karimorton33's review against another edition
5.0
This book took me quite awhile to read. I found it quite dense and needed to read sentences or paragraphs multiple times to understand what was being said. However in the end I know that's how it should be, based on the topic. Some pieces that particularly resonated with me:
Chapter 3: Power
What a powerful construction race is-powerful enough to consume us. And it comes for us early.
But for all of that life-shaping power, race is a mirage, which doesn't lessen its force. We are what we see ourselves as, whether what we see exists or not. We are what people see us as, whether what they see exists or not. What people see in themselves and others has meaning and manifests itself in ideas and actions and policies, even if what they are seeing is an illusion. Race is a mirage but one that we do well to see, while never forgetting it is a mirage, never forgetting that it's the powerful light of racist power that makes the mirage.
...
Race creates new forms of power: the power to categorize and judge, elevate and downgrade, include and exclude. Race makers use that power to process distinct individuals, ethnicities, and nationalities into monolithic races.
Chapter 8: Behavior
Racial-group behavior is a figment of the racist's imagination. Individual behaviors can shape the success of individuals. But policies determine the success of groups. And it is racist power that creates the policies that cause racial inequities.
Making individuals responsible for the perceived behavior of racial groups and making whole racial groups responsible for the behavior of individuals are the two ways that behavioral racism infects our perception of the world.
Chapter 16: Failure
Generations of Black bodies have been raised by the judges of "uplift suasion." The judges strap the entire Black race on the Black body's back, shove the burdened Black body into White spaces, order the burdened Black body to always act in an upstanding manner to persuade away White racism, and punish poor Black conduct with sentences of shame for reinforcing racism, for bringing the race down.
...
On June 26, 1934, W.E.B. Du Bois critically assessed the success of educational suasion, as Garrison had critically assessed moral suasion before him: "For many years it was the theory of most Negro leaders...that white America did not know of or realize the continuing plight of the Negro." Du Bois spoke for himself, believing "the ultimate evil was stupidity" early in his career. "Accordingly, for the last two decades, we have striven by book and periodical, by speech and appeal, by various dramatic methods of agitation, to put the essential facts before the American people. Today there can be no doubt that Americans know the facts; and yet them remain for the most part indifferent and unmoved."
...
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, knowing if the policies are implemented, the fears they circulate will never come to pass. 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 the defenders of the antiracist policies they once feared.
...
The original problem of racism has not been solved by suasion. Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist.
Chapter 3: Power
What a powerful construction race is-powerful enough to consume us. And it comes for us early.
But for all of that life-shaping power, race is a mirage, which doesn't lessen its force. We are what we see ourselves as, whether what we see exists or not. We are what people see us as, whether what they see exists or not. What people see in themselves and others has meaning and manifests itself in ideas and actions and policies, even if what they are seeing is an illusion. Race is a mirage but one that we do well to see, while never forgetting it is a mirage, never forgetting that it's the powerful light of racist power that makes the mirage.
...
Race creates new forms of power: the power to categorize and judge, elevate and downgrade, include and exclude. Race makers use that power to process distinct individuals, ethnicities, and nationalities into monolithic races.
Chapter 8: Behavior
Racial-group behavior is a figment of the racist's imagination. Individual behaviors can shape the success of individuals. But policies determine the success of groups. And it is racist power that creates the policies that cause racial inequities.
Making individuals responsible for the perceived behavior of racial groups and making whole racial groups responsible for the behavior of individuals are the two ways that behavioral racism infects our perception of the world.
Chapter 16: Failure
Generations of Black bodies have been raised by the judges of "uplift suasion." The judges strap the entire Black race on the Black body's back, shove the burdened Black body into White spaces, order the burdened Black body to always act in an upstanding manner to persuade away White racism, and punish poor Black conduct with sentences of shame for reinforcing racism, for bringing the race down.
...
On June 26, 1934, W.E.B. Du Bois critically assessed the success of educational suasion, as Garrison had critically assessed moral suasion before him: "For many years it was the theory of most Negro leaders...that white America did not know of or realize the continuing plight of the Negro." Du Bois spoke for himself, believing "the ultimate evil was stupidity" early in his career. "Accordingly, for the last two decades, we have striven by book and periodical, by speech and appeal, by various dramatic methods of agitation, to put the essential facts before the American people. Today there can be no doubt that Americans know the facts; and yet them remain for the most part indifferent and unmoved."
...
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, knowing if the policies are implemented, the fears they circulate will never come to pass. 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 the defenders of the antiracist policies they once feared.
...
The original problem of racism has not been solved by suasion. Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist.
ayshin's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't finish the book, however, it is worth reading. I borrow this version from the library and it's something I definitely want to buy to keep for myself and refer to. This is something worth having on hand. Ibram X. Xendi is on point about racism and how no one is truly a non-racist. But we can learn and be more open-minded to other people, regardless of their skin color. In today's times, this is so vital and how we need to be accepting of one another.
As someone who works in education, it is important to not judge someone based on their race, orientation, disability, etc. I just wish I knew about this before prior to this timeframe.
As someone who works in education, it is important to not judge someone based on their race, orientation, disability, etc. I just wish I knew about this before prior to this timeframe.
gabigw's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
jdizzle's review against another edition
4.0
This book was very good, and powerful. I highly highly recommend it especially if you are new to anti-racism. My only complaint about the text, is the lack of intersectionality, between race, and class, and race, and gender. By no means is it absent, however I think it takes a backseat comparatively. Other than that, highly recommend!
alychelms's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
kathryn14's review against another edition
5.0
What’s the problem with being “not racist”? It is a claim that signifies neutrality: “I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.” But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “antiracist."
brettpet's review against another edition
5.0
"It is a racial crime to be yourself, if you are not white in America"
Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist makes dozens of powerful statements like this across its two hundred and forty pages. In fact, Kendi tackles so many important topics on race relations that I want to consider this a textbook in some ways--I think college courses (and hopefully high schools) will have this as required reading in the near future. Yet it is not just a collection of facts, but also a deeply personal look into Kendi's family, trauma, and the resulting growth that pushed him into adulthood.
I think the average person can choose a few key moments that defined their teens and college years, but Kendi had so many important experiences that informed this book-his essay contest submission oozing of self hatred, being held at gunpoint on a schoolbus, the impact of racism on his love life, and the direct impact of the 2000 election on his college campus. For me, the most impactful event in the book was the meeting with the FSU dean, with a black man in a position of academic power exercising a derragatory and racist viewpoint towards other blacks in lower positions of power. I also had a bit of a whiplash moment when Kendi mentioned his first teaching position being at SUNY Oneonta, my undergrad alma mater, which he described as "whiteness surround(ing) me like clouds from a plane's window" (which is very true-its a sea of whiteness).
Overall an excellent listen that gave me a lot to reevaluate on. I truly thought that reverse racism could not exist, but Kendi does a fantastic job at showing the damage of reverse, internalized, and intra racism on the development and quality of life of minorities. Out of all of the nonfiction literature on race relations that I've read this year, this feels like the gold standard. Looking forward to reading Stamped as well.
Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist makes dozens of powerful statements like this across its two hundred and forty pages. In fact, Kendi tackles so many important topics on race relations that I want to consider this a textbook in some ways--I think college courses (and hopefully high schools) will have this as required reading in the near future. Yet it is not just a collection of facts, but also a deeply personal look into Kendi's family, trauma, and the resulting growth that pushed him into adulthood.
I think the average person can choose a few key moments that defined their teens and college years, but Kendi had so many important experiences that informed this book-his essay contest submission oozing of self hatred, being held at gunpoint on a schoolbus, the impact of racism on his love life, and the direct impact of the 2000 election on his college campus. For me, the most impactful event in the book was the meeting with the FSU dean, with a black man in a position of academic power exercising a derragatory and racist viewpoint towards other blacks in lower positions of power. I also had a bit of a whiplash moment when Kendi mentioned his first teaching position being at SUNY Oneonta, my undergrad alma mater, which he described as "whiteness surround(ing) me like clouds from a plane's window" (which is very true-its a sea of whiteness).
Overall an excellent listen that gave me a lot to reevaluate on. I truly thought that reverse racism could not exist, but Kendi does a fantastic job at showing the damage of reverse, internalized, and intra racism on the development and quality of life of minorities. Out of all of the nonfiction literature on race relations that I've read this year, this feels like the gold standard. Looking forward to reading Stamped as well.
bldinmt's review against another edition
4.0
This book was an onion of thought-provoking moments, layer after layer. It isn't enough to be "not a racist" but rather the goal is to be an "antiracist." The seemingly subtle difference between these terms is actually huge.
kutterek's review against another edition
5.0
I really appreciate Ibram’s thoughts and perspectives. His connection of each chapter to specific examples of him being racist growing up really bring weight to the problem of racism, but also give hope for anti-racism. It’s hard to put everything down in a short review, but this book had me reflecting on my own life and on ways that I could be better. No, it didn’t give me solutions, but I feel like I can now understand more and better and hopefully do better.