A4D - Guide to AntiRacism

WHAT IS ANTI-RACISIM?

FIRST, WHAT IS RACISM?

To understand anti-racism, we must first understand racism. Racism is not simply individuals’ feelings. It is an ongoing cycle of racist policies that generate racist outcomes, which are justified through the production of racist ideas, which then inform future racist policies.

THEREFORE, ANTI-RACISM IS:

An active process of challenging racism by dismantling and rebuilding systems, structures, policies, and attitudes to redistribute power in an equitable way. This is a conscious and intentional rejection of white supremacy and a celebration of racial equality.

Anti-racists reject the idea that racist outcomes are the natural result of fair practices and embrace the moral imperative to interrupt cycles of racism.

ANTI-RACIST CONVERSATIONS: YOUR FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT

OUR OPPRESSION IS CONNECTED.

Surveillance against Black Liberation activists (COINTELPRO) became the blueprint for surveillance against Arab and Muslim communities (CVE).

US-made Tear gas canisters are sold to the Israeli Occulation Force and frequently deployed against Palestinian civilians.

US police are trained by the Zionist military in tac tics that they use to harm Black communities murder Black people in the US.

OUR DIRECTIVE IS CLEAR

“Stand up firmly for justice, as a witness to God, even as against yourselves or your parents or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor.” - Holy Quran 4:135

Deadly Exchange Research Report, Jewish Voices for Peace

PUTTING RACISISM IN ITS (HISTORIC) PLACE

CHATTEL SLAVERY, 1619-1865

Through an internationally sanctioned and supported human trafficking ring, over 12 million Africans were stolen from their homelands. Countless Black peo ple were born into enslavement, many through forced birth practices. This brutality persisted in the United States until the Emancipation Proclamation.

RECONSTRUCTION, 1865-1877

During the reconstruction era, over 1,500 Black people held public office in the Southern United States. Federal government mandated Reconstruction programs and policies were intended to abolish enslave ment, grant Black men full citizenship, and extend civil rights to Black people.

JIM CROW, 1877 - 1965

White backlash against Black progress made during the reconstruction era was swift and harsh. Southern states crafted “Jim Crow” laws that trapped Black Americans in indentured servitude and allowed for violent enforcement of racial segregation by police and the white public.

GREAT MIGRATION, 1916 - 1970

In defiance of Jim Crow laws’ constrictions on their newly won freedom, Black Americans left the rural south in droves for the industrialized north. Over the course of six decades, more than six-million Black Americans migrated. Between 1915 and 1920, the Black population of Detroit increased from 6,000 to 120,000.

REDLINING, 1933 - 1948

To prevent newly arriving Black families from accumulating wealth, the US government artificially devalued homes in Black neighborhoods. Demonstrating more concern for white property values than for Black people, developers created housing covenants that forbade the sale of homes to Black families. Though no longer enforceable, racial housing covenants are still present on the deeds of many homes in Dearborn.

HYPERSEGREGATION, 1940 - PRESENT

Metro Detroit is the most segregated metro area in the United States, a status referred to as hypersegregation. Despite proximity to majority-Black Inkster and Detroit, Dearborn remains less than 4% Black. Dearborn was created for Ford Motor Company’s white workers to live in. Black employees were relegated to outlying communities like Inkster. Segregation has been enforced by racist real estate practices, policing, and violence.

ANTI-RACIST CONVERSATIONS:

MYTH OF RACIAL PROGRESS

The myth of racial progress is a belief that the remov al of specific legal barriers has resulted in sustained progress toward equity for Black people.

The outcomes tell a different story.

The average Black family has one-tenth the wealth of the average white family.

The Black maternal mortality rate is 3x the white maternal mortality rate.

Black people are imprisoned at a rate 5x their white counterparts.

The Mythology of Racial ProgressNational Academies (PDF Download) bit.ly/3xWbE6i

ANTI-RACIST CONVERSATIONS: INJUSTICE ANYWHERE

Race defines every aspect of our lives from the medical care we receive to the opportunities we’re offered.

Enslavers forced Black people to aggressively expand cotton and rice plantations, devastating indigenous groups and lands.

Racism designates communities of color as inferior and therefore disposable. This logic justifies exposing these communities to unlivable environmental condi tions.

When we accept that every community is vital, we are forced to address the problem at the source instead of shifting its effects onto someone else.

Mapping Antebellum Rice Fields bit.ly/3xmI3CL

POLICY SOLUTIONS

According to Ibram. X Kendi, “policies are written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people”. Policies can either uphold racism or dismantle it. As an activist, it’s important to distinguish between policies that will be impactful and policies that will only produce superficial change.

ANTI-RACIST POLICIES

Anti-racist policies recognize that racism is the result of legal codes that were designed to be racist. For a policy to be anti-racist it must deconstruct structures that create injustice or construct new structures that support justice. Typically, a policy is anti-racist if it mobilizes resources or redistributes power to Black individuals and communities. Examples of anti-racist policies include:

Reparations

Fair housing

Divestment from carceral solutions

Anti-racist policies are a powerful tool to interrupt cycles of racism in our communities.

SYMBOLIC POLICIES

Symbolic policies assume that racism is a problem of representation, symbolism, and tradition. Many symbolic policies acknowledge past harms, celebrate suc cess, or replace distasteful representations with more

palatable ones. Typically, a policy is symbolic if it does not mobilize resources towards impacted people or communities. Examples of symbolic policies include:

Renaming streets

Declaring day of recognition

Planting unity gardens

Symbolic policies may support healing in a commu nity, but if they are not supplemented by anti-racist policies, they risk becoming apologist.

APOLOGIST POLICIES

Apologist policies presume that perceptions of racism are a public relations problem that a community’s reputation must be protected from. Apologist policies dismiss reports of racism as the result of mispercep tions. Typically, a policy is apologist if it gives more resources towards programs that are producing racist outcomes to improve the public’s perception of those programs. Examples of apologist policies include:

“Community” policing

“Both sides” debates about racism

“Race blind” policies that ignore systemic marginalization

Apologist policies gaslight marginalized groups, fail to address community needs, and ignore harmful outcomes produced by racist policies.

REFLECTION EXERCISE

Embracing anti-racism requires us to take responsi bility for dismantling racist structures and replacing them with anti-racist ones. Here are reflection ques tions that can help you get started making change in your community.

Step 1: Recognize racial disparities.

Look around your community and what patterns exist between race and ...

RESIDENCY. Who lives in your community vs who commutes there?

WEALTH. Who owns their home vs who rents?

HEALTH. Who has access to environmental conditions that support health?

SAFETY. Whose lives and property are protect ed by law enforcement, and whose lives and property are forfeited?

What racial disparities do you see?

Step 2: Identify racist ideas.

Racist ideas are created to justify racist outcomes. For example, when Black people are disproportionately murdered by police, this is justified by the racist idea that Black people are more criminal.

What racist ideas are being used justify the disparities you found?

Step 3: Interrupt racial injustice by advocating for anti-racist policies.

Once you have identified racist outcomes and racist ideas, consider what policies produce these injus tices. Try to expand beyond the limited view of racism as interpersonal, and examine the ways that distri bution of funds, allocation of power, and access to resources shape racism.

What local, state, and national policies uphold racial injustice?

What policies can be used to promote and uplift racial justice?

TAKE ACTION: BYSTANDER INTERVENTION

In additional tackling institutionalized, systemic, and codified racism, we have a responsibility to interrupt interpersonal racial violence. Bystander intervention training will “empower you to make change and channel attention into simple, creative, and effective action. You will find tools to learn how to respond, intervene, and heal from harassment” (Right to Be, 2022).

Register to complete bystander intervention training through Right to Be

righttobe.org/our-training/