TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 1

When to Save Face: Dealing with Non-Performatives as a Tempered Radical

Vanessa Beckham
Northern Illinois University
TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 2

When to Save Face: Dealing with Non-Performatives as a Tempered Radical

When thinking about Ahmed’s notion of “non-performative” I can directly relate the

definition to the process in which my institution is operating. For the past three years, my

institution has decided to strive to be “anti-racist”. Through this endeavor, several non-

performative commitments have come into practice such as an “Anti-Racist Institutional

Statement.” Although this act of inclusiveness sound preferable on paper, it is the lack of

supplemental conditions not established by the institution that allow these statements to become

after-thought and quickly create more than tempered radicals, but chaotically just radicals.

A non-performative, according to Ahmed (2012), describes the reiterative and conditional

practice by which discourse does not produce the effects that it names (p. 117). For my

institution, creating statements of inclusiveness, and declaring the institution as “anti-racist” does

nothing to change the culture, or put into practice conditions that force the institution to hold up

to the statements that have been created. Instead, the work and effort behind creating these

statements to make sure the wording is correct takes away much needed time to create acts that

make the statements true. Ahmed (2012) declares that “failure of the speech act to do what it

says is not failure of intent or even circumstance, but is actually what the speech act is doing”

(p.117). Once complete and finally released, these statements are considered performing by the

institution. However, it doesn’t actually commit the institution to anything or to doing anything

(Ahmed, 2012, p. 116). It is the persistence of diversity workers and other tempered radicals that

have to establish works that compliment these speech acts to uphold the institution to which they

now claim is its culture.

Although a statement of commitment is seen to be non-performative because it gives

false notion to the institution as performing, it eventually gives a tempered radical sound
TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 3

argument against not performing because it shows what the institution believes. Institutional

pressure is mentioned by interviewed diversity workers. Thinking of pressure as an act itself, as a

tempered radical, one can always refer back to the institutional statements in order to guarantee

works are established to meet goals (Ahmed, 2012, p. 118). For my institution, the purpose of

creating statements is to use them as reference. The creation of offices such as the Office of

Academic Diversity and Inclusiveness, and the Office of Inclusive Living and Learning was a

way for the institution to establish a checks and balances system. The issue with putting this

intent on specific offices, and more specifically individuals heading those offices, is that the

pressure they use to get these documents come because the documents do not work, and that

same pressure is what makes them not work (Ahmed, 2012, p. 118). Nevertheless, referring to

these documents is one way that I can employ tempered radicalism in the workplace.

Carducci (2011) defines a tempered radical as an “everyday leader who seek congruence

between their personal beliefs and identities and their organizational environments” (p. 467).

When personally learning about different diversity workers, I have met some who are just

tempered, just radical, or ideally both tempered and radical. Seemingly, the worker who was just

tempered had decided that radically pushing efforts and putting pressure on the institution to act

on what it claimed in non-performative speech acts, was exhausting and discouraging. In an act

of defeat, they settled for adhering to the “organizational environment” Carducci mentions. On

the contrary, the radical specifically put pressure on the institution to do what it claimed by using

their personal beliefs and identities to provide emotion to the pressure regardless of being viewed

as negative. In my quest to become a tempered radical, I hope to establish a balance of both

practices to accomplish more.

TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 4

I agree with Bell (2007) in saying that, “As human communities, our identities are

fundamentally constructed in relation to others and to the cultures in which we are embedded”

(pp. 8 - 9). As a tempered radical I must use societal perceptions of my identity to get acts to

work in my favor, but only after first being part of the “organizational environment.” When

thinking about societal perceptions of an African American Woman, one must understand that

we are viewed as angry and temperamental. In being a tempered radical, it is my plan to first be

perceived as mild-mannered and passive, only to be accepted as validated by the “white

environment”. Because we were not perceived as being viable, any disagreement with the

perception would simply become a symptom of the truth of the judgement. So the institutional

task becomes to modify others as an agreement with the perception. (Ahmed, 2012, p. 184) Only

after being perceived as a “member of the institution” by portraying the opposite of society’s

perception can I then better pressure the institution to act.

Additionally, I must realize that with our identities being constructed in relation to others,

a subculture will inevitably emerge from institutional discrimination. Socratic Hope, as defined

by Duncan-Andrade, requires both teachers and students to painfully examine our lives and

actions within an unjust society to share the sensibility that pain may pave the path to justice

(Duncan – Andrade pp. 187 – 188). As a tempered radical, I feel that it is my duty to foster and

mentor this institutional subculture to create more tempered radicals. Although Duncan-Andrade

is speaking of students and teachers, it is institutional staff that will use Socratic Hope to come

together to get agendas pushed to ensure these non-performative commitments perform.

Racism can affect experiences of minority staff at an institution and can create anxiety in

that reporting racism will mean to be heard as just noise and be deemed “that” person on campus

– both negative and a nuisance. As Ahmed (2012) suggests, “The very idea of suggesting that
TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 5

someone might be racist has been elevated into a crime to rival if not displace racism itself” (p.

150). For institutions such as mine, who chose to recognize the importance of diversity and

inclusiveness, statements of commitment emerge to better accommodate staff and students.

Rapidly, the act of creating the statement is seen as performing, and what the statement states

becomes a non-performative. As a result, I believe a worker who was once considered a

tempered radical either becomes solely a radical or solely tempered. “When racism is understood

as our creation, we become responsible for not bringing it into existence.” Although Ahmed

meant “not bringing into existence” by making it our duty to not dwell on negative experiences,

I’m suggesting as a tempered radical we not bring it into existence by ultimately changing

campus culture through pressure on the institution by using the statements of commitment as

foundation, and delivering that message by portraying the opposite of societal perceptions of my

identity, and fostering the subculture of other minority Student Affairs professionals to speak in

numbers.
TEMPERED RADICALS AND NON-PERFORMATIVES 6

References

Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press

Bell, L.A. (2007). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L.A. Bell,
& P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice (2nd ed.) (pp. 1 – 14). New
York, NY: Routledge

Carducci, R. (2011). Tempered Radicals: Managing Risks in Negotiating Differences. In P.M.

Magolda, & M.B. Baxter Magolda, Contested Issues in Student Affairs: Diverse
Perspectives and Respectful Dialogue, (pp. 466 – 471). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing

Duncan – Andrade, J.M.R. (2009). Note to Educators: Hope Required When Growing Roses in
Concrete. Harvard Educational Review, 79 (2), 181 – 194.