Code of Conduct

Speak to one another as neighbors, not as opponents. Disagreement is welcome and expected; contempt is not. Take aim at ideas and at policy, never at the person across from you. Share the time at the microphone so that more than the loudest voice is heard, and let someone finish before you answer. If a conversation is getting hot, the person holding the room may call a pause — that is a courtesy to everyone in it, not a rebuke.

The Committee to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the 1997 Million Woman March and The Institute on Economic Apartheid do not endorse candidates, parties, or campaigns, and their dialogues are not a platform for them. Testimony is gathered from every political perspective and is treated exactly the same way whichever side of an argument it comes from. No one is asked how they vote, and no answer to that question changes what their testimony is worth.

Harassment means unwanted attention that a reasonable person would find intimidating or degrading: following, repeated contact after a clear no, physical intimidation, or comments about someone’s body, family, or safety. Hate speech means attacking a person or a group for their race, sex, gender, religion, disability, national origin, or sexual orientation. Neither has a place in a Committee dialogue, in the room or afterward. Anyone who experiences or witnesses either may raise it with an organizer, and the Committee will act on it.

Speak from your own lived experience, and let others speak from theirs. Do not claim to represent a person, a family, or an organization without their consent, and do not misrepresent who you are or whom you speak for. Come to understand something you did not know before you came, and help keep the room open to people whose views are unlike your own — that is the whole point of gathering.

What people share in a dialogue stays with the Committee, and contact details collected at a session are used to reach that person about the survey and what comes next. Testimony is gathered for research, and anything published from it is presented so that a participant is not exposed to harm by having taken part. The Committee asks before it records or photographs, and anyone may decline without giving a reason and still take part fully.

If something happens that this Code does not honor, tell an organizer at the session or write to the Committee at the address below. Say what happened and who was involved, in whatever detail you are comfortable giving. The Committee will acknowledge your concern, look into it, and follow up with you directly, and it will keep the conversation and your identity as private as the situation allows. Raising a concern is never held against the person who raised it.