How to Be an Antiracist

Marvelous and useful.

I bought a print copy of the book after hearing Kendi interviewed but quickly downloaded the audio book as well. As impactful as his writing is, I found it it important to hear his voice, his emphasis and passion throughout.

There are ideas here I’d heard before or concluded for myself, but many connections I’d never made. This is an important book for anyone who wants to imagine and help create a better future.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Transformational

Great insight on the racism and anti racism in a song. Will share with friends

Intelligent, Eye-opening, and Inspiring

First and foremost, this book is worth a credit. There is SO MUCH great material. I’ve been searching for a deeper understanding of the race issue. I was worried that I might end up listening to 10+ hours of everything I was doing wrong or what would amount to nothing more than one long guilt trip. But that’s not this book. Kendi even starts with a confession of his own racist conduct in the past (not overtly racist). And he explains why anyone can act as a racist. I appreciated that.

I re-listened to many portions of the book and made a number of clips with notes. This book has provided me with direction on how I can make my conduct and efforts anti-racist. It has inspired me to do more and to make my efforts more meaningful and effective.

A few issues, though:

The narration is distracting at times. I think Kendi narrating his book adds a needed element of sincerity, but there are a lot of unnecessary pauses. For example: “African Americans are {pause...2...3...4} more likely to {pause...2...3} be incarcerated.” I really wish it had been narrated in a conversational tone.

Next, there is a sprinkling of the semi-ridiculous among the otherwise outstanding content (or maybe it’s that I’m just not where I need to be on the issue of race?). One example is where Kendi says do-nothing climate change policies are racist because they impact the large African American communities of the South more than White communities located in the cooler parts of America (paraphrasing).
Okay, Mr. Kendi, maybe that’s true. But don’t those same policies affect White Southern Baptists, “Latinex” (never heard that term before this book), and Evangelicals disproportionately, too, since those groups are also primarily in the South? And doesn’t that make it less racist? Also, are we labeling policies “racist” when the disproportionate affects are two or three levels removed? To me, it’s reaching—like that one find-the-Kevin-Bacon-movie-link type of reaching. And it’s too broad of a definition. We can attack racism more effectively with targeted efforts, not an all-encompassing definition that essentially includes every policy (can’t we?).
Fortunately, this type of issue/argument by Kendi doesn’t occur very often in the book.



Overall, I think Kendi does a great job tackling a very divisive issue and providing needed insight. He has proved himself a stellar teacher and advocate.

Side note: there’s more great content from Kendi on YT that’s worth checking out.

6 of 12 people found this review helpful