Student walking on the Pace University, Pleasantville campus

Anti-Racism Education (ARE)

Why do we have an Anti-Racism Education (ARE) requirement?

In the summer of 2020 and in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, the Black Student Union at Pace publicized a list of demands, including a desire to have a mandatory anti-racism curriculum. A subcommittee of the Dyson Curriculum Committee created a proposal to require two anti-racism education courses as “floating” attributes, meaning that they could be “attached” to courses in one’s majors, minors, or Core requirements. In May 2021, the faculty voted to approve in a landslide victory.

What Does Anti-Racism Mean?

As defined by a group of faculty on the subcommittee, anti-racism is the “ongoing process of naming, analyzing, evaluating, and imagining ways to change systems of racism. This includes colorism, colonialism, casteism, and other mechanisms that discriminate against people on the basis of racial/ethnic identities whose meanings are constructed and assigned by society. The defining characteristic of course experiences that will fulfill the ARE core requirement is the presence of sustained civil dialogue about race/ethnicity, systemic racism, and antiracist ideas and actions.”

So, anti-racism education names, tries to understand, and addresses many systems and practices of racism and racialization so as to better understand various events and structures as well as to better understand the experiences of the students in our classes. The wide variety of topics is important to understand given that a response to hearing about anti-racism curricula is usually “but what about x group.” Anti-racism curricula may sometimes center conversations about particular forms of racism but are not limited to just those examples and should inspire additional conversation/research/teaching about multiple forms of discrimination and oppression.

Examples of topics to address in anti-racism curricula include:

Casteism
Colorism
anti-Asian racism
Anti-Black racism
Anti-immigrantism (often directed toward Latino/a/x communities but also other communities)
Colonialism and settler colonialism
Orientalism
Xenophobia
Any systems of racial/ethnic segregation and hierarchy or processes of “racialization” (using racist tactics/ideas/ideologies to construct differences even if groups are not necessarily parts of different races or ethnicities)
- Apartheid
- White supremacy
- Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious and/or group-based discrimination
- Overlapping inequities in various contexts
- Disability and race
- Gender/sexuality and race
- Class, poverty, economic development, and race
- Religious discrimination and race
- Language, ethnicity, and race
- Constructions of race, ethnicity, and “purity” and “superiority”  in different geopolitical contexts (studies in Eurasia, Latin America, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, central African region, Israel and Palestine, etc.) and different historical periods as well as transnational spaces

Please see the University's Strategic Plan on becoming an Anti-Racist Institution.

What are the Benefits for Students?

STUDENT SUCCESS: Anti-racism curricula education prompts instructors to design classes in ways that focus on student success for all: Studies show:  
- Increased attention to the value of the diversity (of all types) of student populations increases the positive outcomes and experiences of all students.
- Elements of anti-racism curricula create space and opportunity for instructors to innovatively and intentionally explore the differential impacts of different types of course structures. For example, more active learning (preparatory assignments; in-class engagement to talk about the material; review assignments) is helpful for first generation students but also sets up all students to succeed and take ownership of their educational journeys.
CAREER READINESS: Integrating anti-racism curricula helps students prepare for and influence the future world of work. More universities are framing DEI/anti-racism as a “competency” necessary for career readiness.

What will happen in ARE courses?

You might learn about how to analyze race as a category and to use empirical evidence to assess policies, outcomes, or decisions that are shaped by or that shape race
You might learn about anti-racism as a normative commitment to eliminate racism
You might receive exposure to a variety of perspectives, such as with guest speakers
You might learn about anti-racism is about a set of skills/competencies that one can use as tools in the workplace or for a social justice cause