A gentle look at how we connect and disconnect. It starts small: the ordinary things we reach for, and the people we feel at ease with. From there, one honest look at how those ordinary starting points can quietly grow into something much harder, and how to notice the shift early enough to choose differently.
This is a standalone demo, not wired into the live site yet. The interactive chart below is the real content from Ruth's handout. Nothing here plays audio: the voice indicator only shows who would be narrating, ported from the same rotation logic already used elsewhere on the site. Recording real narration is a separate step that needs Ruth's go-ahead, the same rule as everywhere else in this repo; this demo never fakes a voice clip.
watch first: an overview
made through the BM community
Preferences are not a problem. Liking what you like, and the people who feel familiar, is part of how you love. This quest is only about noticing it.
Think of the last small thing you gravitated toward without deciding to: a song, a meal, a person you sat next to. What made it feel easy?
Now think of something just outside your usual circle: a food you have not tried, a kind of music you skip past, a group you have never asked to join. What is the small "not for me" you say about it? You do not have to change your answer, just notice it is there.
Write, speak, or simply sit with one honest answer to each prompt. There is no wrong answer and nothing to fix. Completing this quest just means you noticed one thing you reach for and one thing you pass by, and you let both be true at the same time.
That noticing is the whole quest. For most people, it stays exactly that: a preference, and nothing more. If you are curious how this same noticing, left unchecked, can grow into something heavier over time, there is more to see. No pressure either way.
What you just noticed, a preference, is where this model starts. It does not stay small for everyone. The full chart Dr. Ruth Diaz built traces how an ordinary preference can, step by step, harden into bias, then prejudice, then discrimination, then hate, and in the worst cases, killing. Each stage names its real weight plainly, and the real history behind it, Jim Crow, Japanese internment, the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and more recent examples too, is one tap away whenever you want to see it.
It is heavier material either way. Nothing here is softened to make it easier to look at, some of it is simply one tap further in, so you can go at your own pace.
You can look at all six stages now, or stop here. Either choice is complete. This is not a test you pass by continuing.
The full model, all six stages and the real-world examples, unlocks after the small quest above. It stays out of view until then on purpose.
This is the real model, plainly named, the way Dr. Ruth Diaz built it. Nothing below is softened. One example is flagged for verification against the source image and kept exactly as transcribed rather than guessed into certainty.
Discrimination model by Dr. Ruth Diaz. Graphic and information by Sotalo. Made for Bridgemakers.
Each stage above has its own way back, not one generic fix. This quest just asks you to use the one that actually matches where you are, instead of all six at once.
Before anything else, just notice where you feel this in your body right now. There is nothing to fix here, only notice.
Pick the one stage, of the six, where you recognize yourself or your community most honestly right now. Do only that stage’s reverse-arrow practice this week, not all six at once.
Which single step back, named plainly in the chart for the stage you are actually in, are you willing to practice this week?
Picking one once doesn’t settle it. What you practiced is choosing a real, specific step back instead of gesturing at all six stages at once. Actually doing that step this week still has to happen; that part is not finished by noticing.