Between Institutionalisation and Self-Organisation: Anti-Racist Approaches in Social Work

What does challenging racism mean across universities, social institutions and political movements? Who carries the often invisible labour of anti-racist education?

In the first episode of season two Anja Nunyola Glover speaks with Rahel El-Maawi about anti-racist social work, Black self-organisation and knowledge about racism.

Rahel is a sociocultural animator, anti-discrimination expert, lecturer and activist in Zurich. Rahel co-authored No to Racism, co-founded Bla*Sh, a network for Black non-binary people and women in German-speaking Switzerland, and helped initiate other Black feminist spaces. Rahel teaches at universities, works with RAKSA and leads INES’s educational programme.

We discuss:

• anti-racist education and its institutionalisation 
• Black feminist organising 
• community and care 
• emotional labour and exhaustion 
• solidarity and counter-knowledge 

We ask why anti-racist work is both in demand and marginalised, and why universities embrace diversity without sharing power.

? Content note: Racism, structural discrimination, exclusion and distress. 

? Book recommendation: Adas Raum by Sharon Dodua Otoo.

Part of “Transforming Educational Spaces: Addressing Racism, Embedding Intersectionality”.