ABSTRACT
The term ‘everyday anti-racism’ is employed across varied studies to refer to the ways in which individuals respond to racism in their day-to-day lives. This can include the actions of victims confronting perpetrators, witnesses speaking out against racism, practices that bridge cultural difference, material and subjective strategies deployed by those on the receiving end of racism to repair stigmatized identities, and aestheticized expressions through popular culture such as forms of music, youth cultures and media that challenge racism. This chapter reviews selected works examining anti-racism in everyday life and draws out its key tenets as an area of study, with the aim of highlighting how it contributes to broader anti-racism theory and praxis. It summaries the notable areas that make up literature on everyday anti-racism: the ‘micro’ dimensions of historical social movements and epochs; ‘doing’ anti-racism in organizational/institutional contexts; negotiating cultural difference and countering racism in spaces of ‘encounter’; and victims developing ‘cultural repertoires’ to cope with racism. The chapter highlights some of the central objectives of this scholarship which involve enhancing understandings of how the everyday is an integral part of processes that configure and challenge racism.
