Anti-racism and Multiculturalism

I want to continue talking about resistance to anti-racist work, but in a broader context. In a fascinating ethnographic study, sociologist Amanda Lewis examines the dynamics of race in a predominantly white community. While many in the community subscribe to a color-blind ideology, in which people are seen “as individuals, not as races,” Lewis finds that racial formations continue to pervade social interactions. We need to stop thinking of race as a problem that only affects communities of color. As Hazel Carby notes, “We should be arguing that everyone in this social order has been constructed as a racialized subject.” Discussions of race need to move beyond a binary framework in which blackness and whiteness are diametrically opposed, where whiteness is neutral and blackness is other. Rather, we must work to uncover the ways in which whiteness, blackness, and other racial formations are constituted alongside and amongst each other.

One of the ways in which we can complicate our discussions of race to account for the interrelationality of racial formations is to distinguish between multiculturalism and anti-racism. While multiculturalism has taken on different forms in the past few decades, a basic tenant of multiculturalist discourse has centered on the issue of representation. For example, the inclusion of Toni Morrison and Amy Tan on literature syllabi, or the hiring of a handful of people of color in a workplace has come to signal the diversification of institutions. We are led to believe that race is no longer a barrier to success, and that America, this land of golden opportunity and infinite wealth, defines itself as a celebration of different cultures and viewpoints. Yet, simple inclusion does nothing to question why exclusion occurs in the first place. Race lines may be crossed, yes, but the walls of social and political institutions that continue to exclude people of color have not been dismantled. Let me be clear, I am not implying that multiculturalism is useless or misguided. What I want to suggest is that multiculturalism is not a means to an end, but rather one step in a continuous, ongoing struggle for social justice and political equality.

This is where anti-racism comes into the picture. It is here that we must move beyond a framework in which issues of race are relegated only to people of color. It is here that effective, goal-oriented dialogue can happen, not just with each other, but also with ourselves. Frankie Condon writes, “Anti-racism work necessitates both inward or private reflection aimed at personal transformation and an outward, public turn that is at once both humble and determined and is aimed at productive engagement in collective and institutional transformation.” Each one of us, regardless of our racial backgrounds, has something to offer this discussion, has something vital to share in this rewriting of social interactions.