How can I be anti-racist?

Ibram X. Kendi's 2019 book How to Be an Antiracist defines an antiracist as someone who supports policies that reduce racial inequity. But the practice is much older than that book. Abolitionists, civil rights organizers and groups like the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, founded in New Orleans in 1980, have trained people in this work for generations.

Start with where you stand, which means asking yourself some honest questions. Do you benefit from racial privilege? Who are you closest to at work, and who do you only talk to about race? Then learn the history that schools often skip, and pay attention to the racial gaps in your own community. Those gaps in wealth, health, schooling, policing and housing are signs of policy that can change.

Next, move from learning to action. Support groups led by the people most affected, with your money, time and attention. Speak up when you witness a microaggression. At work, look at who gets hired, promoted and paid well. If you lined your coworkers up by skin tone and then by pay, would the two lines look the same?

Also, be careful with the word "ally." In 2020, many people and brands called themselves allies, and support faded once the moment passed (New York Times). Indigenous Action's zine "Accomplices Not Allies" argues that the starting point is not neutrality, because most of us benefit from these systems in some way (Indigenous Action). So we see anti-racism as a daily practice of learning and taking action, something you keep returning to long after a single statement.