There are two kinds of antiracism. Only one works, and it has nothing to do with ‘diversity training’

Thirty-seven migrants died while attempting to cross the border from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Melilla on 24 June 2022. Photograph: Javier Bernardo/AP

In news that ought to please antiracist campaigners everywhere, just recently everybody seems to be talking about antiracism. Chief executives such as Larry Fink of BlackRock, one of the most powerful financial companies in the world, call for “systemic” racism to be addressed. Books on teaching antiracism to children become bestsellers.

Conservatives dismiss all this as “woke” – preachy, elitist and unneeded – but they can’t seem to stop talking about it. But all the time, both sides in the debate mistakenly assume there is only one kind of antiracism. They fail to distinguish between two quite different antiracist traditions: one liberal, the other radical.