How to Be an Antiracist (utgåvan 2019)

This is an important book, so I urge you to read it even if the title makes you squirm and you think to yourself that you don't have to read this. I hope that this book will be read in political science classes, history classes, biology classes, economics classes, and that teachers in all areas read it and think about how to incorporate its important ideas, thoughts, and examples into their respective disciplines. ( )

My church wanted to study the problem of racism, so set up a book discussion group over the book, White Fragility: Robin DiAngelo. One day, our pastor had family problems that caused us to attend a virtual church service elsewhere. My spouse and I decided to check in on Old South, Boston. We wanted to see what it offered that caused several of our former members to abandon us for them.

Old South, Boston is focusing their racism study on Kendi's book. So, I figured to get it as well. I belong to four different library consortia in the greater Boston area from which I can check out eBooks. The three consortia that are based in the northern or northwest suburbs of Boston have wait times of three to six months before either of these books can be checked out. Interestingly, I could check both out from the Boston Public Library immediately. Bless the BPL's heart.

-----------------re-post of a comment I made to a friend's query -------------------
For some reason, I’ve been having problems getting down to writing reviews recently. I’m not sure why.

A couple of weeks ago, Rev. Emelia had a medical crisis in her family and couldn’t put together a service. So, Hazel and I “went to church” at Old South in Boston (we wanted to see what was so special about it as to make a couple of our friends quit FCCR for Old South). The Old South pastors went to great lengths to pimp this book. I figured I should check it out to see how it differed from the one FCCR is reading, “White Fragility”.

This was a really good book. I have a problem giving 5* to much of anything, so 4* from me generally means the book was rather good. Were Good Reads to allow it, I’d likely give it 4 * which would mean “really, really good, but perhaps not the best book ever”.

Anyway, Kendi has a much different take on what is and is not racist, different at least from the way I’d generally thought about such things. It’s not about wearing white hoods and lynching dark skinned people who look inappropriately at white women. Black people can be racist against other black people. White people can be racist against other white people, e.g. “poor white trash”. He goes a lot into “intersectionality”, and I think, finally, I’m beginning to understand that concept. It’s tough being black. It’s tough being a woman. It’s tough being gay. But, it’s even worse if you’re black AND a woman AND gay. And so forth. He goes into great detail on all aspects of prejudice. Basically, we’re all the same, and various groups (POCs, women, LGBTQI, physical chemists, repressed elderly Calvinists, UCCs, etc.) aren’t superior or inferior, they’re just different.

What makes this book so fascinating is that he relates these things to his own experiences as he grew up and developed. He realized ... eventually ... that he had evinced periods in his life of racism of his own, of sexism of his own, of homophobia of his own, of cultural snobbery of his own. He gives a whole new interpretation to these things. I’m not sure I buy it all (most, but I’m hung up on some fine points ), I’m still mulling. But it was well worth reading.

It’s a much better book, imho, than White Fragility, but I think, perhaps, we privileged, suburban, comfortably-well-off, white folks need to start gently, and White Fragility is a good beginning.


( )

This is an important topic and the book is filled with an abundance of useful information. Kendi illustrates multifarious facettes of racism in an organized way. Still, I was puzzled by the chapter about reverse racism - unlike other authors, Kendi seems to suggest that it is possible. I also found the definitions at the beginning of each chapter very vague, sometimes even confusing, and thus not very helpful. If you were asking me if you should read this book, I would probably say yes, you'll definetely learn a lot, but I think that I gained better understanding for racism-related issues through other books I've read. ( )

I got off to a slow start with this one. I felt like the prose was awfully dense and syllogistic at first and that it was going to be hard to read much of it at a time, even though it's a pretty short book (it doesn't help that I don't much enjoy nonfiction in general). But before too long, the book became more personal, and Kendi's arguments flowed naturally and seemed pretty much unassailable (not that I wanted to assail them, to be clear). He systematically dissects many of the things that contribute to (or serve as avatars for) racism, and he made me want to be not merely not (or: less) racist but antiracist. He made me want to act, far beyond doing some self-education and donating to relevant causes. He made so many connections between racism and other systems of oppression and thought that my brain was fairly crackling reading the book the more connections he made. I give five-star ratings to books that change the way I think or that have been (or that I think will be) significantly influential on my life, and this seems like such a book. It's a must-read. ( )

Tying together concrete definitions, logical arguments, history, academic findings, and his struggles against his own prejudices, the author provides a new way to look at racism. From his innovative viewpoint, he examines the intersections of race and class, gender, sexuality, geography, culture, behavior, and biology. Not all of the logic flows smoothly, and not all of the research is believable. (For example, he cites the dubious statistic that the average life expectancy of transwomen of color is 35 years.) But the book is effective enough to change how I think and how I see the world.

There are many important and surprising takeaways, but the ones that most stand out to me are:

1. You are either a racist or an antiracist (someone who actively fights against racist policies). There is no such thing as a non-racist; to be "color-blind" is to sit there and do nothing about racist policies (while probably continuing to benefit from those policies), which makes you a racist.

2. Race is a construct with no scientific bearing. The goal of racism isn't hate, but power and self-interest.

3. Saying that Blacks are powerless against racism weakens their will to fight and ignores history.

4. Integration expects Blacks to heal by being in proximity to Whites who haven't stopped fighting them.

5. The policies that cause thousands of Black babies to die every year from malnutrition, exposure, and inadequate medical care are just as racist and overt as people who firebomb and shoot up Black churches. Though the latter kill fewer, they attract more of our attention.

6. Racists are illogical and motivated by power, and therefore don't respond to moral and educational suasion. Antiracists must first seize power; only afterward does racism subside, as proven by the eventual acceptance of desegregation, interracial marriage, and Obamacare after those things became law. ( )