As an anti-racist educator, I have learned that racism is often easier for White youth to recognise when it is so obvious. That racial slurs, racist bullying, racial profiling, police brutality are wrong. But many struggle to recognise invisible forms of microaggressions that shape everyday interactions, especially when racism and sexism overlap. In my workshops, I often ask participants to think of the images they make of a Black woman. Is she represented as beautiful, as professional, intelligent, or vulnerable? Is she expected to be strong all time? Is she described as too loud, or too much when she speaks with confidence?

These questions are not abstract to me. As a Black woman, I know exactly what it means to enter a room and feel that people have already made assumptions about you. I know the pressure that comes with it. Be clear, but not too direct; confident but not intimidating; visible but not too visible. So, gendered racism works through these contradictions. It places expectations on Black women that are impossible to meet and then judges them when they do not. This is why I use art in my youth work. A painting, photograph, poem, collage opens conversations that racialised youth often try to avoid. Art makes visible racial prejudices that are often hidden in everyday language, media, and institutions.

It also create new images: Black women as leaders, creators, thinkers, activists all with different emotions, dreams and experiences. Anti-racist education is not only about explaining what racism is. It is about creating opportunities for youth to reflect on the messages they have learned and question who benefits from them. It is about making space for the racialised youth to see themselves represented with complexity and pride. And only the intersection of anti-racist education and artivism can support this process. They do allow us to challenge Eurocentric narratives, but also to share and shape our counter-stories. They remind us that representation is not a small issue. The images we see shape what we believe is possible for ourselves and for our communities.