(soft music) - [Karen] The Oxford English dictionary defines an anti-racist as a person who opposes racism and promotes racial equality.

- A close colleague and friend of mine, Dr. Janet Helms, who has written about racial identity, white racial identity and people of color's racial identity.

She makes a strong distinction between being non-racist and anti-racist.

We can put many of our doctoral students through a race lab, and they become aware of their privilege, their biases, their stereotypes.

They can turn on the TV set and recognize, you know, stereotypes being portrayed in commercials.

And then they can go back home and understand that racist jokes are negative.

And at the end of -- they have developed what I call an, increasingly, a non-racist identity.

We ask them, what will you do now?

And many of them will say that I can no longer sit idly by, if I see a Black home worker discriminated against.

I would have to say something.

I can no longer go back home and have a family reunion and hear a favorite uncle tell a racist or sexist joke without taking action.

Our society punishes individuals that engage in anti-racist actions.

Parents and relatives would come down hard on the person by saying, "He or she is from the old school, be quiet, you're disrupting family harmony."

And also think about what would happen if you were a worker, who overheard, I mean, witnessed a discriminatory action towards an employee of color, if you try to intervene, you jeopardize yourself as well.

And these are the powerful hooks in our society.

The ability to punish you when you go against the grain.

It's not enough to be non-racist, because if you sit in silence and inaction in the face of bias and discrimination, you are guilty of conspiracy and collusion.

You are promoting a false consensus.

If you stand there and listen to a racist joke and laugh at it, or just stay there and listen to it, you are communicating to everyone else that is okay.

And so taking action is taking an anti-racist stance.