Speaking of Anti-Racism and Colourism

Hello {{ first name | friends}},

I was delighted to join Katie Allen on her Speaking of Inclusion podcast to talk about anti-racism and colourism. Here's a flavour of the conversation:

Of course, I shared my my favourite quote from singer Guante, "Racism isn't the shark, it's the water." In other words, it's all about the environment we're in, and that affects all of us. As I said, "It's like the groundwater theory: if the water is poisoned, then everything else that comes out of it is going to be a little tainted."

Importantly, that has implications for all of us, however we are racialised. As I told Katie, "As people racialised as Black, we have to learn to love ourselves as we are. We have to unlearn prioritising Europeanness, to give it a term, and whiteness... Similarly, people racialised as white have to unlearn thinking that that is the best and only thing and everything else is somehow inferior. Or that the colour of your skin, what's on the outside, makes you inherently better than everybody else."

I often challenge people racialised as white to ask themselves a difficult question: "What do you believe about people racialised as Black that you're not even admitting to yourself?"

Instead of the immediate "I'm not racist" response, try sitting with that discomfort. Because as Katie wisely observed during our conversation, "I'm racialised as white. And I grew up in a society that prioritised whiteness and taught me to see the world through that lens. So absolutely, I'm racist. Like, it's in me."

This isn't accidental. The anti-Blackness we see today has deep historical roots. My take: "There's this whole narrative that had to be created in order to make it okay for people to feel it was okay to enslave people. And so that is a centuries-old narrative that is woven through so many things that people don't even see it or question it."

And I talked about the plantocracy system (the society that grew up as a result of plantation capitalism), which (surprise, surprise) didn't disappear with the end of enslavement. That system put people racialised as white at the top, those racialised as Black at the bottom, and others in the middle depending on skin shade and societal position.

Despite all this, we each have agency, and here's how that landed for me: "I had to make a decision for myself, as we all must, about how I want to live. And my decision is to avoid, as far as possible, discriminating against other people and doing harm to them. Even if harm has been done to me."

Though it's not always easy, it's a choice I make every day.

I also talked about the need to take action on all the reading and learning: "What is the point of being more informed if you're not going to take more action?" (It’s why I often include an action you can take at the end of each newsletter.)

My hope is always that "people are going to be inspired to learn more, to figure out where there's somewhere that they could, they could make an improvement and to do that thing and then repeat."

You can check out the full episode on Spotify.

Folx, what resonated most with you? How would you answer the question I raised earlier? What anti-racism action will you take next?

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2025. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter is published on beehiiv (affiliate link).