How to Be an Antiracist (One World Essentials)

by Ibram X. Kendi

THIS BOOK IS ultimately about the basic struggle we’re all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.

I’ve never shared this before. But this passage is my favorite in this book, in perhaps my entire body of written work. It encapsulates this book, my scholarship, what it means to be antiracist. I think we are beginning to understand how being racist prevents us from seeing certain people as fully human. But I don’t think we understand how being racist prevents us from being fully human. What do I mean by fully human? I’m not talking in a biological sense. We are all fully human in a biological sense. I’m speaking in a social and political sense. To be fully human, socially, is to recognize a fundamental connection between you and every human being on earth. Which is to say you see every human being as a member of your extended family. Meaning we value the lives of all humans equally, no matter their skin color. To be fully human, politically, is to think fully about human rights, about what all humans need to live fulfilling lives, and what powerful forces are constraining humans—in this case the force of racism. To be fully human is to use your power to join with other humans to challenge the forces that are preventing the full flowering of humanity.