How to Be an Antiracist (One World Essentials)

by Ibram X. Kendi

Denial is the heartbeat of racism, beating across ideologies, races, and nations.

If I remember correctly, I originally wrote after this line something like: admission is the heartbeat of antiracism. But I deleted that line. I didn’t want to tell this at this point. I wanted the book to show this, to sound this heartbeat by my constant admission of times when I was being racist, particularly towards Black people. But it was hard! So hard! It is so much easier to just deny, deny, deny? Is so much easier to say, “I’m not racist,” no matter what? Do you know what I’m saying?