Are You an Effective Antiracist?

Over 25 years ago, with a group of professionals earning a certificate in Diversity Management, I participated in a race-gender quadrant exercise. As a learning community we were divided into four groups — white men, white women, men of color, and women of color. Masking tape was positioned on the floor, creating four sections where we sat within our boundaries and discussed within our groups what was good about our group identity and the stereotypes about our identity group that were widely believed in society.

Still seated in our quadrants, each group shared with the larger community highlights from their discussion. We then they received feedback from the other groups and the facilitator. Race became the primary and most important identity in the discussion. The intended goal of the exercise was to demonstrate white privilege and its negative impact on people of color.

When a white woman innocently stated, “you were so articulate,” to a black man, I squirmed in my chair as the facilitator shamed her for making such a stereotypic remark and then blamed her for not knowing why it would be considered offensive. As a Black woman, I was called a “colluder” for being empathetic toward whites when I stated that we all lived in a world steeped in systemic racism that was recognized by people of color, but often invisible to whites.

After the exercise I spoke privately with the facilitator about that label of “colluder” placed on me. She told me that it wasn’t that she disagreed with what I said about the dynamics of systemic racism, but that in speaking to white people, it was important not to give them any excuse for their racist behavior. By bringing up the pervasive and historic nature of racism, I had diluted their sense of responsibility.

I understood her reasoning then, as I do to this day. As a psychologist, I know diffusion of responsibility and the bystander effect affect group behavior and does not lead to changed behavior, especially in regards to race. Yet, I also know that name calling, shaming, and blaming are never effective tools for eradicating racism. I cringe today when I hear the label Karen being used to characterize white women wrapped in social privilege and who take little or no accountability for their racist ideas and behaviors. I know that “Karens” do exist, but strongly believe that it doesn’t change the narrative or get at the root cause of what makes a “Karen” when we label and shame.

Three decades ago, when I began doing this work, the SEE pedagogy was commonly used by diversity professionals to create change. SEE stood for “significant emotional event.” Creating a significant emotional event was believed to lead to behavior change and the elimination of the “isms.” The pedagogy was like giving someone a metaphorical punch in the stomach to make a point.

It worked. However, when the pain from the punch ceased, the person who was punched only remembered getting punched and not why they were punched. No longer feeling the discomfort, they became angry and even more convinced that they were right in the first place. In other words, they “threw the baby out with the bath water,” and now they believed themselves to have a solid case for reverse discrimination.

There’s more to being an antiracist than aligning yourself with its values and endorsing its principles. Although all antiracists point us in the right direction for change, not all antiracist styles are effective in making change. Take 10 minutes to take the Antiracist Style Indicator (ASI) to determine your effectiveness in eradicating racism.

After taking the ASI, I am often asked by respondents if overfunctioning antiracists can ever be effective. None of us are perfectly functioning antiracist all of the time, and being underfunctioning or overfunctioning as antiracists depends on the circumstances. Many of us, including myself, are often overfunctioning antiracist in response to these very divisive times. We feel a sense of urgency and intensity by which we need to eradicate racism. However, the effectiveness of an overfunctioning antiracist style can only be measured in the long term.

In the short term, overfunctioning antiracists keep the vision and hope for racial equity alive. That’s an important contribution to the struggle, even if it is not effective in changing hearts and minds on a permanent basis.

No matter what kind of our antiracist style we exhibit, being an effective antiracist requires cultural humility. It’s a life-long commitment to self-critique and evaluation in order to effectively use ourselves as a tool for behavior change. #GettingToWe