We felt like reflecting on what it means to be anti-racist this Sunday. Treat this as the first part of a conversation that won’t end anytime soon, and allow yourself to be a part of it despite how daunting it may be.

There is much unlearning that needs to be done to decenter whiteness from these conversations. Particularly when we also urgently need to confront the impact that centering whiteness has left on our inner and outer worlds, and we are by no means done with unlearning.

Beginning anti-racist work for white people consists of working through the realisation that the society we live in is not a meritocracy and you being white has informed in the life you have been able to live, but that’s just the start the real work is on the other side of this.

This is similar although not entirely the same for white passing/non-black POC as the foundations of a structurally racist society rely on the social stratification on the basis of race that separates and elevates non-black POC above Black people.

We are constantly being told this hopeful moment in time is a just a fleeting one. We need to understand this is a limiting fallacy. We are being fed this by a culture that wants nothing more to return to normalcy and the violence that this normalcy hides in plain sight.

Racist conditioning means that white people are taught to overlook and make excuses for this violence constantly, to protect each other over everything. It’s time you start believing Black and nbPOC when they share that an interaction/response feels informed by their race.

Racist conditioning means that nbPOC know that they can benefit from their ability to be seen as more palatable to white organisations/audiences compared to Black people. To nbPOC we say know that your ability to do this is routed in anti-blackness, and to resist this.

To be anti-racist is to let go of all the things you shouldn’t have had in the first place, to let others live an equitable life.

We, like many of you, have been reading abolitionist theory in the wake of #BLM. So know that the justice we seek is not a punitive one. We will afford you the compassion that has never been afforded to us, we will be addressing harm without causing further harm.