Speaking of Anti-Racism and Colourism

Hello 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:

"The Water, Not the Shark"

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."

The Roots of Anti-Blackness

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?"