The Anti-Racist Organization

3Defining Meaning

I am a 58‐year‐old successful white businessman with a great family and network. Everything in my life is safe, secure and comfortable.

But George Floyd's murder…

It caused me as a white middle‐aged man to ask myself questions I thought I knew the answers to. But my perspective of the world wasn't in sync with reality. I had no idea what the concept of white privilege meant. I had classic liberal privileged views of what the world was like. And asking questions made me uncomfortable.

Understanding what my role was in doing something about it I found difficult to answer. I didn't know how to shape the answers as I didn't have the tools.

But I knew I had to answer the ultimate question, ‘Am I going to be on the right side of this, or the wrong side?’ Am I going to be a spectator for the change, or help figure out the right things to do?

Chief executive officer, 2021

Using Language as a Tool to Dismantle Racism

A conversation I still have, frequently, concerns language: the words to use and the words not to use. What language is best so as not to alienate the rest of the workforce who we need on our side?

What words can we use instead of ‘racism’ and ‘white supremacy’ because it makes people nervous, some find it divisive, and it means we have to stop before we barely get started?

There has been no acknowledgement, no awareness of how the words we use naturalise systemic racism. How our language reinforces power dynamics that are never tipped in favour of ...