Will we ever live in an anti-racist city?

Imagining an Anti-Racist Birmingham: A Night of Powerful Conversations and Collective Hope

On the global United Nations Day for Anti-Racism, Birmingham stood tall as a city determined to confront racial injustice and build a more equitable future. The Birmingham Race Impact Group, in collaboration with The Philosophers’ Yard, hosted a powerful evening of reflection and dialogue—centred on one transformative question: What could an anti-racist Birmingham truly look like? The event brought together activists, thinkers, community leaders, and residents for an evening of meaningful discussion, shared vision, and collective commitment to change.

Held in a welcoming and inclusive setting, the event opened with a moment of artistic brilliance: a live spoken word performance by Bilal Akram, whose commissioned piece titled ‘Hope’ set the tone for the evening. His words resonated deeply, weaving personal truth with political urgency, and offered a reminder that even in the face of injustice, hope remains a powerful force for change. The emotional energy of his performance lingered as the audience moved into the heart of the evening’s programme: conversations that matter.

The night featured two outstanding speakers whose knowledge, experience, and dedication to anti-racist work offered deep insight and inspiration. Ranjit Sondhi, Chair of BRIG and former Deputy Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, brought wisdom grounded in decades of work fighting for racial justice in Birmingham and beyond. He challenged attendees to reflect on the systemic nature of racism and the structural changes needed to dismantle it—urging the city to move from “intent” to impact.

Joining him was Joy Warmington, CEO of the equalities and human rights organisation BRAP. Known for her honest, courageous leadership, Joy offered a sharp analysis of how institutions must confront their complicity in maintaining racial inequalities. She spoke of the emotional labour carried by people of colour, the urgent need for courageous conversations in the workplace, and the importance of turning policies into practice. Her words sparked both deep reflection and energetic discussion—reminding everyone in the room that anti-racism is not a passive position, but an active, ongoing struggle.

What made the event especially powerful was the emphasis on the conversations following the speakers’ insights. Attendees were invited to share personal experiences, raise questions, and imagine what a racially just Birmingham might look like. These group discussions were rich with thought, care, and creativity. People listened. People challenged. People dreamed. And most importantly, people connected across difference.

The atmosphere throughout the evening was one of determination and mutual respect. There was a shared understanding that while the road to an anti-racist Birmingham is long and complex, gatherings like this are essential steps forward. The event modelled what anti-racist practice can look like in real time: inclusive, reflective, and action-focused.

In a city as diverse as Birmingham, events like this are not just important—they are vital. They offer a blueprint for how change can be sparked: through truth-telling, community dialogue, and courageous leadership. As the night drew to a close, the word that lingered most was the one Bilal began with: hope. Not just as a feeling, but as a force—a collective commitment to keep pushing forward until racial justice is not the dream, but the reality.

On the evening Ranjit Sondhi, BRIG Chairman, said this to the audience.

What is the nature of racism and why does racism persist? 

Before we can talk about racism, we must first debunk the concept of Race.

Race is a bogus concept.

Race is a figment of the imagination.

It is a scientific absurdity, a gross and deliberate misrepresentation of biological and anthropological observations for the purpose of exploiting whole groups of human beings. It is nothing more than a pseudo socio-biological construct that has been deliberately inserted into popular discourse for over half a century. The danger is that through a repeatedly unqualified use of the term, we begin to take its existence for granted.

But here is the conundrum.  The concept of ‘race’ may be a fiction, but racism is a concrete reality.

It is more accurate to put it in quotation marks, like this….

‘Race’’ …. and its derivative as ‘race’-ism

So, what is racism?

Racism is an all too real product of the process of ‘racialisation’ that draws upon perfectly legitimate explorations of differences in biology, anthropology and culture for the illegitimate purpose of grading and classifying human beings, using the markers of colour, culture, countenance, and class, and ascribing to them an inferior (or superior)status in the world order.

This then provides a moral justification for the mass economic exploitation of the labour and resources of those who are deemed inferior.

Why does it persist?

The historical racism, associated with slavery and colonial exploitation, has in no way diminished in its virulence and persistence – rather it has become entrenched, if in more subtle forms, in the post-colonial era, in the very structures of our modern society, and in its political, economic, cultural and social institutions at all levels.

 A brief look at the drivers of racism….

 At a political level,

There is a continuing aggressive, compulsive desire for world domination by the more powerful nations of the global north, acting in concert against the interests and demands of the developing nations – ironically most clearly demonstrated in the workings of the United Nations and its institutions like the World Bank – in such a way that the severe under-development of the colonised nations has in no way been ameliorated even after they gained their independence.

At the economic level,

The nexus between big politics and big business shows a flagrant disregard for the sanctity of human rights in the relentless pursuit of corporate greed.

In times of prosperity, labour and capital are switched across the world at the stroke of a pen with scant consideration for the impact this has on creating and deepening inequalities within and between communities.

In times of economic decline, and withdrawal of publicly funded services, racism can be switched on overnight by closing a school, or hospital or a public amenity.

At a social-psychological level,

The almost primitive fear of contamination by foreigners.

The fear of ethnic leakage and miscegenation.

The increasing reluctance to share national resources and public services with foreigners. The prioritisation of citizens over denizens.The paranoia about migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The creation of folk devils and moral panics.

At a cultural level,

The necessarily fictional, and fictional necessity, for maintaining a cultural hegemony through our cultural institutions, our education system, through language and communication, through heritage, museums, and the arts. 

Far from being neutral, culture becomes a means by which power, influence and control is exercised in the interest of the dominant classes.

Racism continues to exist because…

Of a decisive mental repression, a historical amnesia that refuses to accept, or at best reduces the significant of the connection between past imperial exploitation and the persistence of present-day racial inequalities.

It continues to exist because even the most committed anti-racists, black and white, still need to deepen their resolve and their efforts in creating broad base anti racist alliances and allegiances.

And it will continue to exist if we fail to come to a common and deeper understanding of where it comes from and why…..

My brief was to try and examine the nature of racism and its origins – whether it is personal, cultural or structural, whether it is unconscious or conscious, passive or aggressive, overt or covert, direct or indirect.

…and why it continues to lurk in the boardroom, or the courtroom, or the classroom or the living room.

I hope I have provided some initial thoughts for discussion.

But I want to end by reminding you about the consequences of racism.

First and foremost, the impact it has on its victims, on black people, hardly needs spelling out. There is concrete evidence gathered over many decades that establishes, with great force and conviction, that black people continue to be at the receiving end of discriminatory processes, not only in Britain, but across all the countries of the Global North. 

Suffice it to say, that when individuals are treated in this way because of the colour of their skin, they are being denied a right to be human, denied a place in history – they are being denied a right to exist at all. Even where victims survive such discriminatory treatment, they are irreversibly scarred, mutilated for life –physically and psychologically.

So much for the effect on the victims of racism. But the impact that this seemingly endless racism has on the perpetrators is just as tragic and grievous. Over a period of time, they become habituated, accustomed, inured to acts of discrimination and violence inflicted on others. This ultimately results in a gross coarsening of our sensibilities, it narrows the range of our moral sympathy and imagination, and wears down our generosity of spirit.

And when our empathy is drained, we are in great danger of silently sanctioning, and turning a blind eye to the suspension of human rights and undermining of universal freedoms.

So, what is to be done?

We must replace….

 - White fiction with Black history.

- We must critically analyse how.

- Old forms of colonialism that moved black people into a distant slavery and how it exploited its colonised subjects in their own lands, is now reproduced, often with a vengeance, in neo-colonial Britain.

- We must acknowledge the sins of the past.

- Rewrite the Birmingham and national story.