While most people will have an understanding of what 'racism' is, to many anti-Black racism and the conversations around it involve a number of terms that may be new or unknown. Below is some important vocabulary and topics that will help you understand more about 'anti-Black racism'.
Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a type of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society, a process or an organisation. When we look at this in reference to the effects it has on Black people the results and data speak for themselves. In Sussex Black men are up to 11 times more likely than their white counterparts to be stopped and searched by the police - reflecting an ingrained belief system within the Sussex Police force that Black men are more likely to be involved in criminal activity.
Institutional racism can lead to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice , employment, health care, politics, education and more.
White privilege is a form of societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people, meaning white members of society have advantages. The roots of white privilege come from the European colonialism and the slave trade. White privilege reflects issues and topics that a white person does not have to consider.
An example of white privilege is that the education system in the UK reflects a history from a white person perspective which alienates Black people.
An anti-racist is someone who is supporting an anti-racist policy through their actions or expressing anti-racist ideas. This includes the expression of ideas that racial groups are equals and do not need developing, and supporting policies that reduce racial inequity.
Anti-Racism is defined as the work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life. Anti-racism tends to be an individualised approach, and set up in opposition to individual racist behaviours and impacts.
Racial profiling is the act of suspecting or targeting an individual on the basis of assumed characteristics or behavior of a racial group rather than on individual suspicion. Racial profiling, however, is not limited only to an individual's ethnicity or race, but can also be based on the individual's religion, or national origin.
Racial profiling is also known as ethnic profiling.
Unconscious biases, also known as implicit biases, are the underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with a person or group.
A political movement to address systemic and police violence against Black people. Originally formed in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.
Theft of cultural elements—including symbols, art, language, customs, etc.—for one’s own use, commodification, or profit, often without understanding, acknowledgement, or respect for its value in the original culture. Results from the assumption of a dominant (i.e. white) culture’s right to take other cultural elements.
Microaggressions are common, everyday slights and comments that relate to various intersections of one’s identity such as gender, sex, race, ethnicity, and age, among other aspects. They are thought to spring from unconsciously held prejudices and beliefs which may be demonstrated consciously or unconsciously through daily verbal interactions.
BAME = Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic
BME = Black & Minority Ethnic
The terms ‘BME’ and ‘BAME’ are also problematic because they mask inequalities as they are experienced by different racialised ethnic groups, for example rendering anti-Black racism invisible. The use of these terms reinforce racial inequality by maintaining White ethnic identity as privileged. Since ‘White’ is never named as an identity, it continues to be normative so that people of colour only exist in a marginalised position that is de-centred by whiteness.
The first form of anti-Blackness is overt racism. Beneath this anti-Black racism is the covert structural and systemic racism which categorically predetermines the socioeconomic status of Blacks in this country. The structure is held in place by anti-Black policies, institutions, and ideologies.
The second form of anti-Blackness is the unethical disregard for anti-Black institutions and policies. This disregard is the product of class, race, and/or gender privilege certain individuals experience due to anti-Black institutions and policies. This form of anti-Blackness is protected by the first form of overt racism.
Decolonisation may be defined as the active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, cultural, psychic independence and power that originate from a colonised nation’s own indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and also applies to personal and societal psychic, cultural, political, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.
Diaspora is “the voluntary or forcible movement of peoples from their homelands into new regions ...” There is “a common element in all forms of diaspora; these are people who live outside their natal (or imagined natal) territories and recognise that their traditional homelands are reflected deeply in the languages they speak, religions they adopt, and the cultures they produce.”