Bingo gggo

Written by Camille Circlude°Caroline Dath, Chloé Elvezi, Enz@ Le Garrec, ReussMaureen Leprêtre — Additional contributions: Elsa Abderhamani, Nino André, Céline Chazalviel, Solène Collin, Martha Salimbeni, Chloé Stevenoot, Daphné Targotay

english / français

The “I Don't Like Inclusive Writing” Bingo

The "I Don't Like Inclusive Writing" Bingo
Writing, editing, graphic design: Camille Circlude°Caroline Dath, Chloé Elvezi, Enz@ Le Garrec, ReussMaureen Leprêtre and Elsa Abderhamani

The “Let’s Decolonize Art Schools/Décolonisons les écoles d'art” Bingo

The "Let’s Decolonize Art Schools/Décolonisons les écoles d'art" Bingo
Writing, editing, graphic design: Camille Circlude°Caroline Dath, Chloé Elvezi, Enz@ Le Garrec, ReussMaureen Leprêtre and Elsa Abderhamani

In militant circles, Bingo is used as a collective defence strategy (e.g. feminist ¹ and anti-racist ² bingos). The grid form is inspired by traditional Bingo, and is used to list systemic racist, sexist, transphobic, sizeist, ableist, etc., phrases, which constitute real aggressions for the person who endures them. The point is to use these bingos in a hostile context (faced with a racist uncle at a family dinner, in work meeting with a transphobic boss, etc.) and to be in a position to identify systemic phrases spoken by others. Bingos thus help to highlight problematic language that is so often integrated or internalised as commonplace.

These systemic attacks insidiously infiltrate language and are spread, even involuntarily, by people who have not yet undergone a process of deconstructing their privileges. These attacks take the form of repeated phrases spoken by different people. These people can often leave us voiceless.

Bingos help open a conversation with the person who uses this language, and perhaps even begin a process of deconstruction. But they can also be used as a support tool when our allies find themselves in a hostile situation. Simply shout “Bingo!” or to click your fingers when you hear a systemic phrase to alert allies to problematic language and thus create underground support or response networks in the face of such aggressions.

Bingo as a pedagogical tool

As part of the program, Teaching to Transgress Toolbox, the Language as a Virus working group took up this tool in order to create bingos as both a weapon and a defence strategy.

• The “Decolonize Art Schools” bingo for the systemic racist phrases regularly used in art schools during evaluation, lessons, etc. (cf. Decolonise the Arts). This language, used principally by white people who have not deconstructed their curriculum, engenders systemic discrimination of POC, who are still minorities in art schools.
• The “I don’t like inclusive literature” bingo for systematic phrases against inclusive, non-binary, and gender fucker language, as well as such non-binary typography commonly found in traditionally gendered languages like French.

Whether it be online or IRL, having a comeback is an indispensable prowess for surviving a hostile world. It can be tedious to launch into long abstract pedagogical explanations when faced with systemic language, without having references or media at hand. Our bingos can be a playful aid, a tool that provides both short, ironic and incisive responses, as well as more pedagogical arguments for those who need it. These two levels of response become efficient and well-constructed counter-arguments in order to sensitize and teach others. Of course, it is still necessary to have a willing partner.

Since all attacks cannot be deconstructed in these two bingos, we invite you to make your own!

How to make your own bingo

Identify commonplace and problematic systemic language

• List them on a grid
• For each of the phrases, try to find a playful comeback (incisive response).
• If you can, try to formulate a more in-depth response that allows you to engage in conversation with people who are worth the effort (pedagogical response).
• Put all of this into the grid and share it with your allies!
• Now you’re ready for the next family dinner or work meeting where racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, sizeist, ableist etc., language is still unfortunately so present.
• Thanks to your pocket bingo, you’re ready to pull out your comebacks.

The history of our bingos

It all began in 2019, during a workshop in Chalon, France, when Elsa Abderhamani first presented the anti-racist bingo to Chloé Elvezi and ReussMaureen Leprêtre. Arriving on the scene like a fantastic piece of armour, this bingo helps you protect yourself in situations or social gatherings where discrimination hits you like a rusty shuriken.

A few months later, the Teaching To Transgress Toolbox began in January 2020 with a workshop in Brussels. Tiphaine Kazi-Tani and Camille Circlude°Caroline Dath took part in a working group, Language as a Virus, a name our group then retained. During this working group, we created a mash-up/deconstruction exercise. We mastered this method that allows a multiplicity of textual experiments, such as critical analysis of texts, collective writing and precise information extraction.

During numerous online meetings, Language as a Virus approached questions around language, inclusive literature and non-binary written and oral forms in the style of the Bye Bye Binary collective. We discussed this linguistic evolution, and tried to find methods and tools to disseminate and transmit our reflections on this subject.

One goal of the TTTToolbox program was to create pedagogical tools that were transmissible to others (teachers, students, administrators…) to facilitate the deconstruction of gender, class, race, disability etc., stereotypes… found in art school pedagogy.

We considered many formats, such as podcasts, videos, tutorials, rewritings, among others. Among them was the bingo. We found this tool interesting for a number of reasons, but it also had its weaknesses, such as listing attacks without proposing responses.

Two years after our first encounter with feminist and anti-racist bingos, in the framework of the Critical Pedagogy in Art Schools (Pédagogie Critiques en Écoles d’Art, organised by the Villa Arson in December 2020), the Language as a Virus group, joined by Enz@ Le Garrec, proposed a collective writing workshop around two new bingos that, after several months of work, are finally seeing the light.