Reflections on "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi

In this month's edition of the Diversity Be Like Book Club, we will be discussing Ibram X. Kendi's book How to be an Antiracist. In this book, the author dives into the many ways that racism takes shape in our society, using examples from his own life to illustrate his points. Here are my top takeaways from the book.

Racism is a Matter of Policy, Not People

"Americans have long been trained to see the deficiencies in people, rather than policy." This is my favorite line in the book because it illustrates that racism is far bigger than the views of individuals. Instead, racism comes in the form of policy, and people who support such policies are acting in a racist manner, while people who oppose such policies or support opposing policies are acting in an anti-racist manner. The great thing about this definition is that a person doesn't have to live forever with the label of a racist, as long as they do not support policies that are detrimental to the rights of people of color.

Kendi explains throughout the book that many people in America have a difficult time spotting racism, largely because they are more focused on the actions of people that they miss the policies that shaped the views of those people. Towards the end of the book, he notes that ignorant views are not what created racism, but policies meant to enrich certain groups by means like slavery, who then attempted to justify their actions through pseudosciences and a variety of other methods that shaped those ignorant views. In other words, racist policies created racially ignorant views, not the other way around. As such, Kendi noted that since racism was created by policies, it would have to be uprooted through antiracist policies.

Black People CAN Be Racist, Although Usually it Against Their Own Communities

Another interesting point that Kendi makes is the one that is contrary to the belief that black people can never be racist. For those who are unfamiliar with this line of thinking, you can see an explanation here. The short version of it is that racism is more than mere prejudice against a certain group of people, but requires power to create systems that disenfranchise that group. In other words, a black person not hiring a person because they are white is just an example of prejudice, not racism. That black person would have to be able to create laws and other policies that keep white people out of entire industries for it to rise to the level of racism.

With that standard, it would appear that no black person could rise to the level of racist. Even former President Obama, the most powerful black person this nation has had to date, would struggle to qualify because he would have never been able to convince Congress to pass a law preventing whites from certain industries and even if he issued an executive order, it would have been quickly struck down as unconstitutional by the federal judiciary. He would also have likely been impeached shortly after such an attempt.

However, the wrinkle in the theory that black people can never be racist, which Kendi points out, is that this view on racism only looks at the ability to create policies that are detrimental to white people, but does not consider that black people can create and enforce policies that are detrimental to themselves and other minority groups. He notes that if black presidents, judges, lawmakers, police officers, and other policymakers create policies that detrimentally affect people of color, then they are acting in a racist manner. As already stated above though, a person can quickly go from the racist category to the category of anti-racist if instead of creating policies that are meant to be detrimental to people of color, they create policies that empower them.

Empathy is the Key to Antiracism

Another great point that Kendi makes is that all the racist policies that have come about because the policymakers were able to convince those they represented that the people that they were disenfranchised, were not the same as themselves. He notes how in America, we many times see things like race, immigration status, and religious views in a hierarchical manner. As such, it has allowed certain groups to be treated poorer than others, largely because the groups at the top of the hierarchical totem pole have had very little empathy for those at the bottom. As such, a large key to implementing antiracist policies is having empathy for all groups of people, to ensure that they are empowered through policies, instead of being disenfranchised.

Conclusion

In summary, I highly recommend that you read this book. It is both an insightful and heartfelt take on how to address policies that perpetuate racism. Putting our attention on policies, not people, and increasing our empathy on groups outside of our own, helps us all become more antiracist.