Daily blog (audio): "I'm not racist" [It's not 'black or white']

<p>"I'm not racist" [It's not 'black or white']</p> <p><br> <br> We're on a mission to help one million people RISE by 2030 - join the movement at <a href="http://www.myrise.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.myrise.co.uk</a></p> <p><br></p> <p>I’ve had lots of interesting conversations with my wife Alex over the last year or so.</p> <p>To be honest, there hasn’t been much else to do 😉</p> <p>Some of them inspired by the various conversations going on in the public domain about racism, sexism and other subjects.</p> <p>She’s had some very interesting trainings through her work that I’ve either watched with her or half listened to whilst doing my own work.</p> <p>I’ve always considered my self “not racist”.</p> <p>I have clear memories of friends at school saying “Don’t tell Hally racist jokes – he doesn’t think they’re funny”.</p> <p>But I came to an interesting realisation recently.</p> <p>“I’m not racist” is what people normally say directly before what I would consider a racist comment.</p> <p>They don’t consider themselves racist either.</p> <p>When we describe ourselves as “not racist” we’ve come up with a definition of what we consider racism to look like.</p> <p>And when we feel we don’t do ‘that’, we class ourselves as “not racist”.</p> <p>And are, perhaps, not open to questioning some of our thoughts, actions and behaviours.</p> <p>Have I ever said anything that would be considered ‘overtly’ racist?</p> <p>I genuinely don’t think so.</p> <p>Have I ever made initial assumptions about someone that have turned out to not be true based, in part, on their ethnicity?</p> <p>I have.</p> <p>Racism, like most things, isn’t an “am” or “aren’t” thing.</p> <p>Excuse the phrase, but’s it’s not ‘black or white’.</p> <p>One or the other.</p> <p>It’s a spectrum.</p> <p>Shades of grey between what we could consider the two extremes.</p> <p>Realising that and that we are all on that spectrum and that we display different behaviours at different points along it is powerful.</p> <p>Helps us question and improve our