Radical intellectuals, racist hegemony, and grassroots activism: towards a holistic, anti-racist political movement

Recent scholarship on race and racism, and their connections with the political, ideological, economic, and social realities in which we live has moved forward in leaps and bounds. Influential new ideas have emerged, along with the recognition of alternative ways of knowing (epistemologies), revitalizing radical scholarship, and giving it renewed relevance and energy. Concurrently, the Western world, including the United States and United Kingdom, has seen a resurgence in racist, political rhetoric, and the rise of the far right. Against this backdrop, we provide a precis of contemporary anti-racist scholarship together with a discussion of the politically motived, media-driven, populist opposition to it. We outline the contributions that contemporary anti-racist thinkers have made to the debate on race and racism and what is to be done about it. We examine how some new, radical anti-racist paradigms, transformative frameworks that fundamentally challenge and seek to dismantle systemic racism and deeply rooted structures of racial inequality, are perceived as being antagonistic. However, we also argue that anti-racist, radical thought is beginning to converge in powerful ways, pointing towards new forms of resistance. In what follows, we argue for a radical form of anti-racism that eschews the artificial dichotomy between theorizing and activism, bridging the academy with the community, to strengthen the movement. In this conceptual piece, we draw upon anti-racist concepts such as ‘White Supremacy’ and ‘the Psychosis of Whiteness’ to inform the conversation.