Ten Things You Can Do To Fight Prejudice and Racism

1. Be honest: Recognize your own biases and biases through open discussion with others. Examine your own prejudices, biases, and values. Discuss your own experiences of being hurt by prejudice as well as the ways you have benefitted from discrimination.

2. Be secure: Explore and find realistic pride in your own group identity. Having a sense of your own background and group identity will help reduce anxiety and defensiveness in relation to others. Knowing your own strengths will also help you to see strengths in others.

3. Be a partner: Work on projects with members of groups different from your own. Working as an equal alongside others from different groups on a common project is one of the best ways to undo prejudice and increase familiarity with others.

4. Be an anti-racist parent: Expose your children to diversity at a young age. Children can benefit from knowing other children from different groups at very early ages, before prejudices and biases get in the way of their making contact.

5. Be a role model: Be vocal in opposing racist views and practices. And don't just criticize, but help educate others about issues and about your own experiences.

6. Be an ally: Support victims of discrimination and prejudice. Offer support on whatever level you can. For example, offer yourself as a mentor for someone in your field of work.

7. Be an activist: Challenge "top-down" or institutional racism. Work to reduce institutional discrimination and prejudice in government, corporations, the media, and other institutions.

8. Be a member: Support anti-prejudice and anti-racist organizations. Following is a partial list of a some organizations or find one that addresses an issue particularly important to you.

9. Be a teacher: Teach tolerance. Fight prejudice and racism by proactively teaching understanding, openness, and conflict resolution skills. (The Teaching Tolerance magazine is one resource for teachers and others to get ideas and resourcesÐit is put out by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

10. Be a student: Educate yourself and others. Reading books, seeing movies, going to hear speakers about the experiences of other groups is an enjoyable way to increase understanding and empathy.