There is a big difference between being not racist and anti-racist.
Perhaps you can recall a time when you heard someone saying something racist, or acting racist. Non-racist people don’t want to rock the boat. They wouldn’t confront the antagonizer. Rather than saying what they think, they would stay silent and maybe talk about what happened after.
Anti-racists look around and think about what they can do, what tools they have, or what they can say to make it clear that racist behaviour is unacceptable. That doesn’t mean they are rude to people but that they will call people out in a polite way when they hear racist language or see racist behaviour.
Being anti-racist also means looking beyond individual behaviour. Anti-racists look at the roots of systemic racism in power, policies, institutions and histories, and see how they can produce or sustain racial hierarchies and inequalities.
This means that being not racist is about what you don’t do and being anti-racist is about how do you understand, acknowledge, challenge and take action to change unequal systems that produce racial inequality.
What does it mean to be anti-racist?
To be anti-racist means that you are able to identify and oppose racism. It’s actively seeking ways to challenge systems, policies, institutions and behaviours that produce or sustain racial hierarchies and inequalities. Being anti-racist requires ongoing self-reflection and awareness, a willingness to question our assumptions and examine ourselves to be able to identify manifestations of systemic racism.
It also means looking and identifying the roots causes of racism and how historical racial injustices, such as colonialism and slavery, continue to shape those manifestations.
It’s about being able to see how racism affects diverse groups and people, how racism relates to class, gender, sexuality, disabilities, and other characteristics. Being anti-racist can look different in different contexts. Whether you call out racist behaviour, challenge your own assumptions, and advocate for changes in policies and practices that perpetuate racial inequality. For example, you can advocate for reforms in institutions like policing, education, healthcare and access to justice.
You actively centre and share voices and experiences of those affected by racism.
You build coalitions and movements to push for lasting change. Anti-racism seeks to dismantle systems that produce and sustain racism.
How does understanding systemic racism help us become anti-racist?
To be able to identify and oppose manifestations of systemic racism, understanding systemic racism is essential. It’s necessary to understand what race is, how racial meanings are construed socially and how racism can affect different levels of everyday life.
Race is not a fixed or biological reality. While often people talk about race as a way to classify people based on things like appearance or physical traits, ancestry and descent, it should not be used as a biological concept. This misconception comes from colonial history, where ideas about race were presented as scientific facts to justify racial hierarchies, slavery, and discrimination.
Rather, race is a social construct. It reflects both how people identify themselves (identity characteristics) and how society perceives them, and assigns meaning and status to them (status characteristics), often shaping privilege or disadvantage. For example, a person may identify as Black, but society’s perception of Blackness can affect how they’re treated in areas like employment, policing, or healthcare.
The process by which those ideas about race are created is called racialization.
Racialization happens when powerful institutions or societal groups attach certain qualities, behaviours or stereotypes to other particular groups based on who they are, how they perceive them or what they think about them. These ideas can affect people’s social, political and economic lives.
Once society has assigned meaning to different racial categories, these ideas become part of larger systems and institutions. This is where we see the emergence of systemic racism.
When we say that racism is systemic, we mean that it’s deeply ingrained into the structures and institutions in society affecting everyday life.
For racialized people, systemic racism results in experiences of discrimination, inequality, and even violence, often shaping their access to resources, opportunities, services and safety. This can be seen in many aspects of their lives, including their experiences in schools, workplaces, neighbourhoods, and even our own beliefs and perceptions.
For example, in Brazil, people of African descent are often unjustly seen as criminals and subjected to discriminatory identity checks, stops-and-searches, arrests and killings by the police. Out of 6,393 persons killed by police in 2023, 82.7% were people of African descent.
In South Africa, Black children continue to face the legacies of apartheid in accessing education, with structural issues like crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, and relatively poor educational outcomes.
In Nepal, Dalit women continue to face segregation in housing and public spaces and are often barred from using common wells or temples. Harmful perceptions of impurity and inferiority expose them to gender-based violence.
Understanding this and other aspects of systemic racism is key to being able to examine our role in how it manifests, produces and sustains, to have more tools to challenge racial injustice, to advocate for change, and take action, essential parts of becoming an anti-racist.
How anti-racist people confront racism in everyday life?
Anti-racist people confront racism in different ways depending on their context they are in. They seek to challenge racist behaviour when they feel safe to do so and have the tools to do it. They advocate for changes in policies, practices or institutions such as policing, education, healthcare or access to justice. They centre the voices and experiences of those affected by racism. They build and participate in coalitions and movements to push for change. They recognize historical root causes of racism like colonialism and slavery. They understand that racism interacts with other forms of discrimination and inequality like those related to gender, sexuality, disabilities, class, among others.
Whether you decide to participate in a protest, you engage in research to uncover racial discrimination, you call out racism in your workplace, or you join your community in requesting equal access to education, being an anti-racist means that you take action towards transforming the conditions, institutions and policies that maintain racial discrimination, exclusion and inequalities.
A good starting point is to learn more about how systemic racism manifests, how affects peoples’ lives and the different ways anti-racist people take action. Education is the most powerful tool we have and it’s important to use it.
What are some examples of anti-racist movements across the world?
There are a number of incredible anti-racist movements across the world who serve to inspire communities, educate those around them and challenge racism.
These movements demand and advocate for the enjoyment and respect of human rights recognized under international law and states’ obligations to dismantle racial discrimination.
Tackling police violence
One of the most visible forms of racial justice work globally has been the fight against police violence and racial profiling.
The Black Lives Matter movement is a well-known example, having mobilized millions to protest the disproportionate use of force against Black people and the systemic racism embedded in policing. It began in 2013 following the acquittal of the man who killed Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager in Florida, and grew into a global movement. In 2020, the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis sparked renewed mass protests and international solidarity, highlighting the enduring struggle against racial injustice and police violence. And this struggle is not confined to the United States.
In Nigeria, the #EndSARS movement emerged in response to brutal policing by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which disproportionately targeted young people based on appearance, class, and perceived social status. This movement reflects anti-racist principles by challenging a policing system rooted in colonial legacies that dehumanized and criminalized the local population.
Demanding reparations
Across the world, racial justice movements have long demanded reparations for the enduring harms of slavery, colonialism, and racial exploitation.
In the Caribbean, the CARICOM Reparations Commission has led efforts to hold former colonial powers accountable, calling for reparations in the form of debt cancellation, education and healthcare investment, and formal apologies. While many of these efforts involve state-to-state negotiations, grassroots organizations and activists play a vital role in shaping the agenda and keeping the pressure on.
Uplifting racialized women
Racial justice work must also confront how racism intersects with gender, class, and other forms of oppression. Around the world, racialized women, including Black, Indigenous, and migrant women face unique forms of discrimination and violence.
In the United States, the reproductive justice movement, led by Black women, has reframed reproductive rights to include the right to have children, not have children, and to raise families in safe and supportive environments.
In Latin America, Afro-descendant and Indigenous women have organized against racism, structural inequalities, gender-based violence, environmental racism, and forced displacement in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and across the Region.
In Nepal, Dalit women activists have challenged caste-based sexual violence and systemic exclusion.
And in Europe, migrant and refugee women have led campaigns for access to healthcare, protection from exploitation, and recognition of their rights.
How do I learn more?
Well, you’ve already made an incredible start by just reading this explainer. Throughout this week, try to implement what you have learned from this explainer and think of three ways you can be anti-racist instead of not racist. And if you’d like to take further steps towards meaningful change, sign up to Amnesty International’s course on racial justice.