Anti-racism training: Diversifying our thoughts

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I) Project Lead, Eva Poliszczuk, shares the thoughts and inspiration behind anti-racism training at Aardman. 

Anti-racism. How does this word make you feel? Inspired, frustrated, or unsure? Perhaps it recalls questions about what it means to be inclusive, or why the addition of ‘anti’. Would ‘not racist’ be enough? 

Anti-racism is an elevation from ‘not-racist’. It means taking an active stance against racism of all forms; systemic, personal, interpersonal and institutional. Anti-racism is key to understanding how to make the world a better place, and one of the core pillars of ED&I work across organisations today. It is a commitment to fighting racism, whether that be our own bias or other people’s prejudices; calling it out during and after the matter and taking time to understand how various types of privilege affect our experiences. 

This is why here at Aardman we decided to bring in anti-racism training for our executive board and strategy team. Acting upon our Diversity and Inclusion charter, we want to proactively and continuously push for meaningful change by developing our organisational understanding of anti-racism. Plus, build our understanding of how racism exists today through oppressive systems, generational trauma and overt prejudice (to name a few); we seek to develop our foundations to foster a truly inclusive environment on and off screen, use our voice to challenge and ultimately, make systemic change.  

Anti-racism is about delivering conscious efforts and deliberate actions to provide equal opportunities for all. It is a constant wave of learning and evolving, personally and as an organisation. Taking the time to explore this with our executive board and strategy team will help further a sense of belonging for all, which will then filter through to our work and goals to showcase fairer representation on and off the screen. Plus, to support people of colour who experience racism. 

This year, we welcomed EDP Training to deliver their anti-racism training course, ‘Race Ahead’. This training helped participants develop cultural competency and provided the space to safely discuss 'race', racism and its effects on mental health free from judgment. We explored: systemic racism and English institutions​, racism’s impact on mental health, microaggressions and how to become a better ally personally and organisationally. This training helped people raise their confidence significantly in having conversations about 'race' and racism – an important step to support organisational change. 

The concept of ‘privilege’ was explored by all, with many feeling an increased awareness of how different privileges can play out. A sometimes challenging topic, psychologist and author John Amaechi defines privilege as the following, ‘Having 'white privilege' doesn't make your life easy, but understanding it can make you realise why some people's lives are harder than they should be.’  Crossing this barrier is a huge step to understanding how to be actively anti-racist; providing context for why we all must make the world a more inclusive place due to restrictions and prejudice existing in systems that still undermine and disadvantage people of colour. This training helped people develop understanding and tools to know how to intervene and challenge.

What next?  

Now it’s time to take these learnings and build upon our Diversity and Inclusion Charter. We seek to help develop our on-screen and off-screen representation and will look to release a further anti-racism action plan to clearly define our mission. This will bring us closer to achieving an inclusive culture more in tune with a world rapidly growing in diversity, using our voice to help spread positivity as it equally grows more divisive. To ultimately, deliver on our mission to create animated comedy entertainment for all. 

“The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.” – Ijoema Oluo 

“The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.” - Maya Angelou