In co-ops, we often pride ourselves on being inclusive and equitable—but what happens when harm shows up in the form of a joke, a question, or an everyday comment?
This session invites cooperative members to reckon with microaggressions as real structural cracks within our supposedly safe spaces. Drawing from personal experience navigating coded bias, racialized communication, and deflection within cooperative housing, the session will unpack how "small" slights carry big consequences—especially for marginalized members.
Together, we'll explore:
The invisible impact of everyday microaggressions in meetings, decisions, and daily life.
How tone-policing, coded language, and “well-meaning” questions can reproduce racism, classism, xenophobia, and ableism.
Real strategies for fostering communication that centers accountability, equity, and genuine inclusion.
Participants will leave with tools to identify discriminatory or biased questions, respond constructively to harm, and build communication norms that don’t collapse under pressure, but evolve into systems of solidarity.
Not Just a Joke or a Questions Presentation Slides
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Third Class In Indian Railways, by M. K. Gandhi