Jim Fulner reviewed How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Being "not racist" empowers racism.
4 stars
How to be an Antiracist was actually much better than I expected, and I expected it to be good. A lot to think about regarding the racist power comes from racist policies that leads to racist ideals, rather than the common belief that racist ideas lead to racist policies. It really got to me that the antiracists only judge individuals, never groups like races, while still clearly identifying racist policies that negatively affect certain groups of individuals. Kendi digs into his own struggles and finding that he himself has been an anti-Black racist and an anti-White racist screaming deeply into the void of "Black people can't be racist." Kendi is incredibly deliberate with his words, something I certainly understand and his reasonings for doing so, but by the end of the book it gets really old because people don't talk like that. In particular I found it patronizing at best …
How to be an Antiracist was actually much better than I expected, and I expected it to be good. A lot to think about regarding the racist power comes from racist policies that leads to racist ideals, rather than the common belief that racist ideas lead to racist policies. It really got to me that the antiracists only judge individuals, never groups like races, while still clearly identifying racist policies that negatively affect certain groups of individuals. Kendi digs into his own struggles and finding that he himself has been an anti-Black racist and an anti-White racist screaming deeply into the void of "Black people can't be racist." Kendi is incredibly deliberate with his words, something I certainly understand and his reasonings for doing so, but by the end of the book it gets really old because people don't talk like that. In particular I found it patronizing at best using the word "latinx" to represent a gender-natural representative of people with Hispanic heritage. I don't know if non-Hispanics just that little knowledge of the Spanish language in that every noun has a gender, a chair is female, a pencil is male, etc., or if anglophones think they know better than Hispanics do in trying to change that. So, with that I cannot give 5 stars, but the book is very good otherwise and I recommend it to everyone. Your right-wing friends might not be able to make it through, but they should.
