charlie [they/them, comrade/them]

I’ve been a reading What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism by Arun Kundnani

Acts of individual racist discrimination and abuse remain common enough. But they are not the primary means through which racial domination is effected. Neoliberalism has given racial capitalism ways to organize itself without the need for the explicit vocabulary or attitudes of white supremacy. Neoliberal racism operates through the hidden hand of property ownership and the iron fist of security agencies. The mute compulsions of market pressures are upheld through the intensified brutality of racially coded bordering, incarceration, policing, and war. The “rigour of the system makes it superfluous to make a daily assertion of superiority,” as Fanon put it.₁ We fail to grasp this reconfiguration of a whole structure if we understand racism today as solely a pattern of unconscious biases and micro-aggressions. pg.223

Emphasis mine. This book has helped me reframe my understanding of what racism is, and what actions I can take as an individual to meaningfully combat racism in a material way. What I’m coming to understand, in regards to racially charged words, is that the best thing I can do is navigate my life in such a way that I generally avoid those terms, because ultimately when we’re conflicted over the issue of language, the true root systems of racism remain unaffected.

I respect that, it’s not something I’d thought about before in this context. Genuinely, thank you for giving me something to think about.