Designing Ourselves for Racial Justice
By: Tess Hegarty
Tags: Design, Racial Justice, Stanford D School, Education Reform, Engineering

This quarter I have had the opportunity to take my first class via Stanford’s d.school. This class, “Designing (Ourselves) for Racial Justice”, or D(o)4RJ as we abbreviate it, has been one of the most impactful classes I’ve taken at Stanford. I felt excited to get to show up for our 3 hour Zoom lectures every Tuesday and Thursday, and am really grateful to the teaching team (Louie Montoya, Jess Brown, and sam siedel) for all their work in creating such a useful and inspiring class experience. In this blog, I will explain some of the activities we did during the class (grouped under themes) and reflect on my experiences with them and in the class as a whole.

Who am I?

The teaching team facilitated activities like the Paseo protocol, identity zines, and story circles to help us reflect on who we are and to get to know each other more deeply. Here is a protocol that explains the purpose of the Paseo (in short, to reflect on and share our identities) and how to facilitate it. Below is one part of my identity zine, where we reflected on the origins of our names. We also did the 100k Mask challenge from Ever Forward as part of the identity zine project, an activity that asks you to think about the image you project to the world compared to how you really feel inside.

My first name “Teresa” comes from my dad’s mom, while my middle name “Charlyn” comes from my mom’s mom. My parents always intended for me to go by “Tess” in the typical tradition of Irish Catholics recycling names so often that nicknames are required to reduce confusion. Ironically for justice work, my last name “Hegarty” derives from the Gaelic word meaning “unjust”.

As a White woman, I haven’t always reflected as much on my racial identity as on my identity as a woman. It was difficult at first to talk about my identities with new people, and to do activities like the story circle. For this activity, we were each asked to speak for 5 minutes straight on the following prompt:

“Tell a story about an experience or dream you have had that has helped shape your understanding of what racial justice is or feels like.”

However, as the class continued on, I felt much more at home with my classmates and teaching team. I was honored to get to hear their stories, and touched by their support for mine.

In retrospect it seems silly, but coming into this course I felt some of the worst imposter syndrome out of all my time at Stanford. As a relative latecomer to working for racial justice, I wasn’t sure if I would belong or if I would inadvertently say the wrong thing or reveal my many blindspots. I wasn’t certain it was even appropriate to apply to the class, but I decided to trust the instructors to make the right decisions for the class composition.

I liked that this class was framed as a brave space, rather than a safe space, because this rings true. While the bravery and resilience that White people need to cultivate for racial justice work is not on the same scale as that required by those who face the direct consequences of racism and white supremacy, it is nonetheless important to speak to the fact that getting involved can feel scary and uncertain, especially at first, but it is entirely worth it.

What fuels me?

Sometimes the work can get a little messy, both literally and figuratively.

We followed Charlotte Burgess-Auburn’s Nearpod Manifesto Activity to each create a personal manifesto. This collage now hangs above my desk to act as a visual reminder of what areas of justice work I am invested in, why I am invested in these areas, and how I strive to show up in pursuing justice in these area. I really enjoyed the chance to create a visual representation of what drives me. I lost track of time hunting down and connecting all the right words and fragments and decorative elements out of the packet of materials that we were provided with.

This is the personal manifesto I created.

We also did an activity related to self care, which is an important part of making justice work sustainable for anyone. We tried out a new resource from the K12 Lab’s Sound Practice experiment: The Self Care Embodied “album.” It was actually really meaningful to be given class time to focus on self care. Lots of spaces and messaging at Stanford seem to pay lip service to taking care of your mental health, without ever really backing that up with time and resources to make it a priority. Throughout the course, in each class, there were always a few minutes dedicated to stretching, or breathing, or checking in with our emotions. This was a reminder that taking care of ourselves isn’t an occasional big event, but a sustained practice.

What is my mission?

We created “star maps” to outline our missions. The “guiding star”, “distant planet”, “near moon”, and “you” are the four categories that are used to connect a big, overwhelming goal down to what actions you are currently taking to work towards that goal. I ended up with three columns in order to organize my goals across three categories, namely equity in K12 education, equity in higher education (especially the engineering department at Stanford), and environmental justice. Laying everything out in this manner was helpful in order to get a sense of prioritization, as well as how these areas link to each other.

This was a quickly generated “star map” that I created during class in order to organize my goals and focus areas for equity work.

Who are my people?

“Coalition building is a revolutionary act.” — Louie, to me during coaching

One activity we did was mapping out our “space teams” in order to understand the landscape of people and power that our justice work takes place in the context of. It was helpful both to remember that we aren’t alone in working for justice, and for taking time to think strategically about who in our orbits we can most effectively spend our time interacting with.