A workshop developed by two Augsburg University professors aims to help colleges and universities disrupt white-centric words and actions that get in the way of making meaningful change to equality. Margaret Finders and Terrance Kwame-Ross identify "white talk moves" as the conscious or less-than conscious ways white people avoid talking about race and maintain white dominance.

Some examples:

Missing-in-action ally: A white person recognizes speech as race-based but remains silent in a public setting. Later that person seeks out the person of color privately to articulate their concern. This private sharing often is assumed by white people to be a show of solidarity. But because it is not done publicly, it does nothing to disrupt the dominant white talk.

Over-voicing: A white person takes over the conversation when a Black, indigenous or person of color is talking, attempting to speak for them, framing and explaining their ideas.

Tone policing: A white person shuts down the talk of a BIPOC because they perceive it as angry or emotionally charged. Tone policing condemns the tone of the talk, thus preventing the ideas of the speaker to be communicated.

White hearing: Some white people simply do not hear a speech act as racist or how it gives preference to white ways. White talk is accepted as neutral and common-sense.

White side-stepping: A white person pivots the conversation away from race, racial experiences and realities. Often they bring up gender, social-class inequalities or "color blindness."

White intellectualizing: When faced with racialized talk, especially with the experiences of a person of color, a white person claims a commitment to racial justice by intellectualizing the situation and suggesting a book study group, citing a scholar's work and/or claiming themselves as an expert.

White tears: In a conversation with a person of color, a white person, usually a woman, becomes visibly upset or cries, perceiving the issues under discussion as a personal attack. White tears position the white woman as victim, which draws comfort to her and diverts the conversation from the issues at hand.

Source: "You're Just Being Oversensitive: White Talk Moves in Higher Education," by Margaret J. Finders and Terrance Kwame-Ross. From the September/October 2020 issue of Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning.