A Useful Practice: Calling "In"

How do you feel when you get called out?

Maisha Z. Johnson (2016) from Everyday Feminism shares that calling out “stands up for people who are harmed, which is great. But if it includes shaming, isolating, and punishing the people responsible for causing harm, it also just repeats the same tactics of the systems of oppression we’re trying to move away from.”

Professor Loretta J. Ross (2020) discusses that “calling out assumes the worst. Calling in involves conversation, compassion and context.” Calling in can look like sending a private message, calling on the telephone, “or simply taking a breath before commenting, screen-shotting or demanding one “do better” without explaining how”.

Calling in invites you to examine racism, it also calls you to action. Calling in does not mean you remain silent when witnessing racism or oppression. It calls in our responsibility to each other and does not divide us. It rejects shame and invites responsibility to each other.

Calling in creates an environment of courageous conversations, critical self-reflection, works with the harmed and harmer, which makes a powerful sense of healing and belonging.