Some Ways to Become Antiracist
Especially lately, the importance of seeking a solution to the racial issues polarizing this country is underscored. A fantastic tool towards this goal is contained in: “How to Be an Antiracist” (One World, 2019) by Ibram X. Kendi. “Not racist” isn’t good enough. People need to recognize and confront their own racist thoughts (as the author describes his own ongoing journey of becoming an Antiracist. Check out our summary below.
Some definitions include:
Racist: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea.
Antiracist: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea. One who is expressing the idea that racial groups are equals and none needs developing and is supporting a policy that reduces racial inequity.
Assimilationist: One who is expressing the racist idea that a racial group is culturally or behaviorally inferior and is supporting cultural or behavioral programs to develop that racial group.
Segregationist: One who is expressing the racist idea that a permanently inferior racial group can never be developed and is supporting a policy that segregates away from that racial group.
Other highlights:
It is important to recognize race and identify racism.
- “Assimilationists believe in the post-racial myth that talking about race constitutes racism, or 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. If we cannot identify racial inequity, then we will not be able to identify racist policies. If we cannot identify racist policies, then we cannot challenge racist policies. If we can\not challenge racist policies, then racist power’s final solution will be achieved: a world of inequity none of us can see, let alone resist. Terminating racial categories is potentially the last, not the first, step in the antiracist struggle.” – p. 54
One prevailing racial prejudice in America is the portrayal of Black people as more criminally violent than White people. It has resulted in a racist social contract between police officers and Black people.
- “I had to learn to keep racist police officers from getting nervous. Black people are apparently responsible for calming the fears of violent cops in the way women are supposedly responsible for calming the sexual desires of male rapists. If we don’t, then we are blamed for our own assaults, our own deaths.” – p. 76
An important tenet of the antiracist mindset is the rejection of cultural and racial hierarchy. No single culture, be it your own or someone else’s, should be viewed as superior or inferior.
- “To be antiracist is to see all cultures in all their differences as on the same level, as equals. When we see the cultural differences, we are seeing cultural differences—nothing more, nothing less.” – p. 91
There is a virtue in safe/voluntarily racialized spaces. Solidarity and unity against racism from one group is not an endorsement of hate against that group.
- “Whenever Black people voluntarily gather among themselves, integrationists do not see spaces of Black solidarity created to separate Black people from racism. They see spaces of White hate. They do not see spaces of cultural solidarity, of solidarity against racism. They see spaces of segregation against White people. Integrationists do not see these spaces as the movement of Black people toward Black people. Integrationists think about them as a movement away from White people. They then equate that movement away from White people with the White segregationist movement away from Black people. Integrationists equate spaces for the survival of Black bodies with spaces for the survival of White supremacy.” – p .175
The book goes far beyond the condemnation of racist ideas and policies. Kendi provides hope in a call to action.
“…These steps to be an antiracist.
- I stop using the “I’m not a racist” or “I can’t be racist” defense of denial.
- I admit the definition of racist (someone who is supporting racist policies or expressing racist ideas).
- I confess the racist policies I support and racist ideas I express.
- I accept their source (my upbringing inside a nation making us racist).
- I acknowledge the definition of antiracist (someone who is supporting antiracist policies or expressing antiracist ideas).
- I struggle for antiracist power and policy in my spaces. (Seizing a policymaking position. Joining an antiracist organization or protest. Publicly donating my time or privately donating my funds to antiracist policymakers, organizations, and protests fixated on changing power and policy.)
- I struggle to remain at the antiracist intersections where racism is mixed with other bigotries. (Eliminating racial distinctions in biology and behavior. Equalizing racial distinctions in ethnicities, bodies, cultures, colors, classes, spaces, genders, and sexualities.)
- I struggle to think with antiracist ideas. (Seeing racist policy in racial inequity. Leveling group differences. Not being fooled into generalizing individual negativity. Not being fooled by misleading statistics or theories that blame people for racial inequity.)” – p. 226
“…some of the steps we can all take to eliminate racial inequity in our spaces.
- Admit racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people.
- Identify racial inequity in all its intersections and manifestations.
- Investigate and uncover the racist policies causing racial inequity.
- Invent or find an antiracist policy that can eliminate racial inequity.
- Figure out who or what group has the power to institute antiracist policy.
- Disseminate and educate about the uncovered racist policy and antiracist policy correctives.
- Work with sympathetic antiracist policymakers to institute the antiracist policy.
- Deploy antiracist power to compel or drive from power the unsympathetic racist policymakers in order to institute the antiracist policy.
- Monitor closely to ensure the antiracist policy reduces and eliminates racial inequity.
- When policies fail, do not blame the people. Start over and seek out new and more effective antiracist treatments until they work.
- Monitor closely to prevent new racist policies from being instituted.” – p. 231 – 232
Are we ready to grapple with our own racist thoughts and policies? If so, we are taking the necessary first steps into antiracism.