Below are six scenarios describing ways in which race and racism impact our world. Our ask for you is to consider several of these scenarios– at your own pace, in any order, focusing on discussion and understanding over being able to “check it off”– and discuss which word(s) you think applies to which scenario.
If you would like to request a facilitator from FCNCL to assist your group in going through this exercise, or have questions related to it, please email info@fcncl.org.
Use the words below and the abridged FCNCL Glossary to fill in the blank(s) in each scenario.
| Antiracism | Racial justice Structural/systemic racism |
| Race | BIPOC Implicit bias |
| White privilege | Racism (Racial) color blindness |
Guiding discussion questions:
● How are these relevant to our Quaker values and testimonies?
● How do you see this impact North Carolina public policy?
Scenario 1:
Since 1790, the US has conducted a census. For many years, it has asked citizens to fill out a section about their race. The categories that the U.S. has used to capture race have changed over time. The results of the 2020 census showed that America is growing more diverse and more multiracial than ever before. According to CNN, “The Census retooled their survey for 2020 to ask American residents more detailed questions about how they identify their race and ethnicity. The Census Bureau reported that these and other technical changes ‘enable a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people self identify.'” The changes over time in how race is captured show how _______________ is socially constructed.
Scenario 2:
Many American colleges and universities were founded as exclusively-white institutions. At the time that these institutions began to integrate and admit students of color, many had admissions policies in place that gave a preference to the children of alumni. Known as “legacy preferences,” these policies continue to today. They ultimately give many white applicants an advantage while disadvantaging equally qualified non-white applicants in the competitive process of college admissions. Legacy admission policies are an example of ________________. Product of FCNCL Antiracism Working Group, Fall 2021.
Scenario 3
Sometimes, folks will proudly profess that they “don’t see race.” They see this as a positive because it implies they are virtuously focusing on other personal qualities beyond skin color, hair texture or speech patterns. For many people of color a proclamation that one claims to have ______________ feels like an affront, because it ignores or dismisses the reality that many experiences they have in the world are very much influenced by their race. Their situation and their personhood cannot be fully seen by someone intent upon looking beyond color. That perspective also prohibits full engagement with efforts to address and actively oppose racism in its various forms, i.e, _________________ work.
Scenario 4
Our ability to make decisions is impacted by the way that our brains see patterns and make associations even when we are not consciously aware of it. It has been well documented by experimental studies that even when we consciously profess one belief, we can subconsciously hold and act on an opposite view. Decisions and impressions about, for example, whether a research article ought to be published based on its author’s name or whether a person has pulled out a gun versus a wallet, or whether you unknowingly clutch a purse closer to you or cross a street based on the race of the passer-by, are impacted by the associations and patterns your brain has already made. These unconscious influences are known as _______________. Dr. Jennifer Saul argues that being aware of their presence calls us to introduce global skepticism about what we think we know and to take action to address their impact.1
Scenario 5
BIPOC is a term that has only recently come into use among groups concerned with racial justice. The term BIPOC stands for “Black, Indigenous and People of Color” and is being used as a way to highlight these groups’ unique “relationship to whiteness” (The BIPOC Project). Although every non-white person experiences life in a culture where the laws, customs, and institutions were designed and created by white people in their own unique way, there is a shared need for ________________ solidarity “in order to undo Native invisibility, anti-Blackness, dismantle white supremacy and advance ________________.”
1Jennifer Saul, “Scepticism and Implicit Bias,” Disputatio 5, no. 37 (January 2013): pp. 243-263, https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2013-0019.
Product of FCNCL Antiracism Working Group, Fall 2021.
Scenario 6
In the late 1990’s, North Carolina legislators, urged by members of the Black Caucus, mandated the collection of routine traffic stop statistics. Between 2000 and 2020, the state collected data on over 24.4 million traffic stops. It confirms what many have been saying: Black motorists in NC are twice as likely to be pulled over as white motorists and, when pulled over, are twice as likely to be searched. The rate is distressingly higher for young male Black and Latino drivers. These disparities illustrate the experience of “driving while Black.” Researchers at UNC Chapel Hill found that the alarming disparities cannot be explained away by a few “bad apple” law enforcement officers nor by Black motorists being more likely to have contrand found on them.2 The researchers conclude that the racially disparate stops and searches, an example of ___________________, “appear to happen because police tend to hold unwarranted suspicions about young men of color,” in addition to other motorists of color, whether they hold these suspicions consciously or unconsciously.3Interestingly, police agencies are actually more likely to find illegal contraband on white motorists. Despite this, the fact that white drivers are less likely to both be pulled over and be searched is an example of ___________________ or, in this case, “driving while white.”
2Frank R. Baumgartner, Derek A. Epp, and Kelsey Shoub, Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traf ic Stops Tell Us about Policing and Race (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
3Frank R. Baumgartner and Derek Andrew Epp, “What 20 Million Traffic Stops Reveal about Policing and Race in America,” Scholars Strategy Network, June 1, 2018,
https://scholars.org/brief/what-20-million-traffic-stops-reveal-about-policing-and-race-america. Product of FCNCL Antiracism Working Group, Fall 2021.