SPEAK UP!

Responding to Everyday Bigotry

Speak up! is a booklet published by Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center who graciously donated 6,000 copies of the booklet to Century College. These copies have been distributed to faculty, staff, and to students attending SOAR sessions this summer. SEED hopes this booklet will give individuals some tools and language to help them confront situations where they may otherwise stand in silence, not knowing what to say, laugh along uncomfortably or walk away thinking that they should have said something.

SEED also hopes faculty will incorporate them into their courses encouraging dialog about this important topic.

The booklet is organized in the following groupings:

What can I do . . . among family?  (p.9)

                           . . . among friends and neighbors?  (p. 23)

                            . . . at work?  (p.37)

                            . . . at school?  (p.51)

                            . . . in public?  (p. 63)

Six steps to speaking up against everyday bigotry.  (p.77)

Speak up! calls on everyone to take a stand against everyday bigotry.

The Speak up! booklet encourages readers in pledging to respond to bigotry, to pledge that “I will:

• Speak up when I hear or see bigotry;
• Question and identify bias when I see it;
• Be mindful of my own behaviors;
• Promote and appeal to higher principles;
• Set limits on what is said or done around me;
• Seek help and help others to work against bigotry; and
• Remain vigilant and persistent.”

Copies of the booklet can be ordered at www.tolerance.org  or on campus contact Tracey Wyman, SEED facilitator at 651-748-2602 or tracey.wyman@century.edu.

SEED encourages all students, staff, faculty, and administrators at Century College to  SPEAK UP!

Speak Up! Discussion Questions  These questions are intended to facilitate the recognition, exploration, and elimination of bigotry. Speak Up! Activities  This document outlines some ways in which faculty members at Century College have used the Speak Up! book in class. Civil Rights Leader Morris Dees Visits Century College  Morris Dees, founder and chief legal counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, has become known as one of the nation’s foremost fighters of hate groups and for his work in providing human rights teaching materials to colleges and high schools.