What does it mean to be antiracist? Education and racial literacy consultant, Orlene Badu, addresses this important question

7 min read

In this article author, education and racial literacy consultant, and former headteacher Orlene Badu explains that we need to focus on our own antiracist journey in order to be able to model how to challenge and disrupt racism to our children.

There are many who spend a great deal of time discussing the innocence of young children and that young children do not notice race.

But they do.

Importantly, it is also ensuring we know that we see race too.  Every day.

And antiracism will not happen in our settings or schools if we only focus on the children.  It will not happen without the commitment to fighting racism wherever we see it including in ourselves.  As Ijeoma Oluo was quoted as saying:

“You do not have to be free of racism to be antiracist.  Antiracism is the commitment to fight racism wherever we find it, including in yourself.  And it’s the only way forward.”

It was the need to focus on us as educators that led to my published book, “How To Build Your Antiracist Classroom”.  When writing this book there were many reasons why it was important.  I have done copious pupil and staff surveys and there were common themes that were repeatedly shared.

Educators kept asking for the how – they were keen to make their classrooms antiracist but without understanding how racism was presenting in classrooms, hallways or playgrounds it was challenging to disrupt.  Obvious and overt racism was instantly recognisable, insidious, entrenched and systemic racism was much more difficult.

Educators asked for a book that would help to make racism visible.  Therefore, once visible it would be impossible to ignore.

Some educators found it challenging as they were in a school or setting that was not on the journey to being antiracist and therefore felt isolated and unsure of how to proceed alone.

Many educators asked for support in their aspirations to be antiracist.  They were able to recognise the importance of support in understanding how to disrupt racism.

Repeatedly, staff were concerned about how little time was given to ensuring inclusivity in their settings, and that one off training was often seen as fulfilling our role in being antiracist.  This led to short-term understanding but little-to-no long-term, systemic change that would have impact.

Many staff wanted to discuss, share and engage in the creation of strategies that will have impact to disrupt racism on a classroom level.  When thinking systemically, it was important to provide examples of whole school systemic inequalities and how to fulfil our responsibility in the classroom to disrupt those systems.

Many educators expressed the importance of having practical activities that would allow them to really challenge inequities where they are present and educate all children to be able to do the same – thus creating antiracist leaders of the future.

Educators in various ways were asking for support to develop their racial literacy.  In the words of Dr Joseph Remi-Salisbury (Racism in Secondary schools, Runnymede trust 2020) racial literacy is described as,

“…the capacity of teachers to understand the ways in which race and racism work in society.  It involves having the language, skills and confidence to utilise that knowledge in teacher practice…. Focusing on racial literacy means that issues pertaining to race and racism become the responsibility of all teachers.”

Our racial literacy is our own responsibility.  However, we know that there is greater impact working in a school that is taking responsibility for the racial literacy of their staff teams.  We know that they are much more likely to create systemic change in their bid for all staff to have the language, skills and confidence to utilise that knowledge in their practice.  Reading, discussing and understanding race and racisms in the UK will definitely support our ability to understand the experiences of our pupils, parents/ carers and staff, even if their experiences are different to our own.  Understanding where and how racism exists will then support our ability to disrupt it.  And we need a deepened racial literacy to then understand how to be antiracist.

But what does it mean to be antiracist?  In a world prior to 2020 we fulfilled our obligations to equality by being ‘non-racist’, a passive role.  To be a non-racist educator or setting it is likely we would see inequalities but merely watch as a spectator.  Convince ourselves that we were aware of those inequalities and merely create narratives for why they exist.  Fulfilling our equalities duty with a statement to show our commitment to being non-racist.  We will have been unaware of our own biases or been in a society that allowed us to pay no attention to them as we were afraid of discomfort.  We may have been a member of the ‘colour-blind team’ – declaring we do not see race as we are all one race, the human race; ultimately being a non-racist can be seen as part of the problem, as we teach our children tolerance and avoid or dispute the challenging work of being antiracist.

But to aspire throughout our lives to be antiracist is an active role.  A role that requires commitment every day.  A role that doesn’t absolve us from racism but pushes us to do better and be better for our children every day.  A role that you do not acquire and then stop the work.  The self-work and the systemic work must be done every day, by ourselves and our institution, because antiracism is a journey, not a destination.  An educator who is antiracist embraces the discomfort and challenge of seeing racism: they do not avoid racism through the act of being colour-blind, they recognise that being colour-blind allows us to not see people’s race (a socially constructed difference that we all do see in current society) and they recognise that if we do not see race, we can also avoid seeing inequality.  Being antiracist means we work to actively dismantle biased systems in our setting/ school.  We are aware of our own biases (yes you can aspire to be antiracist and still be biased or racist) and fight them every day.  We provide children with a role model of how to challenge racism both in the taught and the untaught curriculum.

We teach about antiracism in everything we say, and more importantly in what we stay silent on.

In the book one of the focuses is on creating the right culture in our classrooms to be able to challenge racism. It is hugely important that we work on the sense of belonging of every child in our classrooms.  Aspiring to antiracism means looking at belonging with a new lens.  A child is unable to thrive if they do not feel they belong in their classroom or their wider school/ setting.  It requires honest reflection about all of the children in our classroom.  Reflecting on the belonging of those children who are most marginalised in our setting.  And there are children marginalised in our classrooms as our setting is a microcosm of wider society.  Please reflect on the sense of belonging for your children and begin to discuss why there is a difference and how to work collectively to disrupt the different experiences of children in the same classroom.

We have a huge responsibility, as school is the first place that children learn about a systemic response to racism.  And we want it to be the right one (although for some that is not always the case).  We want to be a role model to our children about challenging and disrupting racism and ‘seeing’ inequalities where they exist.  We must get it right if we are going to develop antiracist leaders of the future.

You can find out more about Orlene’s book, How to Build Your Antiracist Classroom, here.