upon request from the Awareness Team.
Exclusion in the event of offensive behavior
In the event of hate speech, discriminatory or otherwise offensive behavior, the organizers may decide to permanently exclude persons from the event in order to protect the participants. This does not require a prior warning.
Conceptualizations
Language creates or reduces status hierarchies (Maass, Suitner, & Merkel, 2013). This also
means that inequalities are consciously addressed and actively changed through language.
An event must not provide space for any racism, queerphobia, ableism, classism, sexism,
hate speech, or other discriminatory behavior. In order for the event to be as safe as
possible for everyone involved, below is some information on recommended terms to use
and terms to intentionally not use.
Recommended terms
We recommend the use of the following terminology:
| Term | Read More |
|---|---|
| Being Black Black | The term "Black" does not refer to "skin color" or a biological characteristic. It refers to a social position that constitutes a particular shared experience of racism and with which a potential for resistance is associated. This position is not antecedent to racism, but springs from it. The adjective is capitalized to express this meaning. The self-designation Black was first introduced in Germany in the 1980s by poet, educator, and activist May Ayim (Ayim, Oguntoye, & Lorde, 1986) |
| People of Color Person of Color | The term People of Color also does not denote a biological category, but a social position created by racism. The term is used as an umbrella term that includes all people whoexperience racism, no matter how different: There is an alliance perspective associated with it. The term counters the division of people with experiences of racism and implies a claim of solidarity. It is more often italicized to indicate this meaning. The self-designation People of Color was originally coined during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in the USA. Today it is also used in Germany. In the German-speaking world, the term is not translated into German. The self-designation People of Color is not to be confused with the racist foreign designation "colored people" or "Farbige". Often, when talking about racism, both self-designations - Black and People of Color - are taken into account and it is spoken of "Black people and People of Color". |
| Being white white | The term white is not a self-designation. It represents a critical category of analysis. The term "does not refer to skin color or a biological characteristic, but means a constructed social position that is the product of racism: it is created through the allocation of advantages and power. It is the shared experience of power and privilege that makes whites a group in the first place. Being white, then, means having a privileged social position and more power than people who have experienced racism" (Bönkost, 2017). The italicization of the term white indicates this meaning. |
The terms white and People of Color are italicized. The term Black is written with a capital initial letter to mark these positions as social constructions.
Discriminatory terms
The following terms are discriminatory. Therefore, neither the terms themselves, nor a discussion about whether they are used, belong in events. During the event, they are consistently not written out, not pronounced, as well as erased in historical quotations. In general, it is recommended to avoid the erased variant of the term as well.
| Term | Read More |
|---|---|
| N-Word | "The n-word is a racist and insulting foreign term used by white people to devalue Black people. It is inextricably linked to the history of enslavement and the notion of the superior white and inferior Black "race” (a construct constructed by white so-called scientists on their own unscientific assumptions)" (Hamburger Museum der Arbeit, 2020). |
| I-Word | "The foreign term ("I.") for the first inhabitants of North and South America or Abya Yalas* is a fantasy construct that has been coined by novels and western movies (e.g. made-up characters as in 'Winnetou' or 'The Shoe of Manitou'), but also by dictionary entries. Actually, the term is based on a mistake made by ChristopherColumbus: when he was looking for a sea route to East Asia in 1492 and came across the island of Ayití, he assumed he was in India and referred to all the people living there as "I.". By continuing to use the term until today, on the one hand this European error and its colonial context is justified, on the other hand it is pretended that all the different societies that already lived on the continent for at least 12,500 years can simply be summarized under one made-up term, thus ignoring all the self-designations of the people. At the same time, e.g. in the novels of the Saxon Karl May, whose main characters originated solely from his imagination, the resistance against the violent oppression and colonization by Europeans is concealed and relativized. Thus, resistance fighters such as Goyáálé/Geronimo, who resisted persecution, murder and expropriation by whites, are not mentioned. Thus, the first inhabitants of the continent are also denied the claim to its discovery, since it is ignored that first inhabitants also lived there before the arrival of Columbus and the forcible colonization of people and countries and had self-chosen names; instead, it is pretended that the history of the first inhabitants only begins with the arrival of the Europeans" (EDEWA - Einkaufsgenossenschaft antirassistischen Widerstandes, 2021). |
| Racist foreign designation against Rom*nja and Sinti*zze | The "Z" has historically, especially in Germany, a long history of racialized marking. Rom*nja and Sinti*zze have been marked "not only, but especially by the Nazis with the abbreviation "Z" on police registration sheets, on pseudo-scientific so-called "racial" examinations. In the concentration camps, the "Z" has been tattooed into people's skin" (Randjelović, 2014). |
This concept is based on the awareness concept for online events of the Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen Otersberg and was developed in collaboration with Kerstin Schoch and Lea Jung. The original is available at the following link: https://docplayer.org/204272998-Awareness-konzept-fuer-digitale-veranstaltungen.html
Literature und Online Resources
Ayim, M., Oguntoye, K., & Lorde, A. (1986). Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte: Fischer.
Bönkost, J. (2016). Weiße Emotionen: Wenn Hochschullehre Rassismus thematisiert.
Bönkost, J. (2017). Normalisierung weißer Emotionen als Strategie rassismuskritischer Bildungsarbeit.
EDEWA –Einkaufsgenossenschaft antirassistischen Widerstandes. (2021). Das I-Wort: Warum hast du von Winnetou gehört, aber nicht von Goyáálé/Geronimo?
http://www.edewa.info/stellungnahmen/begriffsgeschichten/das-i-wort
Gleichstellungsbüro der Technischen Universität Dortmund. (2021). (Neo-)Pronomen.
http://www.gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/cms/de/Themen/klargestellt/008_Pronomen.htmlHamburger
Museum der Arbeit. (2020). GRENZENLOS: Kolonialismus, Industrie und Widerstand. In.
Initiative Awareness. (2019). AWARENESS-Umgang mit Diskriminierung und Gewalt bei Veranstaltungen.
Maass, A., Suitner, C., & Merkel, E. (2013). Does political correctness make (social) sense. Social cognition and communication, 331-346.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e014/a42614c66ee22ef77a799088e14480e126aa.pdf
Randjelović, I. (2014). Ein Blick über die Ränder der Begriffsverhandlungen um „Antiziganismus “. Perspektiven und Analysen von Sinti und Rroma in Deutschland, 19-37.
Ayim, M., Oguntoye, K., & Lorde, A. (1986). Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte: Fischer.
Bönkost, J. (2016). Weiße Emotionen: Wenn Hochschullehre Rassismus thematisiert.
Bönkost, J. (2017). Normalisierung weißer Emotionen als Strategie rassismuskritischer Bildungsarbeit.
EDEWA –Einkaufsgenossenschaft antirassistischen Widerstandes. (2021). Das I-Wort: Warum hast du von Winnetou gehört, aber nicht von Goyáálé/Geronimo?
http://www.edewa.info/stellungnahmen
/begriffsgeschichten/das-i-wort
Gleichstellungsbüro der Technischen Universität Dortmund. (2021). (Neo-)Pronomen.
http://www.gleichstellung.tu-dortmund.de/cms/de/Themen
/klargestellt/008_Pronomen.html
Museum der Arbeit. (2020). GRENZENLOS: Kolonialismus, Industrie und Widerstand. In.
Initiative Awareness. (2019). AWARENESS-Umgang mit Diskriminierung und Gewalt bei Veranstaltungen.
https://awarenessy.noblogs.org/files/
2020/04/Initiative-Awareness_2019
Antidiskriminierungsarbeit-im-Veranstaltungskontext.pdf
Maass, A., Suitner, C., & Merkel, E. (2013). Does political correctness make (social) sense. Social cognition and communication, 331-346.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e014/
Randjelović, I. (2014). Ein Blick über die Ränder der Begriffsverhandlungen um „Antiziganismus “. Perspektiven und Analysen von Sinti und Rroma in Deutschland, 19-37.
https://www.heimatkunde.boell.de/