How to Be an Antiracist

“‘Racist policy’ says exactly what the problem is and where the problem is. ‘Institutional racism’ and ‘structural racism’ and ‘systemic racism’ are redundant. Racism itself is institutional, structural, and systemic.” 

Throughout How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi maintains a sharp distinction between “racist policy” and other common terms that refer to racist systems such as “institutional racism,” “structural racism,” and “systemic racism.” He feels these terms are superfluous since the definition of racism already refers to harmful systems working against certain racial groups. He emphasizes racist policy as it refers to the laws perpetuating racism, while also suggesting something can be done to remove them and supplant them with antiracist policies.

“The most threatening racist movement is not the alt right’s unlikely drive for a White ethnostate but the regular American’s drive for a ‘race-neutral’ one. The construct of race neutrality actually feeds White nationalist victimhood by positing the notion that any policy protecting or advancing non-White Americans toward equity is ‘reverse discrimination.’” 

Kendi challenges the idea of race neutrality, which assumes a lack of racial difference and therefore overlooks the disproportionate treatment of people of different racial identities. While the idea seems benign on the surface—and many would claim it is a step up from racism—the unwillingness to acknowledge the real effects of racial difference and racism can lead to just as much harm as more explicit forms of racist violence. Race neutrality also lends itself to accusations of reverse discrimination, which is the belief that by granting rights to a marginalized racial group, the more privileged racial group suffers. White people have historically cited reverse discrimination to contest granting basic rights to Black people that White people have long possessed. The basis of race neutral ideas such as reverse discrimination is to preserve the interests of privileged racial groups.

“There may be no more consequential White privilege than life itself.” 

While the benefits of White privilege may not be immediately clear to those who live with it, Kendi declares that the very ability to live is one basic right White people possess and for which Black people constantly strive. Black lives are more vulnerable due to the impacts of racism. To fight for an antiracist society is to help Black people to have the basic right to live their lives without fear.

“No one becomes a racist or antiracist. We can only strive to be one or the other. We can unknowingly strive to be a racist. We can knowingly strive to be an antiracist. Like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.” 

Kendi believes no one can become a racist or antiracist without effort—whether conscious or not. This is why it is important to not only be socially aware of race and racism, but to do the necessary introspective work to undo internalized and implicit racism to better forge an antiracist society.

“To be American is to be White. To be White is to not be a Negro.”

The US is founded by White people who instituted laws throughout history that protect the rights of White people. Despite Black people’s labor that helped build the nation, the rights of Black people are not reflected in US history of law-making. Furthermore, the oppression of Black people helped define Whiteness in the country.

“Black self-reliance was a double-edged sword.” 

Black self-reliance is double-edged because the conditions of racism in the US force Black people to either assimilate to White society or be considered deviant. This creates a sense of shame towards one’s own race if there is a failure to adhere to the socially prescribed norms of behavior under the terms of White society. Black self-reliance also constitutes the belief that Black people have the responsibility to overcome racism in order to excel, cultivating a sense of shame toward those who cannot.

“The history of the racialized world is a three-way fight between assimilationists, segregationists, and antiracists.” 

For Kendi, there are three attitudes towards racism. Assimilationists believe in having different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups conform to the demands of a dominant racial, ethnic, and cultural group. Segregationists believe different identity groups should have different access to public facilities, resources, and opportunities, benefitting the dominant identity groups rather than marginalized ones. Assimilationists and segregationists reinforce racism through their methods. Antiracists, however, actively work to create a more racially just society that does not overlook racial difference in the process.

“To be antiracist is to emancipate oneself from the dueling consciousness. To be antiracist is to conquer the assimilationist consciousness and the segregationist consciousness.” 

Kendi’s notion of the dueling consciousness is a modification of W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness: the idea that a Black person sees not only themself, but is also aware of how they are seen by White society. Kendi disagrees with Du Bois’s condoning of assimilation as a response to this double consciousness. The dueling consciousness is his revision of Du Bois’s term suggesting that assimilation and segregation are two aspects of racist society to be overcome.

“Race creates new forms of power: the power to categorize and judge, elevate and downgrade, include and exclude.”

Race ties to power, according to Kendi’s definition. This power constitutes the ability to manage social relations in such a way that benefits White people at the expense of nonwhite people.

“The root problem—from Prince Henry to President Trump—has always been the self-interest of racist power.” 

Kendi makes the historical tie from Prince Henry of Portugal to present-day US President Donald Trump when it comes to the exertion of racist power. Prince Henry initiated the transatlantic slave trade of Black people, while Trump pursues daily initiatives empowering White supremacists against Black people and other people of color. The commonality between Prince Henry and Trump is their desire to accumulate resources, wealth, and influence because of their authority. Racist power—the drive to subjugate nonwhite races—is motivated by the desire to advance one’s self at the expense of those less privileged.

“What other people call racial microaggressions I call racist abuse. And I call the zero-tolerance policies preventing and punishing these abusers what they are: antiracist. Only racists shy away from the R-word—racism is steeped in denial.” 

Kendi makes clear that racism should not be minimized for the harm it causes—whether it takes the form of a microaggression or a more violent act. Racists often only recognize racism in the form of a more explicitly violent act and deny it if it possesses a different form. This denial is dangerous as it overlooks the impact the various forms of racism can have on someone.

“Biological racists are segregationists. Biological racism rests on two ideas: that the races are meaningfully different in their biology and that these differences create a hierarchy of value.”

Kendi believes people who use biology to naturalize racial differences between people are inherently segregationist. Biological racism creates the impression that there are inherent differences to various racial identities, which is then used to justify why some races are inferior to others. This imposition of a racial hierarchy is racist and segregationist since it insists upon keeping people separate for arbitrary reasons.

“That is the central double standard in ethnic racism: loving one’s position on the ladder above other ethnic groups and hating one’s position below that of other ethnic groups.” 

Kendi reflects on how he perpetuated ethnic racism towards a Ghanaian classmate. While he and the classmate are Black, US racism toward Black people amplifies their different ethnic identities. While Kendi was racist towards his classmate for being a non-American, he also addresses how some non-American Black people buy into US anti-Black ideas and believe the stereotypes about Black Americans. While Black people share the same racial identity, ethnic racism creates an internal hierarchy reinforcing the larger racist structure.

“This is the living legacy of racist power, constructing the Black race biologically and ethnically and presenting the Black body to the world first and foremost as a ‘beast,’ to use Gomes de Zurara’s term, as violently dangerous, as the dark embodiment of evil.”

Throughout history, Black people’s bodies have been biologically categorized as beastlike to justify racist abuse towards them. For instance, this perception of Black people as animals was used to justify their enslavement, as they were considered suitable to labor for White slaveowners. This notion of Black people as animalistic also contributes to present-day ideas of Black people as inherently criminal and violent.

“To be antiracist is to reject cultural standards and level cultural difference. Segregationists say racial groups cannot reach their superior cultural standard. Assimilationists say racial groups can, with effort and intention, reach their superior cultural standards.” 

Kendi further articulates the distinctions between antiracist, segregationist, and assimilationist thinking based on varying approaches to cultural standards and differences. Antiracists do not want to conform to dominant cultural standards operating against people of color, but they also do not neglect the reality of cultural difference. For antiracists, cultural difference must be leveled so those who are further marginalized receive opportunities they may be denied.

“But there is a thin line between an antiracist saying individual Blacks have suffered trauma and a racist saying Blacks are a traumatized people. There is similarly a thin line between an antiracist saying slavery was debilitating and a racist saying Blacks are a debilitated people.”

Kendi is careful to articulate the different racist and antiracist approaches to talking about Black pain and trauma, as both risk patronizing and diminishing the suffering of Black people. It is important not to conflate Black people’s experiences with pain and trauma with who they are as a people. Recognition of Black pain and trauma must possess a simultaneous belief in the range of responses that Black people have to their pain and trauma. There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to dealing with pain and trauma.

“Racist power manipulates ordinary White people into resisting equalizing policies by drilling them on what they are losing with equalizing policies and how those equalizing policies are anti-White.” 

Racism detrimentally impacts White people as well. White people may not immediately recognize that their racism works against their interests, but Kendi offers examples of how often poor White people will vote to limit the rights of Black people, not realizing they also economically suffer as a result of their vote. However, racist power convinces White people that granting rights to Black people and people of color will result in their own loss of power.

“The truth is: Black people can be racist because Black people do have power, even if limited.”

Kendi critiques the assumption that Black people cannot be racist. This assumption is part of the common perception of racism as individual acts and ideas of harm against Black people and people of color. It is further invested in the belief that Black people do not have power to enact harm when, historically, there have been numerous influential Black individuals who worked against Black people—from Black houseslaves who betrayed other slaves by telling White slaveowners about an upcoming revolt to Black political figures who enabled racist policies.

“For the better part of my life I held both racist and antiracist ideas, supported both racist and antiracist policies; I’ve been antiracist one moment, racist in many more moments. To say Black people can’t be racist is to say all Black people are being antiracist at all times. My own story tells me that is not true.” 

Throughout How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi offers numerous anecdotes from his life to help the reader conceptualize racism in a more concrete way. Not all his anecdotes are about his antiracist actions. He offers examples of where he failed and perpetuated racism to show that Black people, too, can be racist and cause harm. To effectively do antiracist work, Kendi decided he must acknowledge where he, as a Black man, has worked against his own interests. He hopes that others can reflect on the way they perpetuate racism in their own lives.

“The conjoined twins are again struggling to stay alive and thrive as their own offspring—inequality, war, and climate change—threaten to kill them, and all of us, off.” 

Kendi’s notion of the “conjoined twins” refers to the entwinement of racism and capitalism. Throughout history, the two forces connect and mutually enable the detrimental effects of the other. Public discourse typically only examines one of these forces at a time, which leads Kendi to insist on a discussion of the ways they inform each other.

“I felt Black was beautiful, but Black spaces were not? Nearly everything I am I owe to Black space. Black neighborhood. Black church. Black college. Black studies. I was like a plant devaluing the soil that made me.” 

Kendi examines his own internalized racism when it comes to his regard for Black spaces. Black spaces are commonly perceived by racists as less valuable than White spaces, which leads to uneven distribution of resources. While Kendi gravitated towards the safety of Black spaces throughout his life, he also acknowledges how he once harbored internalized notions about the lesser worth of these very Black spaces.

“Through lynching Black bodies, segregationists are, in the end, more harmful to Black bodies than integrationists are. Through lynching Black cultures, integrationists are, in the end, more harmful to Black bodies than segregationists are.” 

While integration is considered a sign of social progress, Kendi desires to complicate the driving force of integration and the resulting harms that integration—without serious consideration of Black people’s needs—can cause. Integration that still privileges dominant White culture can be just as or more harmful than the effects of segregation.

“I became a Black patriarch because my parents and the world around me did not strictly raise me to be a Black feminist.” 

For Kendi, if a Black man was not a Black feminist and dedicated to supporting its ideals, then they are, by default, a Black patriarch. He juxtaposes these two positions to show that Black feminism—the belief that Black women must be supported as they experience both racism and sexism in their daily lives—is not exceptional but merely the baseline for how Black men should be in allyship with Black women. Kendi takes accountability for the fact that he was not explicitly raised with these values, so he is teaching himself now to be a better ally to Black women.