Some thoughts on the adoption of anti-racist practice

Abstract

Summary This paper uses the metaphor of adoption to explore some of the issues that frequently seem to accompany an agency's attempt to incorporate anti-racist practices. Nothing in this paper challenges the view that racism is fundamentally an instrument of domination economically, politically and culturally. However there is more to be understood. First, how is it possible for racism to insinuate itself into ourselves and our institutions so effortlessly? How can we understand it's familiarity? This is not an alternative narrative of racism, but a companion to the more macro explanations. Second, and this is the area I wish to explore, what is the experience of organisations that adopt these practices. It is a truism to say that the success of a struggle is not in the end dependent upon gaining victory, but crucially dependent upon the quality of thinking and organisation that can be maintained during the struggle. Racism is fundamentally underpinned by hatred and an attack on thinking; too frequently these very characteristics arise in the process, and organisation, that struggles against it. If the adoption of a child is to succeed it is necessary to come to terms with the failure' of conception. Specifically the success of the project of adoption depends, to a large degree, on how this ‘failure’ is understood and integrated. The adoption of an idea, or a practice, must contend with a similar ‘failure’, and resist the temptation to take on certainty, when the reality is one of anxiety, and the unknown.