Beyond “platitudes of support or denouncement”: researching antiracism at a time of monsters

As Charisse Burden-Stelly has repeated, following Antonio Gramsci, “now is the time of monsters.” Antiracism is beleaguered, flailing between attacks on its legitimacy and co-optations by the institutions of colonial, racial states. At this time, as John Solomos argues in his important new book, Antiracism: A Critique, it is more important than ever to take antiracism seriously as an object of study. Making interventions with the capacity to mount a serious challenge to racism at a time of genocide should mean neither deferring the fight against capitalism nor that against imperialism. A relational approach to research on antiracism can expose its complexities and assist in building the necessary alliances to defeat fascism.