A hole in the heart of antiracism training

Everyone should want to be an antiracist. Who wouldn’t want to stand against the evil that declares that some people, because of the color of their skin, are inferior to others? Who wouldn’t want to live in a society that honors the dignity and sacredness of every human being and that judges every one of us according to the content of our character?

The problem is that this isn’t what some people mean when they call themselves antiracists. Instead, they talk about black people and white people as political abstractions. They seem to think racism can be solved by indulging in racial essentialism, which entails assuming things about the lived experiences of others based upon their skin color.

As the deaths of innocent black people at the hands of police have reminded us, assumptions can have fatal consequences. When it comes to antiracism training in schools and workplaces, assumptions rob us of the nuances of another person’s lived experience.