Active Bystander Scenarios
SET #1
What impact will this scenario have on your colleague/team/community?
What potential impact would not disrupting the behaviour have?
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions might you feel in the scenario?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Groups 1, 2) Your colleague is hiring at Science World. They have received resumes for a new position and are supposed to call the top three candidates to set up interview times. They say they’re not going to call the first name on the list, “I’ll pretend I couldn’t get her and I’ll call someone else.” When you ask why, they state, “I can tell from her name she’s not going to be a good fit there.”
(Groups 3, 4) A newcomer is sharing their story at a Science World community event about why they came to live in Canada. She talks about the anti-homosexuality legislation in her country. Someone interrupts and says, “You don’t look gay.”
(Groups 5, 6) During a team meeting you overhear a colleague talking about the anti-racism effort at Science World, referring to it as part of “the socialist agenda.” During the Q&A, the same colleague asks, “So, we’re all about diversity now and I feel like there is a contradiction. Let’s be honest, we don’t really want all kinds of diversity, right? I mean, I feel like we’re not allowed to have a diversity of opinions on diversity?”
(Groups 7, 8) A visitor is in line to buy a ticket. Your colleague lets the visitor know they're available to help them. The visitor looks at your colleague who is noticeably a person of colour. The visitor says, “I’ll just wait for her to be free?”, and she points to a white team member. When that team member is available, the visitor quietly says, “Oh, I’m glad you're free now. I was really hoping to be helped by a Jane Doe. You know what I mean?”
SET #2
How do you feel in the moment? What emotions does the scenario trigger?
How might you be an active bystander in that moment?
(Groups 1, 2) Your Director wants to address diversity in the workplace. In meetings, when the topic emerges, they look at your colleague, the only individual who identifies as an Indigenous person on your team. You notice that your colleague shifts uncomfortably and averts their gaze when the topic emerges.
(Groups 3, 4) During an informal online meeting between you and colleagues, there is discussion around Science World’s media posts relating to Stop Asian Hate. One of your colleagues seems exasperated and says, “I still really feel like this is favoritism – one moment it’s BLM, then there is support for Indigenous communities, now it’s #StopAsianHate. What’s next? Maybe this is unpopular right now, but I’m of the school that all lives matter.”
(Groups 5, 6) You’re helping another visitor when you overhear a visitor nearby saying that they will never come back to Science World because he feels that your colleague had racially profiled him.
(Groups 7, 8) A colleague of yours who is a woman of colour is speaking in a meeting where a manager constantly cuts them off. They don’t seem to realize they’re doing it and nobody is saying anything. When your colleague raises her voice so she can be heard, your Director stops her and asks for her to wait until everyone else has finished speaking.