Peter Minowitz on Racism

(Don Boudreaux)

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Santa Clara University political scientist Peter Minowitz wrote a penetrating review essay of Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist, and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. I might, if pressed, pick a tiny nit or two with this essay, but Peter’s argument is solid and clear and important and timely, and I heartily agree with his conclusion. It’s very much worth a careful read.

Here’s the opening. The remainder of the essay continues beneath the fold.

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How to Be a Better—and Less Fragile—Antiracist

By Peter Minowitz, Santa Clara University

When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something, and not be quiet. –Congressman John Lewis

Professors typically lament the damage President Trump has caused by exaggerating, stereotyping, and demonizing. The ones who drift into activism, however, are not immune to these discursive disorders. I shall explore this problem by scrutinizing two bestsellers: How To Be an Antiracist (One World, 2019) by Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (Beacon Press, 2018) by Robin DiAngelo. The authors are already national icons, they extol each other’s work, and their books are being assigned widely within America’s campuses and businesses.

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