Racism is not an accidental isolated act

I have been sitting on a presentation called Not Another Race Talk for a little while. My way of seriously breaking down why those of us who speak out against racism do so and tackling the assumptions around the subject.

I wanted to present it online as a public webinar earlier this year but, truth be told, I felt that having to explain what to me is obvious was going to be a bit tiring. And I was also wary of being labelled as "that guy that talks about racism".

Suffice to say, I am still pondering whether to do it as a public webinar or package it up as an online course that people can go off and do in their own time. In the meantime, however, I want to share some things that I think should set the tone regarding what practitioners working in inclusion and equity mean when we are talking about the challenges of racism.

To start, I never use terms that are likely (very likely) to trigger people. I know that talking about white privilege or white supremacy can end up shutting down conversations before they even start. Even with my closest and most understanding white friends, I realised I had to take a different tack in getting them to understand a problem they had never experienced or studied in great detail.

I also think it is important to note I don't see racism in the binary of just Black and White. My travels and work around the world have exposed to me racism that presents itself in similar forms in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, South Asia, East Asia and Australia. Some blatant and others slightly nuanced but stretching across all so called race groups. That same kind of racial superiority then presents itself through xenophobia and intra-racial minority group interactions.

Racism is so deeply interwoven into national identity and exceptionalism that any real challenge causes people to react defensively. Confronting these narratives requires us to honestly reflect on how complicit we are in upholding racist ideologies and structures but, perhaps even more terrifying, we are also forced to question our very identity.?

See European colonialism that has shaped modern day America, to the Chinese treatment of Uyghurs, or the kind of ideology that undoubtedly framed the ethnic genocides in Rwanda.

Try not singing the Star Spangled Banner in the US (or singing verse three) or question the triumphalism of ‘Rule Britannia’ and see the reactions.?

When countries are challenged to confront their racism, they will, without fail, point to the relative success of a minute sample of minorities they say thrive in this system. They proclaim, loudly, that this minority grouping could not have achieved this success anywhere else.?If you dare disagree with this obviously flawed outlook, you are then told, “If you don't like it here, then go somewhere else”. In the US and UK for example, the rhetoric will be about those from minority groups who have prospered educationally, financially and in some realms politically. To state that racism doesn't exist because a few individuals can get rich or climb the social ladder is a logical fallacy. It also smacks of exceptionalism and survivorship bias.?It suggests that we should ignore slavery, colonialism, redlining, eugenics, colourism and the impacts of those structures that still affect us to this day. The model minority and their work ethic are trotted out as an example for others to follow without any work done to unpick which specific hurdles they have had to overcome in order to have that proximity to the majority racial group and their model of success.

In Europe, it is less obvious because no data is kept on race and ethnicity. With noble intent, the nations didn't want to be accused of discriminating again and so don't record data on ethnicity and race. Because of that lack of transparency, it is hard to challenge France, Portugal, Spain or Netherlands on their race relations, even though many of their citizens from minority backgrounds can describe the many ways in which they are discriminated against. And I haven't even started on the indebtedness many of these mentioned countries still have for former colonies.

When people hear the word ‘racist’, they tend to think of it only in terms of individual interactions. Someone calls another a paki, a nigger, a chink, a raghead, white trash or a gypo. They see it only in terms of such slurs or simian and eggplant emojis that dominate social media platforms.?However, these actions, while abhorrent, are but a small part of the bigger issue, that of structural racism.

Institutional or systemic racism is where racism affects how the least dominant racial group in society navigates the world around them, dictating their level of access to the privileges so readily available to the dominant group.

We say structural racism because it is embedded in laws, norms and behaviours shaped by assumptions formed by the dominant racial group. Every service and provision needed for an individual to live a reasonable existence has been tainted by these assumptions - housing, healthcare, employment, education, law and order, banking and politics (e.g. voter registration). It extends even further still to media, entertainment and technology.

So you may ask how does this racism present itself? How does this show up in the day-to-day existence of those who feel its full weight?

When you have to change your name on a CV/resume to get through to the first stage of a recruitment process.

When you are disproportionately profiled, arrested and charged by the police.

When you struggle to get housing because of the colour of your skin.

When you buy products that say for normal skin or hair, which doesn't include you.

When voting rights and laws are developed to suppress your rights.

When you have limited or no access to fair finance, banking or venture funding.

When smart tech cannot distinguish your skintone or facial expressions.

When you are disproportionately penalised or excluded from schools for the same offence as the majority group.

When negative assumptions are made around pain tolerance, therapy, or preventative care within the health system.

When politicians suggest you are extremist because you are protesting racial inequity.

When dating apps have algorithms to suppress profiles from certain racial groups.

When your natural hair is seen by others as unprofessional (But your PM or president can walk around looking like a sucked mango seed).

When adverts play into racial stereotypes.

When, in spite of this constant structural pushback, you are accused of playing the race card if you speak out against it.?

So when we start to interrogate racism properly, remember, this is not about blame, shame, or guilt (which don’t help anyone). The purpose is, and should always be, a comprehensive analysis of what got us here. Economically and politically. It is about a reckoning that asks all of us to have a sense of agency about what we can do to move the needle forward to change this status quo.

Trying to distance ourselves from racist acts and perpetrators that look like us to prove we are not racist can be just as destructive. Some?suggest that the online racist abuse Black footballers in the UK suffer was perpetrated by a minority. In fact, they go so far as to reduce the rhetoric to class, suggesting this “minority” is a group of mindless, uneducated yobs - when in reality many of the perpetrators of this kind of abuse have been identified as teachers, bankers, police officers and members of the civil service. Many of us saw that rhetoric amongst colleagues when Black Lives Matter, amongst other antiracist campaigns, got a foothold in the UK. It rared it's head in the assumptions around those of South and East Asian heritage following Covid. Even before that many saw it manifest in the rhetoric and behaviour of many who spouted racist exceptionalism when the UK decided to leave Europe. We saw it echoed internationally in the politics of Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi, Khan, Orban, Wilders, Salvini. Not just online but in everyday work and civic conversation. This structural and unchecked superiority created and continues to create, division - supported by legislature and populism tied up in some kind of nationalist identity.

This is the heart of the matter. Individual racist acts, problematic as they are in isolation, reflect the racial intolerance we have structurally built into our societies. An intolerance that still shapes laws, voting rights, healthcare policies and practices, employment access, education and so much more.

This is what many of us are fighting against. It might show its ugly face now and then in huge events like a football tournament, or a major political event, or pushback against an anti-racist protest, but it's what lies beneath, the structure that supports that behaviour in the first place that is most concerning. This is what we are talking about when we deem a country racist. This is the starting point for understanding racism.

Writing this has been cathartic and a timely reminder to make good on delivering that presentation and developing the subsequent course. But even for those who will not access that next step, let me leave this as a signpost.?