Ibram X. Kendi challenges the standard definitions of racism that allow people to say, "I'm not racist." He maintains that each of us has the potential to be only racist or antiracist in our actions and ideas. He broadens the definition of "racism" to include concepts such as ethnic racism, cultural racism, behavioral racism, colorism, class racism, gender racism, and more. He carefully defines each term, oftentimes sharing personal anecdotes as examples. His vulnerability in opening up about his own journey towards antiracism helps make the process of self-examination feel more accessible and less threatening.
Most interestingly, Kendi counters the idea that "Black people can't be racist." Given how strongly some people feel about that notion, I'm surprised he isn't considered more controversial, particularly because this book goes even further and includes a chapter on anti-white racism.
How to Be an Antiracist focuses primarily on racism as it affects Black people, with other races mentioned only in passing here and there. Still, terminology is defined in terms of "racial groups", making it easy to apply Kendi's ideas to other races.
I think this book is essential reading for anyone who is earnest in their desire to work towards a more equitable society. It truly challenges some of the more conventional views on racism and pushes the reader to think more critically.
I don't usually do this, but there were so many quotes worth noting that I'm just going to include them here.
Page 8: This is the consistent function of racist ideas... to manipulate us into seeing people as the problem, instead of the policies that ensnare them.
Page 9: But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of "racist" isn't "not racist." It is "anti-racist." ... There is no in-between safe space of "not racist." ... "Racist" is not...a pejorative... It is descriptive... The attempt to turn this usefully descriptive term into an almost unusable slur is, of course, designed to do the opposite: to freeze us into inaction.
Page 19: But if racial discrimination is defined as treating, considering, or making a distinction in favor or against an indvidual based on that person's race, then racial discrimination is not inherently racist... If discrimination is creating equity, then it is antiracist. If discrimination is creating inequity, then it is racist. Someone reproducing inequity through permanently assisting an overrepresented racial group into wealth and power is entirely different than someone challenging that inequity by temporarily assisting an underrepresented racial group into relative wealth and power until equity is reached.
Page 21: Do-nothing climate policy is racist policy, since the predominantly non-White global south is being victimized by climate change more than the Whiter global north.
Page 23: "Racist" and "antiracist" are like peelable name tags that are placed and replaced based on what someone is doing or not doing, supporting or expressing in each moment. These are not permanent tattoos.
Page 29: Assimilationist ideas are racist ideas... Assimilationists typically position White people as the superior standard.
Page 48: The Black child is ill-treated like an adult, and the Black adult is ill-treated like a child.
Page 54: Assimilationists believe in the post-racial myth...that if we stop identifying by race, then racism will miraculously go away. They fail to realize that if we stop using racial categories, then we will not be able to identify racial inequity.
Page 64: That is the central double-standard in ethnic racism: loving one's position on the ladder above other ethnic groups and hating one's position below that of other ethnic groups.
Page 67: With ethnic racism, no one wins, except the racist power at the top.
Pages 93-94: One of the fundamental values of racism to White people is that it makes success attainable for even unexceptional Whites, while success, even moderate success, is usually reserved for extraordinary Black people.
Page 101: [T]he bait and switch at the heart of standardized tests - the exact thing that made them unfair: [The test prep course] was teaching test-taking form for standardized exams that purportedly measured intellectual strength... The use of standardized tests to measure aptitude and intelligence is one of the most effective racist policies ever devised to degrade Black minds and legally exclude Black bodies.
Page 128: Black people can be racist toward White people.
Page 129: To be antiracist is to never conflate racist people with White people, knowing there are antiracist Whites and racist non-Whites.
Page 129: Racist power, hoarding wealth and resources, has the most to lose in the building of an equitable society... [R]acist power produces racist policies out of self-interest and then produces racist ideas to justify those policies.
Pages 131-132: White supremacists are the ones supporting policies that benefit racist power against the interests of the majority of White people... They oppose affirmative-action programs, despite White women being their primary beneficiaries. White supremacists rage against Obamacare even as 43 percent of the people who gained lifesaving health insurance from 2010 to 2015 were White... White supremacists blame non-White people for the struggles of White people when any objective analysis of their plight primarily implicates the rich White Trumps they support.
Page 137: Powerless Defense: The illusory, concealing, disempowering, and racist idea that Black people can't be racist because Black people don't have power.
Page 140: The powerless defense shields people of color from charges of racism...[It] underestimates Black people and overestimates White people.
Page 142: The truth is: Black people can be racist because Black people do have power, even if limited.
Page 144: [Stop] denying the duality of racist and antiracist... For the better part of my life I held both racist and antiracist ideas... I've been antiracist one moment, racist in many more moments. To say Black people can't be racist is to say all Black people are being antiracist at all times... [T]hat is not true.
Pages 158-159: Rolling back racism in a capitalist nation can eliminate the inequities between the Black and White poor, middle-income Latinx and Asians, rich Whites and Natives... But antiracist policies alone cannot eliminate the inequities between the rich and poor Asians or between rich Whites and "White trash"... Antiracist policies cannot eliminate class racism without anticapitalist policies. Anticapitalism cannot eliminate class racism without antiracism.
Page 175: The antiracist desire to separate from racists is different from the segregationist desire to separate from "inferior" Blacks... When integrationists use segregation and separation interchangeably, they are using the vocabulary of Jim Crow.
Page 180: Integration: resources rather than bodies. To be antiracist is to champion resource equity by challenging the racist policies that produce resource inequity.
Pages 205-206: Moral and educational suasion focus on persuading White people, on appealing to their moral conscience through horror and their logical mind through education... What if racist policymakers have neither morals nor conscience, let alone moral conscience... What if economic, political, or cultural self-interest drives racist policymakers, not hateful immorality, not ignorance?
Page 208: The problem of race has always been at its core the problem of power, not the problem of immorality or ignorance... Moral and educational suasion breathes the assumption that racist minds must be changed before racist policy, ignoring history that says otherwise. Look at the soaring White support for desegregated schools and neighborhoods decades after the policies changed in the 1950s and 1960s. Look at the soaring White support for interracial marriage decades after the policy changed in 1967. Look at the soaring support for Obamacare after its passage in 2010. Racist policymakers drum up fear of antiracist policies through racist ideas... Once the fears do not come to pass, people will let down their guards as they enjoy the benefits. Once they clearly benefit, most Americans will support and become defenders of the antiracist policies they once feared... To fight for mental and moral change as a prerequisite for policy change is to fight against growing fears and apathy, making it almost impossible for antiracist power to succeed.
Page 209: Changing minds is not a movement... Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change.
Page 213: When we fail to open the closed-minded consumers of racist ideas, we blame their closed-mindedness instead of our foolish decision to waste time reviving closed minds from the dead... When we transform people and do not show them an avenue of support, we blame their lack of commitment rather than our lack of guidance.
Page 219: Asking antiracists to change their perspective on racism can be as destabilizing as asking racists to change their perspective on the races. Antiracists can be as doctrinaire in their view of racism as racists can be in their view of not-racism. How can antiracists ask racists to open their minds and change when we are closed-minded and unwilling to change?
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