Mahdis Azarmandi — Raising the bar

“I’m Not Racist, but...” Understanding Racism & Anti-racism

What do we mean when we say racism? And how do we fight and challenge it? This presentation will address the difficulties to ‘talk’ racism and how to make sense of the often-misunderstood idea of ‘race’. The first part will focus on defining, understanding, and unpacking racism, the second part will focus on what it means to be ‘anti-racist’ beyond lip-service. To be anti-racist requires more than taking a stand ‘against a concept, a name, a category, a categorising [which] does not itself involve standing (up) against (a set of) conditions of being or living with racism. Anti-racism means standing up and challenging those conditions of racism and taking a risk to dismantle white supremacy. It needs to move beyond education and awareness and translate into actions that dismantle the colonial status quo.

Bio

Mahdis Azarmandi is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Studies and Leadership at the University of Canterbury. After obtaining her PhD from the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, she held a position as Assistant Professor at DePauw University. She has also taught in Germany and Denmark. Her research looks at anti-racism and colonial amnesia in Aotearoa New Zealand and Spain. Her research interests are at the intersection of race critical, decolonial theory & peace studies. She also researches on anti-racism and politics of memory.