AKUT 2025: Call For Action – Global Voices Against Racism

Racism is not just an American issue. It is not historical. It is not “over.”

It is a global problem, embedded in the structures we live under, and it is alive—shifting, mutating, and continuing to oppress millions. In 2025, racism is not a ghost of the past. It is a living, breathing system of control.

And it’s time to speak out.

That’s why AKUT—the international street art collective known for its bold visual storytelling—is launching a global video project to document and amplify resistance against racism. We’re inviting artists, activists, students, workers, and everyone with a story to share to participate.

This isn’t a performance of “wokeness.” It’s a call for resistance. For honesty. For solidarity.

The State of Racism in 2025: More Sophisticated, Still Brutal

In the past five years, we’ve seen movements rise—and backlash follow. From Black Lives Matter to youth-led climate protests, the global push for justice has been met with state violence, surveillance, and right-wing populism. Despite global conversations around equity and representation, racism remains deeply rooted in our politics, schools, policing, media, and technology.

Consider the current landscape:

• Artificial intelligence now reinforces racial bias in housing, hiring, and law enforcement.
• Migration policies in the EU, U.S., and Australia criminalize survival and fuel anti-immigrant rhetoric.
• Educational systems are erasing marginalized histories while banning books and silencing dissent.
• Climate crisis is disproportionately displacing communities in the Global South.
• Media platforms still underrepresent or stereotype people of color.

It’s no longer just about individual prejudice. It’s about systemic harm—economic, environmental, psychological, and physical.

But even in the face of that, people are organizing, resisting, and creating alternatives.

The Project: What AKUT Is Building

AKUT’s new video project will be a global sight, gathering submissions from people around the world responding to a single question:

What does anti-racism look like where you live?

We’re creating a short film composed of your voices—stories, visuals, performances, protests, art, reflections. This project isn’t just about showing racism’s impact. It’s about showing how we fight it, how we survive it, and how we build something better in its place.

This is about documentation. It’s about building an archive of truth-telling. Not filtered through newsrooms or governments—but through lived experience.

The final video will be screened publicly in key cities—Berlin, Johannesburg, New York, Manila, São Paulo, Istanbul—and made available online with accompanying educational materials.

Who Can Participate?

Anyone. No credentials required. We want honesty, not polish.

We’re calling on:

• Visual artists
• Musicians and spoken word performers
• Protesters and organizers
• Migrant communities
• Students and educators
• Parents, neighbors, workers, and witnesses

If you’ve experienced, seen, challenged, or felt the impact of racism, your voice matters.

Submission Guidelines

We’re accepting a wide range of formats:

• Short video clips (1–3 minutes): These can be interviews, monologues, protest footage, studio performances, street art, or raw testimonials.
• Voice notes or audio recordings: Share your experience or a spoken piece in your own language.
• Text submissions: Poems, short reflections, stories, or letters.
• Visuals: Photography, drawings, digital collages, street pieces.

You can choose to remain anonymous or be credited. Translations are welcome. Submissions can be in any language—if possible, include English subtitles or transcripts.

Deadline: August 15, 2025

Send submissions to: [email protected]

More info at: www.akutcollective.org/anti-racism2025

Why Art? Why Now?

Art is not neutral. It is never “just decoration.” It reflects the world we live in—and helps shape the world we want.

In every resistance movement across history, from civil rights to decolonization, art has played a key role. It educates. It heals. It ignites. It travels across borders when bodies cannot.

AKUT believes art must speak boldly in the face of injustice. Whether that’s on the walls of bombed-out cities or in a public square, art makes oppression visible—and resistance beautiful.

With this project, we’re not asking for sanitized stories. We want raw truth. Anger. Grief. Joy. Defiance. Celebration. Memory.

A Global Problem Needs a Global Answer

Racism may look different depending on where you are. But it’s everywhere. And it’s interconnected.

In Germany:

Black, Arab, and Turkish communities are still policed and excluded. Refugees face detention, deportation, and daily hostility.

In India:

Caste continues to dictate access to education, health, and safety—often violently. Dalit and Adivasi communities fight every day for dignity and land.

In Brazil:

Police violence targets Black and Indigenous communities, and favelas remain occupied war zones.

In the United States:

While corporations post diversity pledges, Black people still die at the hands of police. Native land is still stolen. Immigration courts still separate families.

In Palestine, Sudan, Myanmar, and beyond:

Ethnic cleansing, displacement, and cultural erasure are real and ongoing.

But alongside these realities are movements. People who are organizing, resisting, creating. From Indigenous land defenders to queer Black collectives, from refugee-led mutual aid to radical educators—the fight is global, and so is the hope.

What This Will Become

This is more than one video. It’s the seed of a larger movement.

In 2025 and beyond, AKUT plans to use this project to build:

• A living digital archive of anti-racist creative resistance
• A traveling exhibition in partnership with grassroots groups
• A print zine featuring selected visuals and transcripts
• A platform for multilingual education and dialogue

We want this work to travel—to classrooms, protests, libraries, art spaces, and community halls. We want it to be shared, taught, debated, translated, and reimagined.

What You Can Do (Besides Submitting)

• Share this call with your network.
• Organize a local screening or workshop in your community.
• Support marginalized artists by commissioning or platforming their work.
• Challenge racism in your own institutions—schools, companies, unions, churches.
• Document and archive resistance in your context. If we don’t, others will do it for us—and rewrite the truth.

No Neutrality in 2025

If you’re not speaking up, you’re allowing it to continue.

If you’re not documenting, someone else will tell the story.

If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not paying attention.

We need more than thoughts and prayers. We need action, visibility, and collective will.

We don’t need perfect words. We need your honest ones.

Final Words from AKUT

This is not a branding exercise. This is a human one. We are not looking for viral moments. We are looking for truth, solidarity, and connection.

Racism will not disappear because we say it’s bad. It will end when we build systems and cultures that refuse to allow it.

Your voice matters. Your experience matters. Your art matters.

Submit. Share. Be seen. Be heard. Be part of something real.

AKUT Collective

Berlin | Istanbul | Everywhere

Instagram: @akutcollective

www.akutcollective.org