bkanipe's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
relaxing
slow-paced
3.75
it is dense. it is important. it made a clear impression, argument, and repeated those points.
aanna's review against another edition
4.0
This was great, I will likely refer back to parts of it many times. Definitely recommend to Americans.
jhalloran99's review against another edition
3.0
This book did not really work for me as an audiobook. I really like Ibram X. Kendi and have seen him speak and heard him on a lot of podcasts, but did not love the delivery of the audiobook. I think I would have gotten more out of it if I had read a physical copy, but I don't know if that would have changed the number of stars I gave it. I don't think the title is fitting and was often confused by the narrative line of the book. Was it a memoir? Was it a history lesson? Was it a guide to becoming an antiracist? I don't know. Certain parts spoke to me, but on the whole I've read other antiracist works that inspired me to be a better person and ally in a more tangible and lasting way.
functionalstoic's review against another edition
5.0
Long read, totally worth it. View-shifting in ways I wish would have occurred years ago
juliamz's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
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