ACLRC: Anti-Racism defined

"Anti-racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies and practices and attitudes, so that power is redistributed and shared equitably." - NAC International Perspectives: Women and Global Solidarity

“Anti-racism examines the power imbalances between racialized people and non-racialized/white people. These imbalances play out in the form of unearned privileges that white people benefit from and racialized people do not (McIntosh, 1988; See our definition of White Privilege/White-Skin Privilege).

Anti-racism is the practice of identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism (Ontario Anti-Racism Secretariat).

Anti-racism is an active way of seeing and being in the world, in order to transform it. Because racism occurs at all levels and spheres of society (and can function to produce and maintain exclusionary "levels" and "spheres"), anti-racism education/activism is necessary in all aspects of society. In other words, it does not happen exclusively in the workplace, in the classroom, or in selected aspects of our lives.

A person who practices anti-racism is someone who works to become aware of: 

• How racism affects the lived experience of people of colour and Indigenous people;

• How racism is systemic, and has been part of many foundational aspects of society throughout history, and can be manifested in both individual attitudes and behaviours as well as formal (and "unspoken") policies and practices within institutions;

• How white people participate, often unknowingly, in racism. Peggy McIntosh and, later, Paul Kivel came up with "White Privilege" checklists that support white people in learning how whiteness—often without them recognizing it—shapes their place in society, and its impacts. (See our sections on Learning Actions and Liberal Racism and our definition of Whiteness)”