ABSTRACT
To be ‘anti’ something implies a degree of effort. To describe oneself as ‘anti-racist’ suggests one is prepared to act against racism, to do something about it. The question that such a selfidentification invariably elicits is a practical one, ‘how?’. How do anti-racists oppose racism? How do they turn their opposition into action? These questions need to be asked not merely of the small coteries of activists who position themselves within ‘anti-racist movements’ but also of the much broader constituency of people and policies that oppose racial inequality. As this suggests, rather than construing anti-racism as the territory of a few specialists, it may also be understood as an area of social participation engaged in and developed by many millions of individuals around the world. This chapter, which is largely descriptive in intent, addresses both specialist and popular forms of anti-racist practice, both anti-racism conceived of as something professionals ‘apply’, often over a discrete period of time and within a formal setting, and antiracism as something akin to a ‘way of life’, a culture of behaviour.
