Re-configuring Anti-racism

Yin Paradies

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367028343
• eBook ISBN: 9781317215035
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia

In our interconnected world of increasing racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, racism is an enduring phenomenon with a range of pernicious consequences for individuals, communities, and societies. Despite considerable scholarly attention to race and racism, there has been relatively little focus on anti-racism, defined as the theory and practice of addressing racism, counteracting its detrimental effects, or envisaging its possible alternatives.

This edited collection explores the re-configuration of anti-racism in order to better combat racism in modern neo-liberal societies. Should anti-racism focus on tolerance, harmony, inclusion, equality, participation, recognition acknowledgement, indifference, and/or justice? What is the role of everyday race labour, the potentials and pitfalls of post-raciality, and the potential of alter-racism via humour, viscerality, embodiment, and affective atmospheres? The eight chapters forming this collection bring together scholars from cultural studies, geography, philosophy, political science, race relations, and sociology to debate key epistemologies, practices, and contradictions pertaining to anti-racism as a global endeavour. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Whither anti-racism?

Yin Paradies

Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

ABSTRACT
In a world where racism persists undiminished (if not intensified) in a multitude of configurations, there is a pressing need to consider the state of anti-racist theory and practice. Drawing on the multidisciplinary contributions to this special issue alongside a panoramic snapshot of current scholarship, this article wrestles with several matters central to the ongoing development of anti-racism. Junctures with social justice, equality, recognition, tolerance, indifference, and acknowledgement are explored along with the varieties, and co-constitutions, of racism and anti-racism. Post-racial potentialities and the double-bind of anti-racism amidst the twin liberal desires of sameness and difference are examined alongside the nascent growth of alter-racism via concepts such as embodiment, viscerality, humour, affective ambiences, and everyday race labour. It is hoped that this article will foster ongoing reflection, discussion, and, most importantly, action aimed at defying racism across the globe.

Introduction

Despite the UN’s Three Decades to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (United Nations 2009), racism continues to cause human suffering and foreclose life choices in every nation of the world. With increased migration flows, volatile geopolitics, and pronounced permeability and securitization of national borders, there is an ongoing global need to combat racism (UNESCO 2005).

Although the term anti-racism was only coined in the mid-twentieth century (Bonnett 2000), opposition to racism has existed as long as the phenomenon itself, adapting to contest its mutating schemas across time and space (Aptheker 1992; Lloyd 1998). In contemporary times, this resistance is commonly labelled anti-racism, racial justice, or racial equality. Although numerous scholars have studied various aspects of race, racialization, and racism, relatively few have centred their work on anti-racism. Important exceptions include early monographs (Bonnett 2000; Dei 1997; Gilborn 1995) and edited collections (Anthias and Lloyd 2002; Bowser 1995; Derman-Sparks and Phillips 1997; Lentin and McVeigh 2002), along with more recent chapters (Fozdar, Wilding, and Hawkins 2008; O’Brien 2007; Ruzza 2013), journal special issues (Arai and Kivel 2009; Young and Condon 2013), and numerous stand-alone articles (a sample of which I engage with below).

Despite the important contribution of extant scholarship, we still lack a ‘shared notion of what is meant by anti-racism – either at the level of ideology or political practice’ (Solomos and Back 1996, 104), nor is there yet ‘a well developed typology of anti-racist theory and practice anywhere in the academic world’ (O’Brien 2007, 427). Anti-racism has been minimally defined by Bonnett (2000) as ‘forms of thought and/or practice that seek to confront, eradicate and/or ameliorate racism’ (4) and as ‘ideologies and practices that affirm and seek to enable the equality of races and ethnic groups’ (Bonnett 2006, 1099). Other scholars have described anti-racism as a situation ‘in which people can live together in harmony and mutual respect’ (Anthias and Lloyd 2002, 16), or the creation of ‘a more just, humane world’ (Essed 2013, 3), while Taguieff (2001) critiques anti-racism as ‘a dream of universal and perpetual peace’ (150).

Given this abundance of views, it is not surprising that Keith (2013) has recently asked what is sought ‘when we engage with the politics of race … Social justice? Equality? Participation? Recognition? Humanism without race?’ (2–3). Should society strive to eliminate the trope of race entirely or seek only to eliminate the adverse side-effects of racial membership? In this special issue lead article, I canvass the spectrum of aporias that coalesce at the juncture of race, racialization, racism, and anti-racism, examining the limits and potential (re)configurations of anti-racism(s) in opposing contemporary manifestations of racism. I begin by considering definitions of anti-racism, including various interplays with racism, before reflecting upon the anti-racist potential of tolerance in particular. After briefly touching on the concept of indifference, I examine the potential to thwart racism by moving beyond race. The double-binds that constrain anti-racism are then elucidated alongside alternatives that may surpass these limitations. I conclude with implications for evolving anti-racist scholarship and practice in the twenty-first century.

Defining anti-racism

Given the manifold expressions of racism, there is a clear need to recognize the concomitant plurality of anti-racisms (O’Brien 2009). To date, the largest body of anti-racist scholarship has focused on internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism through prejudice reduction, countering stereotypes, and reducing discriminatory behaviour among individuals (Beelmann and Heinemann 2014; Paluck and Green 2009; Pettigrew and Tropp 2006). Closely related research has centred on race-related organizational diversity, inclusion, and equality (Curtis and Dreachslin 2008; Kandola 2008; Oswick and Noon 2014). Anti-racist collective action and social change aimed at addressing inequitable power relations, material disadvantage, and/or realizing racial justice, ranging from small-scale bystander action (Nelson, Dunn, and Paradies 2011) to social marketing (Donovan and Vlais 2006; Kwate 2014) and popular movements (Da Costa 2010; Farrar 2004; Lentin 1997), have also been the focus of seminal scholarship. In addition, conflict resolution and cosmopolitan approaches to anti-racism have examined recognition, acknowledgement, and understanding of cultural difference as key to viable, sustainable, and legitimate race relations beyond harmony (Al Ramiah and Hewstone 2013; Dessel and Rogge 2008; Nagda et al. 2009; Noble 2013b).

Hage (this issue) details a 6-part typology of anti-racism: (1) reducing the incidence of racist practices, (2) fostering a non-racist culture, (3) supporting the victims of racism, (4) empowering racialized subjects, (5) transforming racist relations, and (6) fostering an a-racist culture.

As Hage (this issue) acknowledges, each of these anti-racism types overlap in practice, an observation emphasized by research findings that mutual reinforcement across various anti-racisms is most effective in foiling racism (Paluck and Green 2009; Paradies et al. 2009; Pedersen et al. 2011; Williams and Mohammed 2013). Given this, it is debatable whether distinct types of anti-racism can be distinguished or, more importantly, what the value is in doing so. The task of delineating individual and systemic anti-racism (O’Brien 2007) is a case in point, given the close connection between individual agency and institutional structures (Berard 2010).

More broadly, Bonnett (2000) argues that anti-racism ‘cannot be adequately understood as the inverse of racism’ (2) in that one person’s conception of anti-racism is another’s idea of racism. An historical illustration of this is the anti-racist movement that established the West African nation of Liberia in 1822, a movement that was strongly supported by the Ku Klux Klan, who welcomed the exodus of blacks from the USA (O’Brien 2007). Importantly, even when manifestations of racism and anti-racism are clear, they are often co-constituted within individuals and locales. For example, neighbourhoods where racism is rife can also be ‘characterized by the most profound forms and moments of solidarity’ (Keith 2013, 17). Hage (2014a) has even argued for the existence of ‘racist anti-racism’ in which individuals protest racism against themselves and their group but condone it when directed at other groups in society.

Conversely, it is possible to be an ‘anti-racist racist’ (Leonardo and Zembylas 2013, 156) in which individuals recognize their own racism while still striving to overcome it. For those who believe that racism is inherent to contemporary societies and that anti-racist racism is therefore the only achievable goal, an avowed identity of ‘non-racism’ only detracts from ongoing efforts to combat personal racism (Leonardo and Zembylas 2013). This tension between recognizing and overcoming personal racism has also been explored in concepts such as reflexive anti-racism (Kowal, Franklin, and Paradies 2013) and reflexive race cognizance (O’Brien 2001, 56).

In the context of struggles to achieve anti/non-racism, Balint (2006) has proposed tolerance as a minimal anti-racism whereby citizens are ‘encouraged to accommodate differences they may otherwise find distasteful’ (57). Balint (this issue) defines racial intolerance as ‘an act where a person is somehow hindered … because of their ethno-racial characteristics’, whether or not the perpetrator is fully aware of, or intending, this hindrance. Hence, racial tolerance is defined as ‘intentionally not negatively interfering’ with someone on the basis of their ethno-racial characteristics.

The three key critiques of tolerance as anti-racism are that: (1) it is morally inadequate in that racism should be overcome rather than abided (Habermas 2003), (2) it perpetuates or, at least, fails to remedy the asymmetrical power relations inherent in racialized systems of disadvantage/oppression (Hage 1998), and (3) it cannot be achieved (Latour 2004) in the context of ‘super-diversity’ (Vertovec 2007). These concerns beg the question of what alternatives to tolerance are possible? Respect, admiration, love, or even celebration may be ultimate goals for many. However, can these more demanding orientations be achieved without tolerance as an intermediary (Bessone 2013)? Furthermore, if tolerance is too difficult to achieve in modern pluralistic societies, what hope is there of achieving these more ambitious goals? (Wilson 2014).

Mirchandani and Tastsoglou (2000, 56–57) question the implicit assumption that tolerance always involves a majority and a minority, where the former invariably tolerates the later. They cite relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada as an example in which both the majority-minority distinction and the implied power relations are not clear-cut. Ramadan (2010) has argued that even ‘when standing on equal footing, one does not expect to be merely tolerated or grudgingly accepted’ (47). However, such equalized power relations appear to be precisely the situation in which tolerance is most appealing. When two parties (for example) with commensurate power elect to recognize each other’s legitimacy to such an extent that they refrain from translating real and felt objections into hindrance, this is the ideal basis for negotiation and resolution at the heart of democratic politics (Mouffe 2000).

Balint (this issue) argues that a requirement that goes beyond tolerance to appreciation and respect for racial difference risks creating new racial hierarchies of appeal and favour (e.g. which group do I like best?), while excluding from the ideal of a good citizen those who are merely neutral or indifferent. Similarly, Noble (2013a) contends that a ‘moralistic insistence upon the “appreciation” of difference … may irritate whatever fault lines exist’ (838). Interestingly, while conceiving of tolerance as a minimal moral obligation, Balint (this issue) considers ‘indifference’ as the eventual anti-racist ideal (see also Hynes, forthcoming on in-difference as an ambiguous yet productive process). Akin to this notion of indifference, Van Leeuwen (2010) has proposed ‘side-by-sideness’ centred on ‘a desire to live with others rather than a compulsion to get close to them’ (647) as a moral minimum alongside ‘minority accommodation on the political-institutional level’ and attention to the ‘basic needs of others’ (van Leeuwen 2015, 804–805). Related concepts such as ‘banal sociality’ (Mayblin, Valentine, and Andersson, forthcoming), ‘cultural blandness’, and ‘mundane co-presence’ (Jones et al. 2015) also focus on the under-appreciated value of minimal, light, or non-confrontational interactions.

Amin (2010), however, is not convinced by such a politics of distance, while Noble (2013b, 164) asserts that such intercultural civility is not an ‘antidote to racism’. Perhaps then, we must look to post-raciality as a viable counter to institutional and systemic racisms beyond the influence of tolerance and indifference? What are the possibilities for a post- or non-racial society? Is racism ‘a necessary condition for the reproduction of “race”?’ (Carter and Fenton 2010, 14). Can or should races persist without racism?

Towards a post-racial future?

Never arbitrary but always historically contingent (Saldahna 2006), ‘race’ is variously defined as innate, immutable, reifying, and hegemonic while simultaneously, supple, radical, and indeterminate. Race is a biosocial trope centred on ascribed and essentialized distinctions of appearance, ancestry, ethnicity, language, culture (Paradies 2006), an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Whither anti-racism?
• 2. The importance of racial tolerance for anti-racism
• 3. Racism in public or public racism: doing anti-racism in ‘post-racial’ times
• 4. The collective singularity of anti-racist actors: a case study of the Roma minority in the Czech Republic
• 5. Geopower in public spaces of Darwin, Australia: exploring forces that unsettle phenotypical racism
• 6. Black-faced, red faces: the potentials of humour for anti-racist action
• 7. Anti-racism ‘from below’: exploring repertoires of everyday anti-racism
• 8. Recalling anti-racism
• Index