Community Guidelines

Root Creative is privileged to live, work, and play on the unceded, occupied, ancestral and traditional lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

We invite you to visit native-land.ca/ to learn more about local Indigenous territories. Here, you can input your location (city or exact address) and find out whose land you are on. It can be highly impactful to make use of this resource not only at home but whenever you visit a new location. This helps to contextualize the land and what it means to come and go on unceded Indigenous territory.

Root Creative is founded on the principles of creativity, curiosity, and connection. We believe in building #mindfulmedia by engaging with and supporting a broad community.

Part of our mission is to create a safer space for folx to learn (and un-learn) and grow, knowing that we are stronger together.

We hope that you will share this journey with us as we fight for a better world through equity, intersectionality, and anti-oppression.

Community Guidelines

1. Actively practice anti-racism. “Not racist” is not enough. In each action taken, examine whether there is a benefit of privilege, who may potentially be harmed (focusing on impact rather than intent), and whether the action – no matter how insidious – upholds systems of oppression. Click here for some anti-racism resources.

2. Everyone is welcome to participate in our communal growth and learning. We welcome feedback, encourage dialogue, and accept challenges to the status quo. Please reach out at connect@rootcreative.ca with any questions, comments, or concerns.

3. Whether you are leaving a public comment, private messaging, or responding to a comment or message, violent, threatening, abusive, and microaggressive language will not be tolerated. Practice respect in communication, especially if you disagree with someone.

4. We welcome compassionate call-ins and constructive feedback from our community members to hold us and one another accountable. Root Creative is committed to continually evolving and refining its message and use of language as we collectively move through social, cultural, and generational shifts.

a. While call-ins are prioritized where possible, they also require emotional labour, which marginalized folx are expected to perform at disproportionate rates. Root Creative understands that call-outs are often practiced out of necessity, in which case marginalized folx who call-out will not be tone policed.

5. Lead with love. Empathy and kindness can change a life and can change the world. Start by cultivating self-love by getting in touch with your needs, desires, and boundaries. That frequency will touch everything around you.

Definitions

Equity: In contrast to equality, which recommends the same treatment for all, equity employs a needs-based approach, positing that different considerations and accommodations must be made according to identity, positionality, lived experience, access needs, and more. Equity takes a detailed look at power and privilege in order to inform action, policies, workplace culture, and resource distribution.

Intersectionality: Coined in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectionality refers to the ways in which patterns of subordination intersect, and do not exist separately, but reinforce one another. The main identities leading to the coining of intersectionality were Blackness and womanhood, as the experience of being a Black woman was more complex than looking at Blackness and womanhood as totally separate experiences. Intersectionality prompts us to see the world from a complex standpoint that considers intersecting identities, and the lived experiences they create. Intersections can include, but are not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, age, ability, and more.

Safer space: Root Creative is committed to creating a safer space, defined as a place free from discrimination, harassment, intolerance, bullying, and trolling both online and offline. We encourage open and honest dialogue. Many of our beliefs and activities may be contentious, and our goal is to facilitate mindful and respectful conversation that is free from hateful or oppressive language.

Harassment: Harassment is any verbal or physical conduct designed to threaten, intimidate, mock, or coerce. Harassment can be both unintentional and insidious; blatant and overt. Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

● Offensive comments related to sex, gender, sexual orientation, relationship status or family structure, mental or physical disability, neurotype, physical appearance, body, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, history of conviction, place of origin or religion, and all identities protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

● Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, habitation, and employment

● Deliberate misgendering or deadnaming
○ Misgendering refers to using the wrong pronouns for someone
○ Deadnaming refers to using a name that someone no longer goes by

● Gratuitous sexual comments or images

● Threats of violence, whether real or perceived

● Incitement of violence towards any individual

● Encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm

● Deliberate intimidation or hostility

● Cyber-stalking

● Logging online activity for harassment purposes, or posting non-harassing private communication without consent by the involved parties

● Sustained disruption of discussion

● Unwelcome sexual attention

● Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease

● Microaggressions

● Jokes about identity

● Impersonating someone else, identity theft or catfishing

● Doxxing or sharing personal information non-consensually

Violent language: Violent or toxic language is a way of communicating that can cause harm to others. This can include threatening, labelling, tone policing, blaming, gaslighting, or the use of offensive words or slurs.

Tone policing: Tone policing is a tactic whereby someone dismisses the ideas and sentiments being communicated when they are perceived to be conveyed with emotions such as anger, frustration, or impatience. In other words, they try to diminish the message by shifting attention to the tone. It is a distraction tactic used to undermine the validity of a comment or critique by painting it as irrational, erratic, or too emotional. Tone policing is highly racialized, as it has been used to contribute to stereotypes like the “Angry Black Woman,” or associated BIPOC with aggression.

Inclusive language: Inclusive language is a form of communication which allows as many folx as possible to access and understand meaning and messaging. This includes, but is not limited to mindful word choice, closed captioning upon need or request, alt text or image descriptions, accessible body language, up to date terminology, language-mirroring, affirmations, and more.

Microaggressions: Microaggressions are small and subtle slights towards or about an individual that over time, add up to a toxic environment and can result in feelings of shame, internalized oppression, anxiety and burnout. E.g. constant comments about someone’s appearance or frequent dismissal of their contributions. Microaggressions tend to revolve around identity categories such as race, religion, gender, etc. For instance, using gifs of Black folx or emojis of a darker skin colour than one’s own are microaggressions, as they are considered a kind of digital Blackface.

Call-ins: Compassionately calling someone in means holding them accountable in a way that is kind, productive and sustainable. We are all learning; if someone makes a mistake or unintentionally says something problematic, invite them into conversation instead of shaming , demeaning or belittling them.

Emotional Labour: Emotional Labour is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job or appease someone in a position of organizational or societal power and privilege. It often disproportionately impacts marginalized folks who are expected to remain calm, gentle and pleasant in the face of oppression.

Reporting & Enforcement: If you witness or experience discrimination or harassment of any kind, please reach out to our team at connect@rootcreative.ca. If you are unsure if your experience constitutes discrimination or harassment, let us know anyway and we will be happy to talk through it with you.

Our process:

1. You report an incident to us – the more information you can provide the better (screenshots, photos, witnesses)

2. Our team will evaluate the situation, referencing our community guidelines

3. We’ll come to a decision within one week (unless otherwise stated)

4. If we feel the community guidelines have been breached, we will take immediate action which may include one or more of the following:
a. A warning
b. Temporary ban from the site/social media channel
c. Permanent ban from the site/social media channel

5. You will be notified of the action taken
Discrimination and harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. Community administrators reserve the right to delete comments and ban individuals from our site and social media channels who violate our safer spaces.

We acknowledge that mistakes will happen and endeavor to create learning opportunities for our community when appropriate.

Resources

Calling In – A Quick Guide on When and How
What is a microaggression?
11 Signs of Gaslighting
7 Types of Online Harassment to Watch Out For
Online Harassment Manual
Safe Spaces, Explained
What Are Safe Spaces?

Acknowledgments

This code of conduct borrows from the open source code of conduct policy authored by XOXO Fest.

We also want to thank Cicely Blain Consulting for help with editing and definitions to ensure inclusivity in our language.