How to Be an Antiracist (One World Essentials)

by Ibram X. Kendi

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.

It is one of the ironies of antiracism that we must identify racially in order to identify the racial privileges and dangers of being in our bodies.

Imagining away the existence of races in a racist world is as conserving and harmful as imagining away classes in a capitalistic world—it allows the inequality to exist and persist undetected.

Terminating racial categories is potentially the last, not the first, step in the antiracist struggle.

To be antiracist is to focus on ending the racism that shapes the mirages, not ignoring the mirages that shape people’s lives.

The heartbeat of being racist is denial. If the sound of that denial is “I’m not racist” for White individuals, then the sound of that denial for individuals of color is “I can’t be racist.” I have heard both sounds time and again from people reacting to this book.