Paper short abstract:

Drawing from a report on UNESCO’s International Coalition of Cities against Racism, this paper surveys their experiences in the Americas. It explores the kinds of approaches to what anti-racism is and does; the preferred anti-racist subjects; and how whiteness and privilege are addressed if at all.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will offer an initial analysis of recent United Nations initiatives against racism the Americas. Drawing from a UNESCO's 2012 report, which promotes the good practices that emerged from the International Coalition of Cities against Racism (ICCAR). The ICCAR, launched by UNESCO in 2004, aims to establish a network of cities committed to "develop and enhance policies related to the fight against racism, discrimination and xenophobia. This report is interesting in offering a starting point to examine the top-down international, national and local initiatives throughout the world to tackle racism. The paper will concentrate in surveying the experiences in the Americas and explore what kinds of approaches and understandings of what anti-racism is and can do are being putting forward. A key interest is in assessing what kinds of subjects are at the core of this anti-racist agenda and how it is addressing whiteness and racial privilege. Furthermore, how are these initiatives dealing with the specificities and ranges of racial projects in the Americas, where discourses of mestizaje, multiculturalism and post-racial politics are in contrasting interaction?