Are safe spaces welcoming to marginalised folx?

Leonie’s Answer

Safe space is not a concept of much exploration or availability to all people, especially people who have been traditionally marginalised. I can speak from my own experiences as a black woman—one that has been echoed by many other people of colour—the idea of being in spaces that are safe is oftentimes reserved for people who have grown up with the benefits of being part of the dominant culture.

Can you Build a Safe Space?

The expectation of a safe space is that when people gather, they will have a space that meets their needs. Groups often play a role in defining a safe space, by either adopting a facilitator’s or organisation’s guidelines or generating a set of agreements in the early hours of meeting together.

What you find in those agreements, though generated by groups far and wide in both geography and diversity, can be a fairly regular set of expectations. Scent-free, no phones, no raised voices, and so on. On to the whiteboard goes a gathered list of expectations that supports the needs of some people in that space and not others. Resulting in prioritising the comfort of some at the expense of others.

This long-accepted gesture towards collaboration is wrought with standards built on dominant systems. When we are in groups, the same hierarchies of the dominant culture are at play.

Not everyone has the same access to agency that would allow them to speak their needs into the space. It is inherent in some of these hierarchies to favour meeting the needs of so-called white people. Deference to whiteness is a known phenomenon in how racialized bodies and those subjection to patriarchy show up in spaces. After all, dominant cultures don’t just rely on people of those cultures demonstrating their power, they also rely on people from marginalised communities, especially racialized bodies, to acquiesce—a habituated response rather than one of full choice.

When we look at the common rules like no scent, no phones, among others, we don’t see that there are some cultures whose daily bathing rituals result in scent; we don’t see that there is a woman who shares her home and is a support person for their adult, neurodivergent sister and that they rely on the phone to check in frequently.

Creating Inclusive Containers

The rules don’t have to go. The invitation is to consider more inclusive ways to invite their creation and support a sense of belonging for all people when we gather in groups. We can explicitly ask if there is anyone who does not enjoy scent? We can then follow up with a further inquiry about the nature of their objection. Would having scent in the room prevent them from being able to contribute or take in knowledge? Are they allergic? Is there a safe distance that they can be from those with scent in the room?

Or we could ask, if there is anyone who has a startling or other jarring reaction to hearing a phone ring or vibrate that would prevent them from being able to give the gathering enough of their attention.

You may arrive at the very same set of expectations. The difference is in how you arrive. In a way that prioritises connection by inviting people to collaborate in creating a physical space that meets the needs of more people.

Are you willing to step into experimenting with different ways of creating a welcoming container? Try this approach at your next meeting.

For even more tips and information, join Facilitating Under Fire. A four session, online course, beginning September 24th for facilitator’s wanting to create more inclusive spaces and to learn how to handle challenging situations with care and effectiveness.