Effecting anti-racism in citizenship: challenges, possibilities, and a necessary re-consideration

Smith, Bryan

Abstract

In this paper, I explore what it means to read citizenship education against a theory of antiracism, in support of an argument that citizenship education against racism requires more specific considerations of the critical challenges that come with addressing racism. Recognising that racism is a complex political, historical, and geographic project of violence, I argue that citizenship framing and practice necessarily must become more attuned to the divergent experiences and practices of racism. Using Tim Stanley’s theory of racism to tease out what racism entails and how racisms exist in multiple forms, I argue that, for citizenship practice and scholarship to take racism seriously, it must equally exist in multiple forms that recognise the historical, geographic, and political specificities of the form of racism being acted against. Without a clear sense of the form of racism being contended, including a clear understanding of how racism is uniquely manifest in the community, more generalised forms of citizenship that leverage generalised conceptions of racism are unlikely to effect more than superficial change. To help offset this possibility of citizenship action that doesn’t properly attend to the needs of anti-racist work, I argue that we need to frame our work as ‘citizenships against racisms.’

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The Social Educator

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1328-3480

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The Social and Citizenship Education Association of Australia

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