Once while riding in a van headed to the airport after a few days of martial arts training, I told a story to the friends I traveled with. I don’t remember the story at all, but I distinctly remember one part of it. At some point, I said “…the black man…” and my friend replied, “Why does he have to be black?” I got embarrassed, and the group laughed at the implication that I was racist. Again, I don’t remember what the story was about, but in a car full of white men, I knew the default version of “man” would be a white dude like us so differentiation was necessary. My friend’s offhand comment stuck with me in a wholly unexpected way. I never told stories about “white people,” “white men,” or “white women.” No, those stories were just people, men, and women. My personal default definition of person equated to a white person. It was a blind spot in my thinking that glared when brought to my attention. Ultimately, personal mental blind spots rarely play a part in the discussion of racial relations. Many white people think racism only means not saying the “N” word or burning a cross. But because those are the signals we’re looking for, we fail to see the subtler and more insidious ways that racism pervades society. Often, we don’t see these subtle signs until someone points them out to us. (And even then, a large number of white people still refuse to see.) Since that day in the car, I’ve tried to learn about my blind spots, about my default assumptions, and about my mistakes. Mostly, this came in the form of reading American history and seeing how the U.S. failed to ever reconcile the fact that it’s founding included an inhumane institution. But never have I dipped into the field of African-American studies. First, I never knew where exactly to begin those studies, and second, it felt like too much work because I knew I’d have to confront some areas of myself and my past that wouldn’t make me look good. I mean, I’m human; I’ve said dumb stuff, made stupid assumptions, and in general made mistakes. But when I saw a chance to review Ibram X. Kendi’s memoir, How to Be an Antiracist, I took it. Much to my surprise, Dr. Kendi uses mistakes that he’s made to illustrate the various subtle ways that racism exists in our society. Before I read the first word, I felt my defenses rise, but as I read, Dr. Kendi’s examples and experiences pulled me deeper into his arguments as I empathized with his lessons growing up. Instead of attacking the reader, Dr. Kendi inspires them to look at their assumptions. After finishing eighteen insightful chapters, I cannot stop thinking about How to Be an Antiracist and the work I have to do.
TL;DR
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist is a book I didn’t know I needed. This memoir stunned me, educated me, and forced me to take a look at myself. It also inspired me to be better. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
From the Publisher
From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a bracingly original approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves.
“The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it—and then dismantle it.”
Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America—but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
In this book, Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
A Memoir? A Political Text? An Educational Resource?
How to Be an Antiracist fits all the descriptions. Dr. Kendi sets out to fulfill the promise of the book’s title by defining racism and antiracism. Under the category of racism, he differentiates between segregationism and integrationism. Before this book, I believed that integration and segregation were opposing forces. That’s how I was taught. Once slavery ended, African-Americans integrated into society, eventually integrated into the school system, eventually integrated into the political process. But that sentence is from a viewpoint of white culture/society as the default and only allowable culture/society, thus, integration means conformation. In short, the U.S.’s dominant culture said that yes we put you into slavery, but now that we freed you, it’s up to you to adjust to us, not the other way around. This is the subtle aspect of racism. To be antiracist, society need to respect that African-American culture is different but no less worthy than white culture, that to be antiracist is to avoid placing cultures in a hierarchy. Much of the book highlights how racism is used to justify hierarchy and thus economic exploitation. Dr. Kendi’s use of history and cultural analysis drive home his arguments.
The book places a single topic as the thesis of each chapter, and there are eighteen topics in total. Dr. Kendi starts off the chapters with definitions so that the reader speaks the same language. The first chapter is aptly titled, “Definitions.” Dr. Kendi then moves through topics such as “Power,” “Biology,” “Behavior,” “Color,” “Sexuality,” and ending with “Survival.” Each chapter does a deep dive on the topic indicated by the chapter title. “My Racist Introduction” opens the book, and it sets the tone for all that follows. This topic easily lends itself to pointing out other’s failings. After all, racism is everywhere, including coming from the mouth of the president of the U.S. Instead, Dr. Kendi points to himself, and I found this to be inspiring and leadership by example. It becomes easier to interrogate my own mistakes, my own assumptions and defaults, by being inspired instead of blamed. The final chapter, “Survival,” moved me. It was intense; it was personal; it showed the strength of resistance. How to Be an Antiracist ended in quite a dramatic and yet hopeful way.
Writing
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of nonfiction books, and the ones that I find most frustrating assume the audience is as immersed in the topic as the author. In How to Be an Antiracist, Dr. Kendi does not make this assumption. Instead, he defines the topic – what is racist and what is antiracist – at the start of each chapter. All the tools necessary to understand the argument exist on the page. Therefore, instead of having to look up definitions, I could look up the references he used. This structure made a lot of sense; whether one agrees with him or not, at least the argument can be made from equal grounds. Arguments in good faith against him cannot result from a misunderstanding since the meaning is laid out so precisely. For readers steeped in the field, this structure might be tedious due to familiarity. For newbies like me, the structure is invaluable.
Each chapter builds upon the lessons of the previous chapter. The book starts with general, entry level topics and expands to more difficult areas as the book moves along. Later chapters work as an excellent introduction to more nuanced aspects of antiracism. The chapters showcase how the work of others influenced Dr. Kendi, and these influences serve as an unofficial, further reading list.
Finally, How to Be an Antiracist contains the type of academic style writing that I enjoy. Granted, I think this book is aimed at a non-academic audience, but the writing feels academic to me. It balances intelligent, precisely built arguments with a lively style that moved with ease back and forth from educational to memoir. The clear, concrete examples ground the theories. Where academic style writing loses me is the dry, removed tone; however, Dr. Kendi blends the memoir style into the academic in a way that kept me hooked even while pausing to consider a new idea.
Memoir
Dr. Kendi’s life serves as the transport mechanism for the anti-racism lessons. This book stretches from high school to the present. In addition, we learn about his parents, which provides for an interesting view of how antiracist theories have evolved with time. The mix of personal with the political and historical analysis never drowns out the memoir. I learned a lot from this book, but I would clearly call this a memoir.
Each autobiographical sketch supports the thesis of the chapter. In the introduction, Dr. Kendi relates a tale about a speech he gave. In How to Be an Antiracist, he labels this speech as racist. But the crowd’s applause had the biggest effect on me. Dr. Kendi says the crowd was thousands of black people with a few whites. But ringing applause followed his words. The judges ate up his words with glee. As Dr. Kendi recalls the speech, one notices how it points out a ‘they’ and an ‘us.’ He goes on to analyze the speech, himself, and how societal ideas threaded through his speech. This type of self-analysis is something more people, including me, should do. The introduction itself provides a good example of how to conduct a self-analysis.
Nuance
The “Space” chapter confused me. There’s a nuance there that I’m missing. Dr. Kendi starts out discussing integration of schools and goes on to discuss creation of black spaces. I don’t know that I got the difference between segregation and separate spaces. Is the distinction simply choice? Because segregation removes choice and removes agency. Part of a need for black ‘spaces’ is the patrician nature of white culture intending to ‘raise up’ African-American culture. I think his argument for the space is similar to women’s only gyms, like Curves. If so, this argument makes sense to me. His argument deals with representation, and I’m still struggling with it. For me, this was the weakest chapter of the book. The fact that I don’t understand means I need to learn more. But where other chapters presented clear definitions and contrasted ideas in a stark manner, the nuances in “Space” were too subtle.
“Space” stands in contrast with the following chapter “Gender.” Where I was unable to pick up on the nuance of “Space,” “Gender” takes a difficult topic – intersectionalism – and made it understandable. In addition to recognizing the important work that black women have done, Dr. Kendi shows how racism has specifically targeted black women because they were women. The need for antiracism to support feminism becomes clear in this chapter, and that furthering the objectives of one furthers the objectives of the other.
Conclusion
Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist stunned me. The mix of memoir, political treatise, and historical analysis convey Dr. Kendi’s theories of antiracism with precise detail. I cannot over-emphasize how much I admire what he’s done here. Instead of scholarly text, this memoir teaches by placing Dr. Kendi’s mistakes in conversation with theory, and the audience is better for it.
Out from One World on August 13, 2019