Educational workshops are a common approach to addressing racism and homophobia in institutional and organizational settings. One underlying rationale of these efforts is that more knowledge of "the other" -non-white and queer participantswill lead to greater equity. This article investigates this premise through empirical research into anti-racist and anti-homophobic workshops in a variety of settings. In particular, our analysis focuses on the uses of "storytelling" and other workshop strategies commonly employed to encourage the disclosure of personal stories by and about the "other." We argue that, particularly in anti-racist contexts, these strategies have exacted a heavy toll on the tellers, reinforced the exclusionary notions of identity that underlie a racist culture, and had only a limited effect

This article traces the shifting representational history of the "beaver" in the Canadian imaginary through analyzing a range of images from explorers' narratives, to commercial discourses, mass media representations to the ubiquitous sexual slang. I argue that dominant representations of the national rodent have suggested important social territories, like the norms of industry, bodily decorum, sexual respectability and racial progress. At the same time, I also explore how the subterranean language of sexual slang is the logical underside of the narratives found in more "legitimate" representations.

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