Covert Racism

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on how covert racism functions, in particular within the cultural context of the UK.

She begins by defining covert racism as a form of racialised bias/discrimination that is not explicitly, overtly and obviously manifested. This results in the people experiencing it being faced with issues of deniability, ambiguity and a near impossibility for redress, becoming mired in questions of what is counted as specific evidence of motivation for the racism.

This topic was inspired by the work she is doing for her new book about whiteness in the workplace. She expands on experiences she documented in her book Living While Black and on reflections she had with her book White Minds.

She then poses the question of how we get to a place of mutual understanding and of recognition of covert racism. She considers the ways to prove convert racism and locates three forms of proof:  

1. Historical resonance
2. Empirical data
3. Lived experience

She concludes that by thinking about systems, statistics and probabilities it is possible to prove covert racism if there is a real desire to do so, and wonders if the ways we have to try to achieve justice are an obstacle in terms of finding and using this proof. 

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

White Minds: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

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