Racism is not an aberration. It is not a glitch that can be resolved with discrete action. Racism is systemic, institutional, structural, political, cultural, and attitudinal, and each work in concert with each other, crossing different axes of power. Because racism manifests across all institutions in society and operates differently in each location, antiracist research and practice must be equally comprehensive and mobile. While anti-Indigenous racism, Islamaphobia, antisemitism and anti-Blackness operate in unique ways they are fundamentally interconnected, requiring emboldened anti-racist strategies that match contemporary conditions.
This two-day national symposium brings together anti-racist researchers and practitioners across different fields and shared struggles to work collectively toward the elimination of racism. Convened in Magandjin, the home of the ‘Brisbane Blacks, renowned for the formulation of a most courageous anti-racism that drew from the Black power movement in the US, but which can trace its origins back through a long tradition of resistance founded on the premise and promise of the power of Blackfullas in this place, the symposium centres excellence in anti-racist efforts, locally and globally.
This symposium is for academics, practitioners, organisers, students and members of the public who have an express commitment to anti-racism, and are seeking to engage in critical dialogues to consider the philosophical, ethical, and practical challenges and possibilities of this work.
