Because it often seems to me theres a question of, well, what is the racial inequality impact right now? But then I feel like its often been tossed aside for symbolic antiracism. So I found that actually it was racist policies that were then leading to racist ideas. But then the world changed.
If you dont, you are being racist. But if its a policy that is, lets say, primarily making it harder for Black, brown, and indigenous people to vote, and its not as hard for white Americans, then we would know that thats a policy that the court should be striking down. EZRA KLEIN: I think the Congressional Budget Office is such a good example here. In other words, if you are a white child and youre constantly being bombarded with this idea that you are special because youre white, an antiracist education could say nobodys special or not special because of their skin color. EZRA KLEIN: So I think of revolutions as an answer for when politics has failed, has truly failed. Because I think what youre arguing, and I think its true in a lot of cases, is sometimes its a political strategy or sometimes its a moment that can make the previously politically unthinkable not just thinkable but doable, even necessary. IBRAM X. KENDI: Well first, I can say that theres been people across different racial groups whove come to me and said what allowed them to really reflect on their own racist ideas was reading me do the same, that instead of writing a book in which I lecture to other people about how racist they were, I wrote a book admitting and being vulnerable about the times in which I thought there was something wrong with Black poor people or Black women or Black people or even white people. I mean, Im looking at a study here that found every incremental addition of 10 police officers abates about one homicide. And so even the success of the American Revolution, there was a time when that seemed politically impossible. WebKendi was an undergraduate at Florida A&M now, known as FAMU. He opens this chapter with an account of the first time he saw the FAMU Marching 100 perform at halftime at a football game. That instead of the current principle that was affirmed recently by the Supreme Court decision in Arizona voting law, that pretty much in order to prove that a policy is, lets say, racist we have to show intent, instead, if a policy had disparate impact, then it could be defined as a policy that potentially needs to be eradicated and presumably is even unconstitutional or even is racist towards a particular group. On the other hand, because it boosts the price of stocks and other kinds of assets like that and we already have a big wealth gap, it ends up increasing the wealth gap because its disproportionately adding to white wealth. by Ibram X. Kendi ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020 This book may be nominally for babies, but its audience is an adult one. Kendi offers so little sympathy for symbolism and signaling in the book. This is a dangerous book. In other words, they come into the company and train the individual so the individual can be better or be more aware or recognize even potentially their racist ideas. Achim Steiner, head of the United National Development Programme Big idea: The public and private []. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. Are there times when you think you shouldnt say something because that will lead to someone terrible getting elected? And I think that has really scared these politicians who bank on and really prey on white Americans who believe, at least racism is good for them, so theyre going to continue to defend it. IBRAM X. KENDI: Well, let me just first say, I think there are many different types of trainings. But theyre just throwing out stuff that theyve not done any analysis on whatsoever. How do you think about a policy like that within this framework? That instead of the current principle that was affirmed recently by the Supreme Court decision in Arizona voting law, that pretty much in order to prove that a policy is, lets say, racist we have to show intent, instead, if a policy had disparate impact, then it could be defined as a policy that potentially needs to be eradicated and presumably is even unconstitutional or even is racist towards a particular group. But the DEI trainings or the trainings that even now identify as antiracism trainings, from my understanding, I suspect the vast majority of them are person-centered. Jillian Tamaki. As it relates to people like Ted Cruz, I think its a little bit different. So thats the scale of funding that were providing for the police. And I think the more white people learn about white American history and the ways in which certainly white people have benefited and been privileged as a result of the effects of racism, but also the ways in which they have not been, I think would allow people to really complicate themselves and their history in this country. We somehow imagine that that form of analysis is divisive, even though, to me, it will actually bring us together because different communities will be able to see that it is additive for their communities. In Mrs. Dalloway, why did Clarissa reject Peter Walsh and marry Richard? IBRAM X. KENDI: I think whats being described as critical race theory is any analysis, critical analysis, of race or racism in this country that does not position this country as post-racial, any attempt to hold people who are being racist accountable, any attempt to have a clear and complex multivariate approach to American history, whereby we actually document and talk about and teach about the history of racism in this country, and certainly attempts to create outcomes that are more equitable and just. And Im just going to drive right to the heart of controversy here. tn_keyword: ['anti-racis'], tn_loc:'atf' Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. EZRA KLEIN: So let me then ask about the other set of really complicated policies here, which is the policies where they are trying to achieve an antiracist goal and theres a lot of controversy over whether they do. But then there are other bills in which, like you said, its mixed. My big question about the book was, is this level of analysis possible? Theres no data that supports that, but thats what theyre advocating, and thats what theyre making people to believe, that if you reduce funding for the police, crime is going to grow. And to be antiracist is to say, no, the racial groups, not individuals, but the racial groups are equal, that theres no group that is inferior or superior. If theyre losing it now, well, the children are our future, and were going to try to win it there again. Because one thing white Americans are not taught, because we dont teach about race and racism with any specificity or comprehensiveness in schools and even colleges, is about white American history. In order to comment, you must be logged in as a paid subscriber. Instant downloads of all 1711 LitChart PDFs This is an extraordinarily consequentialist view of how to think about race and racism and whos a racist and whos an antiracist. And Kendi himself has become a symbol of the antiracist movement with a dizzying array of projects, from his new podcast, which I recommend, Be Antiracist, to his Center for Antiracist Research to picture books and childrens books, a newspaper that hes working on. The push for civil rights and anti-racist policies continues to this day. On the other hand, it is widely believed that it is harmful politically to even use the R word, to describe someone as racist, to talk about racism, and that it is sort of political suicide to do so. But I do want to push, because this is one of the hard parts of the theory to me, I do think theres good evidence that more police, in a narrow way, means less crime. But there are a lot of policies you can make the argument, at least that have really mixed effects. But then theres the issue of politics, which I think theres actually more tension around in your book. He is an ideas columnist at The Atlantic and a correspondent with CBS News. So its sort of taken with one hand and given with the other. And I think on a policy thats going to have a mixed impact on racial disparities and inequities, thats when we, of course, have to make a decision. Or even a company who before stated that they were committed to diversity, and today theyre saying theyre committed to being in an antiracist company or they are an antiracist company and theyve replaced the diversity statement with a statement of commitment to being antiracist, I would distinguish that company from a company who came out with maybe a similar statement but documents precisely what they intend to do to create more equity within the company, precisely how they plan to make an impact on the larger community in terms of more justice. Throughout this period, physiologists continued to debate whether Blacks and whites were actually of different races, while policies that sought to prevent Blacks from voting often also disenfranchised poor whites. And thats actually not what we found. Web"The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it -- and then dismantle it."

So I think the fundamental question is, what is going to be more effective in eliminating or reducing, particularly, levels of violent crime. Dr. Kendi sat down with the self-described policy wonk to And when Im writing Stamped From The Beginning and when Im writing How To Be An Antiracist, people have consistently said, why are you being so direct? And the effects of that are about twice as large per capita for Black victims than for white ones. And yet his book has become both a symbol and a means of signaling. placementName: "thenation_right_rail", And entering into that book, I didnt just want to chronicle the ideas. Kendi will join Boston University's faculty on July 1, 2020 and launch theBU Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi accurately paints a picture of Americas racist past, but he wants to racialist America today and in the future, essentially turning society into a prison yard. In turn, he implied that Black peopleincluding himselfwere inherently inferior to other groups. And so once white Americans begin to see, whoa, whoa, those laws, those policies, the Affordable Care Act, which we talked about, universal health care, universal child care, addressing the subprime mortgage crisis in Black America before it hit white America in the way Heather talks about in her book, like, whoa. TLFS: How do you balance that with your teachings about racism as something that we do rather than something that we arethat its about power structures as well as personal behavior? And Id like to get you to talk a bit about it. I think first and foremost, when we think of the funding that U.S. police receive, I dont think many Americans know that, I think a recent study found, that the combined funding of the U.S. police forces is more than every other military in the world except the Chinese and the American military. Im being sort of tugged into more in the limelight because people have died and died brutally. How to respond? Before the English settlement of America, many Slavs and other European whites had been enslaved, but during this period the word slave became synonymous with the word Black. While there were some early drives towards abolition, especially following the abolition of slavery in the wider British Empire, early discourse around slavery and Blackness revolved around the questions of whether Christianizing Black people could improve them and whether it would then remain feasible to keep Christians as slaves.

But even more importantly, what I found, especially in the turn after civil rights, that those who were seeking to maintain racism through Jim Crow segregation and separate-but-equal policies, by the early 1970s, they were making a different case to maintain and conserve racial inequity and injustice. Karlos K. Hill Youve proposed a constitutional amendment that would block policy that would add racial inequality. If it increased it, it was racist. Racist policies make racists. So as somebody whos, in a weird way, become at the center of this, Im curious how you read it. Even my own story, in How To Be An Antiracist, I document 20 years that it really took me to really grow and to move to be antiracist. So people believe that to change racist policies, you first have to change peoples racist ideas, that the policy is emergent out of individual belief systems. Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.There is no such thing as being \"not racist,\" says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. Hosts: Aubrey Gordon, activist and author of What We Dont Talk About When We Talk About Fat and You Just Need To Lose Weight and 19 Other Myths About Fat People and her friend, journalist Michael Hobbes This podcast is groundbreaking. What came as a surprise was the sudden focus on a picture book, Anti-Racist Baby, written by Ibram X. Kendi. Bodily racism refers to attaching personality traits to certain races. Anti-white racism is the idea that white people are racially inferior to people of color. Open Translation Project. But I also think there are a lot of moments where thats not true, a lot of policies where thats not going to happen. And I wondered how you thought about that scene. 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IBRAM X. KENDI: So let me just say one at a principle level and one at a policy level. Ive also used the stories of history, particularly with white Americans. Kendi discusses the role of slavery in the economic, political, and religious systems of the early American colonies. I think you became not just a person but also a symbol. I even wanted people to understand the relationship of the individual to these larger structures of racism. But theres no evidence that supports that. And I want to repeat that because it is so important to understanding his thought. And then the other side of this question becomes, what is the cause of crime? And so ultimately, the way we stop the proliferation of these ideas that theres mass voter fraud is we pass a bill that makes it nearly impossible to pass voter suppression policies. And I think that has really scared these politicians who bank on and really prey on white Americans who believe, at least racism is good for them, so theyre going to continue to defend it. In other words, its their culture, its their behavior. These are not things were talking about. IBRAM X. KENDI: Well, I actually agree with you that it could be the case that there is a recognition that theyre losing the American narrative, especially with white Americans. This kind of thinking is the essence of racism. eNotes.com, Inc. And this is all playing out the exact same time as a health care reform is. And these, quote, race neutral policies are by definition not racist, even if they are creating more inequity and injustice. } Ed. What if the cause is the lack of resources for local schools since theyre so based on property taxes? If a given policy or action reduced racial inequality, it was an antiracist action. And so I think its, again, going back to this really being an action. - VERY GOOD. But as the idea of antiracism has traveled from book to phenomenon, Ive often wondered if its actual radicalism has been lost. And so what do you think of the big training investment, if its not really matched by other things, particularly if you dont really do the work on whether or not these trainings work? And some people have believed that the cause of crime, particularly the cause of crime in Black neighborhoods, are those Black people. S tamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi is a 2016 nonfiction book about the history of American racism, from the But to the extent it has traction, I think its because of what youre saying, that theyre making the argument, and I think plenty of white parents are open to this argument that you dont want your child told that theyre one of the bad guys and theyre growing up in a country that is fundamentally evil and rotten. Its too much for any individual to hold. EZRA KLEIN: I think is such an important point. Were seeing this now with I think the example of voting is an extremely obvious example, where particularly the Republican Party is recognizing that the demographics and the ideology of the country is turning away from them. And Im just going to drive right to the heart of controversy here. And he told the New Yorker he only learned about critical race theory in the first place by digging through the footnotes of How To Be An Antiracist. So if you had this kind of analysis for, say, Bidens American Jobs Plan or maybe we could even use the American Rescue Plan, which already passed, how would you like to see an analysis like that go? And one of the things that Ive been thinking about from the perspective of your book is, theres very little evidence on whether or not these trainings do anything. Christopher Rufo, whos sort of the architect of this push, said youre a leading figure in the critical theory movement. Maintenance Phase is pivotal in contributing to a dramatic shift in our culture and the way And theres a number of different reasons for that.