Anti-Oppression Resources: Educating Yourself

"Being an antiracist is an action, it’s a verb. It’s not something that you just learn and you stop, it’s about how you change your behavior every day, every week, every month, every year to move your community, your family, yourself toward a more just and equitable society." - Leslie Mac

What is anti-racism?

Being antiracist is fighting against racism. Racism takes several forms and works most often in tandem with at least one other form to reinforce racist ideas, behavior, and policy. Types of racism are:

• Individual racism​ refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways. The U.S. cultural narrative about racism typically focuses on individual racism and fails to recognize systemic racism.
  Examples include believing in the superiority of white people, not hiring a person of color because “something doesn’t feel right,” or telling a racist joke. 
   
• Interpersonal racism​ occurs between individuals. These are public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, or hateful words or actions.
   
• Institutional racism​ occurs in an organization. These are discriminatory treatments, unfair policies, or biased practices based on race that result in inequitable outcomes for whites over people of color and extend considerably beyond prejudice. These institutional policies often never mention any racial group, but the intent is to create advantages.
  Example: A school system where students of color are more frequently distributed into the most crowded classrooms and underfunded schools and out of the higher-resourced schools.
   
• Structural racism​ is the overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to white people resulting in disadvantages to people of color.
  Example: Stereotypes of people of color as criminals in mainstream movies and media.​

From Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture - Talking About Race.

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