Can "Calling In" Cancel Cancel Culture?
The secret to having more productive conversations, less toxicity, and fewer fights. PLUS: What's wrong with the word "healthy"?
Spotlight
It’s Time To Talk About “Calling In”
”What if instead of calling people out, we called them in?” That’s the question Smith College professor Loretta J. Ross keeps asking in her work.
In the TED Talk at the top of this post, Ross provides a toolkit for starting productive conversations instead of fights -- what she calls a “call-in culture” -- and shares strategies that help challenge wrongdoing while still creating space for growth and forgiveness.
Ross is the featured guest on the latest episode of the Man Enough podcast. On the show, hosts
, Justin Baldoni, and Jamey Heath discuss this big idea with Ross, and she explains:"A calling in is a call out done with love. You're still pursuing accountability. You're not giving people a pass on injustice."
Parents and teachers often find the idea of calling people in especially appealing, because it allows room for learning and is grounded in the belief that people can change and get better. Ross speaks about this as a missing piece in the education of youth:
"We've taught young people radical politics but we haven't taught them the politics of radical love."
Want to learn more about these concepts? Here’s where to go next:
What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In? (Profile in the New York Times)
I’m a Black Feminist. I Think Call-Out Culture Is Toxic. (Op-Ed by Loretta J. Ross)
Join the “Calling In” Movement - Take an online workshop with Loretta J. Ross
Read about a new study that shows how restorative justice practices — focused on building relationships, social and emotional learning, and conflict resolution — can help create healthier school climates.
Opinion
Schools Need a LOT More Help Addressing Fentanyl
A few weeks ago, in an issue called “We Need to Talk About Fentanyl. Here's How. ,” I shared the White House’s fentanyl letter, which it sent to every school in the country. The document was clear with its warnings: “A teenager today can log onto social media with a smartphone and buy what they think is an opioid pain medicine or a prescription stimulant to help them study—and instead die from one pill that actually has fentanyl in it. Just one pill.”
Rhana Hashemi read that letter too.
Hashemi, a Ph.D. Candidate at Stanford University and the founder of substance use education nonprofit KnowDrugs, was so disappointed by the educational resources promoted in the letter that she wrote an op-ed for The Hill. In it, she explained what the government could do if it really wants to help schools with this issue.
Harm reduction, an evidence-based approach that aims to reduce the negative consequences associated with substance use, is regarded as an overdose prevention best practice by governmental and public health agencies alike. Yet none of the educator resources suggested in this letter to schools contain overdose prevention strategies. Instead, they focus on outdated “life skill training” programs, which are unfortunately both irrelevant to and inadequate for the scale of our current crisis.
The Department of Education needs to invest in the creation of an accessible digital platform targeted at schools and educators across the U.S., similar to what has been produced in other countries. Such a platform would provide access to resources along with directions for organizing naloxone trainings, easy-to-read FAQs and myth-busters, and examples of fentanyl and overdose prevention implementation across a diverse cross-section of school districts, whether rural or urban, conservative or progressive.
Read the full editorial, which is full of links to effective programs, here.
Wellness
What’s Wrong With The Word "Healthy”?
On Instagram, dietician Shana Minei Spence showcases her non-diet, weight inclusive approach to eating by encouraging people to eat joyfully and try not to judge what others are eating. In her new Substack newsletter, The Nutrition Tea, Spence expands on those concepts, and tries to explain why so many people put the word “healthy” in quotes:
I am a dietitian and became one to help people get to their version of health BUT, remember that we are not carbon copies of each other. What one person considers a healthy goal might be unattainable for someone else. This is why health is individual as well as subjective. No one owes anyone a version of health either. This is all why so many of us will use the words "healthy" in quotations when writing. Or we opt to use the words nutrient dense or nutritious meal in place of “healthy meal”.
This is just one of the issues Spence has taken on since launching the newsletter - others include “What is the deal with clean eating?” and “Why is eating so taboo?” They are all worth a read.
Have 11 Minutes? Watch “The Dads” on Netflix
What’s it like to be the father of a trans kid in America today? That’s what a new short film, The Dads , tries to explore. Executive produced by former NBA star Dwyane Wade, the film follows five dads of trans kids as they go on a weekend fishing trip in Oklahoma with Dennis Shepard, father of Matthew Shepard, whose 1998 murder led to the passage of federal hate crime legislation.
The six dads bond over their shared love of their children and the role they play in fighting for their rights. “The film is a love letter from these fathers to their trans and LGBTQ children,” director Luchina Fisher told Deadline.
“I am incredibly proud to be joining Fisher and the entire team on this journey to bring awareness to a cause that is so close to my heart,” Wade said in a statement to Deadline. “The Dads shows us the power of fathers loving and supporting their LGBTQ children, breaking through the barriers of prejudice, embracing diversity, and coming together to have these important conversations. I look forward to providing an additional voice to amplify this important conversation so that all kids have unconditional love and acceptance for who they truly are.”
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So many good resources in this newsletter, Christopher! I really appreciate the link to the Hill piece re fentanyl/drug education & the bit about Dads. Hadn't heard of that one yet either. Will check it out.