In recent times, there has been a surge in discussions about antiracism, much to the delight of those championing the cause. Prominent figures, including Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, a powerful financial company, are calling for the addressing of “systemic” racism. Books focusing on teaching antiracism to children are flying off the shelves, becoming bestsellers.
Critics on the conservative side dismiss these efforts as “woke,” viewing them as preachy, elitist, and unnecessary. However, they can’t seem to stop talking about the subject themselves. The problem lies in both sides of the debate mistakenly assuming that there is only one type of antiracism, failing to distinguish between two distinct traditions: liberal and radical.
The liberal tradition sees racism as a result of irrational beliefs and attitudes. Scholars like Ruth Benedict and Magnus Hirschfeld analyzed the rise of Nazism in the 1930s and concluded that societies with widespread racial prejudices could undermine liberal democracy. Their solution was to educate the masses, especially the poor and uneducated, about the illegitimate foundations of racist opinions. Today, liberal antiracists continue this approach, calling for diversity training and representation in Hollywood to combat both conscious and unconscious racist attitudes.
On the other hand, radical antiracists view racism as a consequence of unequal distribution of economic resources among racial groups. According to writers like CLR James and Frantz Fanon, racial prejudices are not central to racism; rather, it is a structure of social rules and policies that facilitate economic exploitation. Radical antiracists argue that dismantling these oppressive systems and building new ones is the only way to combat racism. They see the close connection between racism and capitalism, as it enables the exploitation of certain categories of workers while justifying the exclusion of certain groups.
Understanding the distinction between liberal and radical antiracism transforms the debate. Conservatives’ criticism of the elitism in antiracist discourse resonates because liberal antiracists do often rely on elites to educate the less privileged out of their irrational beliefs. However, radical antiracists view wealthy elites as their main antagonists, seeking to build collective power across different groups of working people. Liberal antiracists have made progress in reducing interpersonal racial prejudices and improving representation but have failed to tackle structural racism embedded in laws, policies, and economic systems.
For instance, the expulsion of mainly Mexican individuals from the US in 2021 is driven by the need to maintain a global racial division of labor. Structural racism persists despite diversity awareness training, as racial inequalities are perpetuated through market systems and oppressive governmental violence under the guise of crime, migration, and terrorism concerns. The disposability of those deemed surplus to neoliberal capitalism is evident in the deaths of migrants attempting to reach Europe and the casualties of the wars on terror and drugs.
Liberal antiracists, with their focus on individual attitudes and language, are powerless against this new structural racism. To combat racism effectively, it is necessary to work collectively to dismantle racist border controls, policing, carceral systems, and military infrastructures. This involves efforts to remove police presence from schools, resist deportations through direct action, and confront corporations profiting from violence. It is crucial to recognize that the global south’s impoverished populations have an equal claim to the world’s resources as the wealthy residents of the north. Ultimately, building an economy of care rather than killing is the way forward, uplifting all working classes regardless of race. The radical tradition, with its anticapitalist perspective, is now the most viable path towards true antiracist politics.
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