Caucusing activity

Pre-work 

Activity

• Read “caucusing guidelines” to the group

  • If you have a group that includes multiple levels of medical hierarchy (medical students, residents, attendings, nurses, MAs…) consider explicitly pointing out that expertise in medicine does not equate to expertise on issues of race and equity. One example, “For this exercise, experience and expertise may flip from how they are in clinic or on the wards. The attendings in the room may be the learners today and an MA may be the expert. Let’s recognize that we are all here to learn, share, and challenge each other.”

• Break into small groups.

  • Group size may depend on the size of your large group. We have found that groups of 3-4 work well. Breaking into small groups allows people to be more vulnerable than they might be in a large group. It also makes it challenging to not participate.

  • Consider the make up of your group and how you might do this. Do you want mixed groups that include all levels (ex. student, intern, attending) or would it be helpful to break into groups that might be more comfortable for challenging discussions (ex. group attendings, students, residents separately)? Are the groups assigned in advance or do you have your group “count off” and then group by number (all the “1s” together, “2s” together, etc.)?

• Discuss

  • Think of an example of when you might have done something that was racist. You do not have to share with the group if you aren’t comfortable. Think about if someone called you on your behavior or not. If they did, how did you respond?

  • Have you ever told someone that they did something that hurt you and rather than apologizing they got defensive? How did you feel in that moment?

    • What responses are painful to you when you tell someone else how they hurt you or ask for an apology?

    • Can you think of examples in your life when someone responded well to you telling them how they hurt you? What did they do that was helpful?

    • Sometimes people get caught up in with the feeling that “that’s not what I intended” or “I didn’t mean it that way” responses rather than accepting the feedback about their actions. When people are struggling, sometimes the following analogy helps:

      • Imagine you have your arms full and are walking through a door behind someone else. They don’t realize you are behind them. Rather than holding the door they allow it to slam closed behind them. The heavy door crashes into your head and knocks your stack of books to the ground. Hearing the commotion behind them, they notice what happened. They did not intend to hurt you, but you were hurt nonetheless. If they had known, they would have likely held the door. But they made a mistake and you were injured. How would you feel if their response to seeing you was, “I won’t say sorry. You’re being overly sensitive. You’re misinterpreting my intentions, I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  • Do the analogies of the rain/umbrella or toilet paper on the shoe help you reframe your response to being called on a mistake? If so, how?

  • How does the “racism = bad / not racist = good” binary inhibit growth or recovery from mistakes?

• Report back

  • Ask each group to share some highlights of what they discussed with the large group.