Racism: The World’s Common Enemy! How to Start Your Anti-Racist Journey As a Global Citizen?

7 min readMay 31, 2021

Written by Sarah Ahmad Azly, Director of Design Taylor’s Connect

As George Floyd’s terrorizing death swept across America, with nearly 15 million Americans who demonstrated in 2,500 cities and towns, that brought about a tidal wave of support, the impact did not end in America. The power of George Floyd’s death reached hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who took the streets in their own communities in solidarity. George Floyd’s death triggered something within the systems and people all over the world.

Racism As A Common Enemy

#EndtheIsraeliApartheid #FreePalestine

The world has a frightening history of racism that has been embedded across many societies. The Palestinian resistance against Israel is one of the most persisting wars of racism, that has also progressively gotten worse by the day. Israel’s committed war crimes against Palestine has been recognized worldwide since the 1948 Nakba, The Palestinian Exodus in which up to 700,000 Palestinians fled and were forced out of their homes by Israeli settlers. The Nakba deemed a universal catastrophe at too many points over the years as history repeated itself again and again.

Malaysia has explicitly made it known that we hold no diplomatic ties to Israel (established on the first page of our passports), as our country is among several to recognize Israel as a hostile nation that commits acts of illegal war crimes and ethnic cleansing. It is worthy to note that similar histories of settler-colonialism, racism and expulsion of Indigenous people is shared between the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM), Asian-Hate Crimes, and many other global racial injustices happening in our world right now.

Why Am I Personally Talking About This Issue?

Growing up in the Middle East, especially during my high school years in Jordan, there was no way that the Palestinian resistance against Israel wouldn’t be a part of my normal everyday life. My community was made up of thousands of families whose origin were Palestinian, and the pain and anger felt from those people who fled to Jordan from their wars, was carried down by the children that grew up to see how that pain affected their parents, their grandparents, their relatives, their families and friends from their native land. It was a pain that was shared in the entire nation, as Jordan’s population is 20% refugees from all types of warzones in the Middle East. My days going to a school that embraced their activist culture, as a teen, I grew up alongside the Jordanian Youth, a colossal group of young, fiery and passionate group of people, who used their voices, education and knowledge to speak up against the massive oppression of the Israeli Apartheid and other war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

I observed that the conflicts had caused many of my friends, especially those whose families had fled from their countries, to feel powerless and fearful to ever return to their homelands when dangerous politicians and leaders dictate their safety based solely on the fact that they were of Palestinian blood-line.

Israel’s leaders govern a nation of people who feel a sense of superiority within their race, they are among those who abuse their power to make those they deem different from them and unworthy of, suffer in every humanely way possible, depriving some of my friends from the basic rights such as education, medical care, citizenship, and equal job opportunities. Sound somewhat familiar? That’s modern day racism for you, it exists.

The Search To Do More

When the BLM Movement spread like a wildfire on socials last year, I knew it was a call to show up and show support for my Black friends and the Black community. Similarly, since the ongoing offensive from Israeli forces begun, the need to actively communicate and spread the word online was much needed during these times. Although reposting, donating, and spreading information via Instagram is my only capability to take action, I still felt like I wasn’t doing enough, or enough consistently, especially from afar.

As I searched the web for some ideas and updates in preparation for this article, the most important aspect of racism that truly called out to me was the reality self-check. I managed to find some blogs and articles discussing the implicit bias that many of us are unaware of and how it contributes to our understanding of systematic and cultural racism in which, has brought forth a rapidly growing permeance of violence and brutality amongst many victims of racial discrimination.

Steps To Take As You Embark On Your Anti-Racist Journey

What is anti-racism? What’s an anti-racist journey? Anti-racism is being actively, not passively, against racism. Being “not racist”, just simply isn’t enough. I think most of us lack a regular reflection of ourselves, our thoughts and behaviours that may hold implicit racial bias without being fully aware. An anti-racist journey, is a journey, firstly because being an anti-racist isn’t a one-and-done type of thing. It’s a slow process that takes a life-long’s worth to partake in. Secondly, we have to understand that we were born in a racist society, and checking where our privileges stand in society is necessary to understand how systems and cultures have been built around racism.

1. Acknowledging Your Own Prejudice

The first step into helping promote anti-racist strategies and combating racism, is regardless of how you think or feel you are unbiased and allied, you most likely foster some inherent racial bias, which is mostly due to the society we live in today. So acknowledging that you have some work cut out for you can make this journey a little easier in terms of knowing what you can expect along the way.

2. Learn About Yourself & Your Roots

Before you start learning about others, it really starts with yourself and developing more self-awareness. Gaining a better understanding of your culture, your ancestors and how your family functions as a group can help in understanding how it has influenced you. It’s a way to make you aware of your own biases as you think about other cultures and races.

3. Diversify Your Knowledge & Learn About Others

Seek information from news outlets or non-profits that focus on racial equality and get your news from a variety of sources. Only reading or watching the news from one source gets you only one perspective, but diversifying your sources and seeking those with nuanced analysis will show you how there’s many ways to tell you the same story.

4. Interact With People From Different Races

Step out of your comfort zone and talk to people who are different than you, interact with them and see if you can have meaningful conversations that challenge the way you see things. Actively listen to those who share their experiences and opinions, which means to listen with the intention to understand and not to respond. Do not be dismissive over other people’s experiences, and do not assume you understand the experience of communities you don’t identify with. Be there to affirm and validate their experiences while taking caution of the space you are occupying at the same time.

Additionally, do not expect or ask people to educate you on racism, as it is basically asking them to do more work and can place even more of a burden on them. Be active in doing your research beforehand.

5. Be Aware of Microaggression Acts

This can take form in many ways, such as stereotypical comments that are normalized such as “Where are you really from?”, “What are you?” or “You sound white”.

REMEMBER!

While these steps entail that we must hold responsibility over ourselves, anti-racism should never aim to prioritize “enlightenment” and “growth” over the dignity and humanity of those oppressed and suffering. Let’s try not to forget the whole point here.

Remember, part of being an anti-racist is being informed and aware that, Black Lives still matter, Uyghurs muslims still matter, Indigenous people still matter, Palestine is still not free, and racism still exists, even if your feeds seem to be back to normal.

#StopRacism #BlackLivesMatter #HateIsAVirus #StopAsianHate

#peaceforpalestine #EndIslamophobia #StoptheUyghurGenocide

All visuals have been made by Shayma Al Shiri for @muslim on Instagram except those that have been noted otherwise