UNCSW66: Where Race and Gender Intersect...

 UN Anti-Racism Conversation Circle 15/3/22 

This session was hosted as a parallel event by NGO CSW NY. A fantastic session which explored how we can come together to intersect race, ethnicity and gender to move close to equality.

When researching attitudes towards people of a race different to their own, www.worldpopulationreview.com found that when ranking countries surprisingly the US and UK weren’t in the top 25.  This was the subject of discussion within the group before examining how racism manifests, the negative impact it has on both individuals and wider society.

‘Making anti-racism a verb’ was the discussion and learning  point for our groups. We heard about racism as a public health issue, the importance of mental health and wellbeing for those who experience racism and the lived experience of migrant workers in Dubai among others.

We were involved in a deep discussion around privilege and the need to embrace uncomfortable conversations as a tool to create space which challenges the conscious and unconscious bias. Of which both are pillars of race based prejudice in our societies.

As a teacher educator the difficulty is that often education, in particular schools, are always named as the place for all of this work to happen. This led to conversation about the role of the community to also step up and protect schools when they face ‘backlash’ such as the anti-CRT wave currently peaking in the Americas. Schools can’t be expected to do this work alone.

The overarching message from this positive and inspiring session is that communities must be engaged recognising that ‘victims’ of racism, shouldn’t have to do all the educating. True allies and anti-racists need to understand and create room to amplify voices of diverse communities. Through the discussion of racism, we will come closer to a respectful and collective understanding, which moves true allies away from ‘performative’ anti-racism.

 

Session can be found here: 
https://youtu.be/oIMztVH2_5s

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