Mainstreaming anti-racism Mainstreaming anti-racism in working with young people “In theory, nobody has a problem with anti-racism. In practice, as soon as people start doing anti-racist things, there is no end to the slew of commentators who are convinced anti-racists are doing it wrong. It even happens among people who consider themselves progressive.” Reni Eddo-Lodge
Paraphrasing the author of the book ¨Why I´m no longer talking to white people about race¨, Reni Eddo-Lodge, we can say that in theory there is a trend in our societies (at least in some of them) to become more inclusive, with an increasing number of people who think of themselves as antiracists. In practice though, we can observe racist behaviours from people who consider themselves antiracists. Reni Eddo-Lodge in her book talks about the murder of a black boy named Stephen Lawrence, and uses it to reflect on racism as follows:
“We could have asked ourselves honestly, if taking two decades to convict just two of the gang who murdered an innocent teenager was acceptable. We could have asked ourselves if we are ashamed of that. Maybe we could have spoken about the fact that racism had only been a political priority for less than half a century. We could have had a conversation about riots and race, about accountability, about how to move forward from Britain´s most famous race case. We could have had a conversation about how to start eliminating racism. We could have started asking each other about the best way to heal. It could have been pivotal. Instead, the conversation we had was about racism against white people. Racism does not go both ways. (…) We have to recognise it.” We can ask ourselves why it is like this. Why there is a big difference between theory and practice, and why it happens that even people
128
Constellations . A manual for working with young people on the topic of racism and invisible racism
