Skip to Main Content

Anti-Racism Resource Guide

Introduction: What is Anti-Racism?

Before discussing anti-racism, it’s essential to understand a few terms.

A social construct is an idea or concept that exists not in objective reality but as a result of human interaction within a particular culture, community, or society. Social constructs exist solely because people agree to behave or follow specific conventional rules. It is an idea created and accepted by the people within that particular culture, community, or society. 

The concept of white supremacy is a social construct. In the United States, white supremacy was used to drive the institution of capitalism and justify slavery when the Indigenous population did not capitulate to European colonization and forced labor – constructing differences in race. Whites were the superior group, allowing for the justification of slavery, denial of human rights, and abuse. A way to designate and subjugate certain people over others was through racial distinctions.

Race is a social construct determined by phenotypic characteristics that categorize a person into a specific group. Phenotypic characteristics to define race include skin color, hair color and texture, eye color, facial features, and physical build. However, racial categorization is subjective and can vary. The idea of race originated from anthropologists and philosophers in the 18th century, who used geographical location and phenotypic traits, such as skin color, to place people into different racial groupings. That cemented the notion that there are separate racial "types" and fueled the idea that these differences had a biological basis -  although it does not. Race, as it is now generally accepted by scientists, is not a biological reality but instead reflects the cultural and social underpinnings initially used to justify slavery and that live on in a myriad of ways.

Although our country’s founding seems long ago, the impact of white supremacy in our society is still felt today both on a systemic and societal level and in our everyday interactions because of racism. Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. Racism affects every aspect of American life, from our interactions to systemic issues such as educational access, housing stability, food quality, and more. For example, see below for a short video explaining the impacts of redlining and systemic racism on Black Americans:

ANTI-RACISM encompasses a variety of ideas and political actions intended to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is rooted in action, opposing racism/white supremacy in all forms – at individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. Anti-racism aims to identify the root causes of racism and to eradicate racism as a whole.

Anti-racism is ACTIVE work. Being non-racist means that you do not engage in overt racism (slurs, intentional discrimination, telling racist jokes, avoiding other races, etc.), but you also do not call out others when they do engage in those behaviors. Anti-racism means that you are actively challenging racism. 

The following guide is broken up by the different ways racism persists and how to combat them through anti-racist efforts:

  • Individual Racism: An individual's racist assumptions, beliefs, or behaviors.
  • Interpersonal Racism: The bias that occurs when individuals interact with others and their personal beliefs affect their public interactions.
  • Institutional Racism: The laws and regulations of our organizations that foster racial discrimination through systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice. 
  • Structural Racism: The cumulative and compounding effects of societal factors, including the history, culture, ideology, and interactions of institutions and policies that systematically privilege white people and disadvantage non-white people.

Ultimately being non-racist is not the same as being anti-racist; being anti-racist means that when you hear a family member tell a racist joke, you address it.  Being anti-racist means that if you observe someone being harassed or targeted in public because of their race that you intervene. Being anti-racist means opposing racism through focused and sustained actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. To be an ally to people of color, you must be anti-racist.

Cyclic path graphic consisting of three black arrows. In the center of the graph in large black text is the text “Implicit Bias” with a small dotted arrow pointing to the phrase, “Structural Racism” with another small dotted arrow pointing to “Implicit Bias.” The top left arrow is titled “Priming, Associations, Assumptions.” To the left of the arrow is the following text: “Dominant narratives about race (family, media, society) coupled with racialized structural arrangements and differential outcomes by race all prime us to believe that people of color are inferior to white people, create and maintain harmful associations, and lead us to make harmful assumptions, consciously and unconsciously, about people of color.” The top right arrow is titled “History, Policies, Practices.” To the left of the arrow are bullet points that state the following: “ voting rights, FHA Loans, Residential segregation, Access to education, green space, resources, safety, healthcare, etc. Jobs, hiring, and advancement To the right of the arrow is the following text, “Race is created to justify enslaving people from Africa (economic engine of a country). Policies and practices that consolidate and protect power bestow unearned economic, social, cultural, and political advantages to people called ‘white’ and unearned disadvantage to people of color. National narratives (ideology, belief system) about people of color being ‘less than’ human (and less than white) justifies mistreatment and inequality (white supremacy). The bottom arrow is titled, “Inequitable Outcomes & Racial Disparities.” To the right of the arrow is the following text, “Inequitable outcomes and experiences resulting from policy decisions in health, housing, employment, education, and life expectancy - reinforces white supremacist beliefs and ideology; dominant narrative uses disparate outcomes as evidence of white superiority, promotes ‘whiteness’ as normal and desirable, and justifies inequality.

Citation: Osta, K., & Vasquez, H. (n.d.). Implicit bias and structural racialization. Retrieved from https://www.nationalequityproject.org/frameworks/implicit-bias-structural-racialization

  Report a Problem with this Page