On the street where I live: Mapping a spectrum of antiracist messages and meanings

This paper describes a critical media analysis of antiracist messages from both teaching and research perspectives. Antiracist discourse of public media (yard signs and websites) was collected in two communities in the Northeastern United States in 2020 and are discussed here, first as a site of social construction of antiracism, and second as a model for pedagogy. As a critical media analysis, this study reveals antiracist messages on continuums from passive to active, low-risk to high risk, self-oriented to other-oriented, and detached “not racist” postures to actively antiracist stances. These continuums encourage interrogation of what it means to be antiracist as an individual and as a community. As a model for pedagogy, this study provides a flexible yet structured activity that asks students to observe messages where they live, interrogate the complexities of antiracism within their communities, and reflect on their own participation in antiracist work.