What does it mean to be anti-racist?

by Orissa Arend

There is much discussion these days amid aspiring white allies to the cause of racial justice – and I count myself as one – about how to be the most useful.Michael Cowan, professor emeritus at Loyola University, wrote an op-ed piece on July 30 for the Times-Picayune New Orleans Advocate entitled “Successful coalitions must dispense with purity tests.” It caught my eye because Cowan and I have worked on many projects together. But this piece laid bare a fundamental disagreement.            

             In order to change policies and laws, he claims that anti-racist activists sometimes refuse to work with “a large majority of decent people [I think he means decent White people who] don’t identify themselves as ‘anti-racist’ and never will.” This strikes me as a false dichotomy.

            Anti-racism isn’t a purity test, as Cowan claims. I see it as an accurate description of anyone who “accepts the full humanity of every child of God” (in Cowan’s words) and works to challenge and abolish institutional and structural racism. Power and privilege can be an asset in this endeavor, not something to feel coy or guilty about.

Undoing Racism

            The Undoing Racism Workshop of the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond has helped me understand this large definition of anti-racism. It doesn’t mean just opposing someone who has racial prejudice. Growing up in this society, we all have some of that. Pronounced examples could be found in your mother or father or your best friend. If anti-racism were a purity test, we all would fail.

            Accepting a common broad definition of anti-racism is crucial right now. As one of my mediation mentors said, a problem that is mutually defined can be mutually solved.

            There was a time, not too long ago in warped COVID-time, when some White people had a hard time saying, “Black lives matter.” I foresee a time, hopefully at COVID warp speed, when the important coalitions for social justice that Cowan writes about can whole heartedly declare themselves to be anti-racist.

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Jeff Thomas

Publisher — Black Source Media

Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans

Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.

His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.

He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.

Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas

Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu

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Jeff Thomas

Publisher — Black Source Media

Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans

Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.

His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.

He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.

Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas

Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu