antiracistNHS

  With YouTube in the background I became aware of a cheery ‘style coach’ onscreen with a TED talk about how dressing ‘for confidence’ would make one confident. As someone with no eye for clothing, I was struck that what was transfixing was the potential to use the analogy of changing attitudes rather than outfits – if we are not prepared to change our mind, what is the point of having one. Conversation is a way of getting to know other people and for them to get to know us. In this way it has the potential to be enormously rewarding when positive and mutual. But, there are also conversations that will have a confrontational tone – and discussions about race are the epitome of such potentially difficult topics. A key aim here is to preserve a constructive attitude and to avoid losing control and creating a negative interaction. Body language, facial appearance, vocal tone are as important as the actual words said . Even the position in a sentence of certain ‘negative’ words (such a