Anti-Racism Work Is Not Rocket Science

Joanne Lockwood is joined by Merel van Haastert to explore why anti-racism work can feel daunting for white people, and why the work starts with seeing racism as a system rather than an individual moral failing.

Together they unpack how “white as default” shows up in everyday life and representation, and how media narratives, nationalism, and colonial histories reinforce structural inequity. They discuss how labels and categorisations can obscure lived experience, and how racism is sustained through systems that reward compliance and discourage people from challenging authority.

Merel shares why she created Project Colour White: to create safer spaces for white people to talk honestly about fear, shame, and fragility, and to build community for those wanting to do deliberate, active anti-racism work. The episode closes with a call to speak up, be intolerant of intolerance, and stay engaged in long-term change.

One-sentence summary

Merel van Haastert believes anti-racism begins not with complex theory but with the courage to confront our own comfort, fear and inherited power — because our shared humanity is simpler than the systems that divide us.

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Synopsis

Merel van Haastert describes herself as a “wise woman” and a “vessel through which knowledge and wisdom manifests”. At 51, she speaks from a place she has longed for all her life — grounded, less reactive, more certain of who she is. A single parent living in Rotterdam, shaped by divorce, job loss and personal upheaval, she understands what it feels like when the ground shifts beneath you. That experience of breakdown — of having to zoom out from the world she assumed was fixed — became an entry point. It allowed her to see something she once couldn’t: that being white in Western Europe is not neutral. It is a culture, a system, a default she had never needed to question.

What she is trying to change is not “other people” but white people’s relationship with themselves. She wants them to admit the fear beneath the defensiveness. To say out loud, as one man did to her, “I am afraid of losing what I have.” She insists anti-racism is not complicated in its essence — “your soul knows” — but it is emotionally hard because it requires surrendering comfort and stepping outside the herd. She is building spaces where white people can sit with that discomfort honestly, without collapsing into guilt or retreat, so that change becomes possible not through shame, but through courage.

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10 Small, digestible concepts for easy learning

1. Anti-racism isn’t hidden knowledge — it’s buried honesty.

“Your soul knows.” The difficulty is not understanding; it’s removing the blindfold.

2. Privilege is invisible from the inside.

Like water to a fish, whiteness feels normal until something disrupts it.

3. Systems are inherited, not individually invented.

You didn’t design the structure — but you are living inside it.

4. Fear hides beneath defensiveness.

Often what sounds like anger is anxiety about losing status or safety.

5. Default equals unexamined power.

When something is labelled “normal”, everything else becomes deviation.

6. Change feels like loss before it feels like freedom.

Letting go of certainty can feel like “having candy taken away”.

7. Silence protects the system.

Looking away allows the pattern to continue undisturbed.

8. Community makes courage possible.

It’s easier to step outside the herd when others stand beside you.

9. Guilt about the past doesn’t fix the present.

Honesty moves us forward more than inherited shame.

10. Fear of “the other” is fed daily.

Media drip-feeds narratives that keep anxiety alive.

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The “why” in the story

What they believe is true about people

People are fundamentally equal; children know this instinctively before prejudice is layered on. Humanity is shared long before culture divides it.

What they cannot unsee

That whiteness operates as an unnamed culture and default — and that wealth and stability in Western Europe are built upon colonial dominance and extraction.

What they are no longer willing to tolerate

Silence, denial, and the comfort of pretending racism is “in the past”. She refuses to accept fear as a reason to disengage.

What they are trying to build instead

Honest, grounded spaces where white people can dismantle anti-blackness within themselves without collapsing into guilt — and where a different, more humane world becomes imaginable.

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Narrative structure

1. The trigger:

Personal breakdowns — divorce, economic instability, identity shifts — showed her how fragile “normal” can be. Later, learning about systemic racism and white supremacy forced her to confront her own embedded privilege.

2. The tension:

White people experience anti-racism as a threat. Speaking up risks exclusion from family, workplace, social circles. Challenging authority feels like stepping outside the tribe.

3. The insight:

White culture exists — it just hasn’t been named as a culture. Once you see it, you can distinguish between who you are and the system you inherited.

4. The pivot:

Instead of debating people publicly or performing righteousness, she began creating safe, intimate spaces — even placing two stools in public — inviting white people to sit and talk honestly about fear and privilege.

5. The destination:

A society where people are not afraid of newcomers; where identity does not determine safety or value; where change feels like expansion, not loss.

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Five key takeaways and learning points

1. You are shaped by a system you didn’t choose — but you can choose what you uphold.

So what: Awareness shifts you from passive beneficiary to conscious participant.

2. Fear of losing status is real — and naming it is powerful.

So what: When fear is admitted, it no longer controls the conversation.

3. Challenging racism means risking social comfort.

So what: Expect discomfort; it is often a sign of growth, not failure.

4. Guilt is less useful than responsibility.

So what: The past cannot be undone, but present behaviour can.

5. Change begins internally before it becomes structural.

So what: Systems tip when enough individuals reconsider their stance.

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Ten distinct ideas explained

1. Whiteness as culture

White identity often presents itself as neutral. Naming it reveals norms, values and assumptions that have shaped institutions and expectations.

2. The myth of the “default” human

When white men are treated as standard, everyone else is measured against them — affecting hiring, representation and belonging.

3. Colonial inheritance

European stability and wealth were built through global extraction. Ignoring this history distorts present conversations about merit.

4. Media-fed fear

Repeated images of refugees, violence and poverty create emotional conditioning that frames outsiders as threat rather than neighbours.

5. White fragility

Emotional collapse or defensiveness can centre white feelings, halting progress and recentring comfort over justice.

6. Authority and conformity

Western societies claim free speech, yet subtly punish those who challenge dominant norms, making anti-racist action socially risky.

7. Privilege as insulation

Privilege means not having to think about race daily. That absence of pressure is itself evidence of advantage.

8. The false promise of assimilation

Expecting others to behave like white Western norms suggests value lies in similarity, not dignity.

9. Individual awakening vs collective inertia

One person’s shift can feel isolating, but collective tipping points change culture.

10. Emotional labour of change

Anti-racism demands grief for what you believed was true, and courage to rebuild identity with clearer eyes.

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How people should change as a result

1. Think

• Move from “I’m not racist” to “What system am I benefiting from?”
• See whiteness as a culture with influence, not a neutral baseline.
• Replace “They’re taking something from us” with “What story have I been told?”
• Understand that fear does not equal fact.
• Recognise discomfort as information, not danger.

2. Feel

• Shift from defensiveness to curiosity.
• From guilt to grounded responsibility.
• From fear of loss to openness to expansion.
• From shame about ancestors to honesty about reality.
• From isolation to solidarity.

3. Act

• Speak honestly about race with other white people, rather than waiting for people of colour to educate you.
• Admit fear when it arises instead of masking it with argument.
• Interrupt racist comments in everyday spaces — gently but firmly.
• Diversify what you read, watch and learn from.
• Support initiatives led by people of colour without centring yourself.
• Create or join small discussion groups where mistakes can be explored without performance.
• Question policies and practices in your workplace that quietly reinforce “default” norms.

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One thing to remember

Anti-racism is not about losing who you are — it’s about having the courage to see who you’ve been allowed to be.