The mission of the Center for Anti-Racism (CFAR) is to support the fight against racism. CFAR will focus its efforts on advocacy, programming, research and training to create a better understanding of racism, how it manifests and strategies to combat its many forms.  

CFAR affirms the dignity and personhood of all people. With that said, CFAR is charged with fighting against racism in its many forms and will direct much of its focus there. Transformative change that has yielded meaningful advancements in social progress have often revolved around coalition-building from marginalized groups. Therefore, where appropriate, CFAR will join the efforts of other individuals and institutional partners to combat other forms of hatred and bigotry.

Notwithstanding, CFAR will primarily focus on its quest to unravel the web of racial hierarchies and undo systems of racialized oppression. The history of the United States has created unique systems and forms of oppression animated by racism; thus, racism requires unique attention. That will be CFAR’s central task.

Race is the idea that human beings can be described and/or categorized into distinct groups based on physical traits and characteristics associated with people from a shared ancestry. For millennia, humans lived amongst each other without using anything approaching the racial subgrouping that exists in our current world. The term race itself was rarely used prior to the 1500s. It has since become associated with notions of superiority and inferiority, been used to differentiate how society treats the various groups, and to create power imbalances based on these differences.

Race is not real in a scientific sense. Scientists from various fields agree that there is no scientific evidence to subdivide people into racial categories. Therefore, social scientists argue that race is a social construct—an idea created and widely accepted within a given society in order to reinforce power imbalances. Additionally, because race is a socially constructed idea, racial categories are often arbitrary, malleable and contradictory, so that racial categories will often shift to suit ever-changing societal norms.

Though race is not real in a scientific sense, race has lasting educational, health, political, social and socioeconomic impacts because racial classifications often determine the benefits and privileges one may receive in society. In this way, racial groups operate as a form of caste, particularly within the U.S. due to the nation’s history of slavery, Jim Crow and other forms of racial discrimination. Thus, because a person’s race can often determine their societal status, studying racial categories within society can produce a meaningful understanding on the impact of race on people’s lives.

To be racist is to believe a racial group is inherently inferior or inherently superior to other racial groups. This is sometimes referred to as holding a racist idea or belief. Racist ideas often heavily rely on prejudice and stereotypes (i.e., fixed, oversimplified ideas concerning a particular person or group of people) to justify racist beliefs.

Additionally, racist ideas often argue that racial disparities within society are explained by the inferiority of particular racial groups. This seeks to blame larger societal injustices associated with racial disparities on the perceived failings and deficiencies of individuals or racial groups rather than the systems and structures that created the disparities.

Racism is a race-based caste system that designates social status based on membership in a racial category. Racism combines racist ideas with the power of communities, systems and/or institutions in ways that disadvantage some racial groups over others.

Reverse racism is a term used to delegitimize racial oppression and the structural imbalances it often creates. This term was developed in part to defend the status quo and institutional racism to indirectly argue anti-Black racism is a relic of bygone eras. The term is typically used to criticize efforts to repair the harm from our nation’s history of racial oppression of Black people by arguing such policies and efforts advantage Black people to the disadvantage of white people and is thus practicing historical racism in reverse.

For example, at some point emancipation, the Civil Rights Movement, affirmative action, etc., have all been characterized as a systemic way to benefit Black people at the expense of white people. This claim is simply untrue and defies even a base-level understanding of our nation’s history.

Anti-racism is the active involvement in combating racism and its impact across society. Racism is the byproduct of deliberate action and thus requires deliberate action to confront it. The work of the anti-racist is the work of a change agent who seeks to undo the impact of racism. This work takes various forms.

For individuals, it could mean educating oneself and others on issues concerning racism and its manifestations in historical and contemporary ways. It could also mean identifying and uprooting all signs of racism in our daily lives including bias, prejudice in our personal life, our familial units, our social networks and our communities. It could also mean advocating for a more equitable society free of racial oppression.

For communities and institutions, this work could mean identifying, denouncing, dismantling and working to replace racist policies, procedures, behaviors and customs in our collective space(s). It could also mean collectively advocating for and supporting public policy designed to undo the harm created by racism’s manifestation in our society’s systems, structures and institutions. Additionally, it could mean actively working to create environments that foster a sense of equity and belonging for all people.