How Do Diversity Trainers and Consultants Embody Antiracism?: Constructions of Antiracism in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article draws on recent research to explore the changing nature of antiracism in the United Kingdom. Starting from a historical contextualization of the specific resistance that antiracism training has met, it seeks to show how antiracist diversity trainers and consultants negotiate these continuing tensions today. In the course of this analysis, the article questions some of the ways in which antiracism has been understood as a solely overt, explicit, and loud enterprise. From this starting point, the article draws on empirical research to outline some alternative ways of studying antiracism within institutions and organizations today. Through an exploration of trainers' and consultants' linguistic strategies, emotional negotiations, and journeys of self-understanding, this article paints a picture of antiracism today as a camouflaged, often silent but powerful player.