This is not a book of antiracist theory but antiracist tactics – tactics that anyone, of any race, can use to strike a blow against injustice. Antiracism is not about what we feel but what we do, and there are specific techniques we can use to create a just world. Antiracist strategies are skills that can be learned just as we learn skills for public speaking or hitting a baseball. In these pages, you – whether a person of color or white – will find a playbook for leading your workplace, organization, or community through transformative change in the wake of an act of explicit racism. You’ll learn to play antiracist rhetorical chess, and to anticipate and effectively respond to the discursive moves of people who don’t understand bigotry, aren’t aware of it, are in denial of it, or even actively uphold it – so that you can advance justice goals. You’ll get a blueprint of how to dismantle systemic racism community by community, workplace by workplace, and organization by organization – and examples of what not to do. This book is aimed at people who are conscious of the reality of racism and want to end it but may not know how. It clearly shows how anyone can make an effective, significant, and measurable impact on racism through strategic action.
