Review of Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist"

Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be An Antiractist" is an important, timely and provocative book. It could not be more relevant given the deteriorating social climate in the United States, where the once dreamed notion of a post-racial society following Barack Obama's election was rapidly crushed by the harsh reality of continued blatant, regular and systemic racial abuse. Kendi describes an American society that remains prisoner of its racial past, unable to move forward. He argues that this is mostly due to the tendency of dealing with racial issues only at the surface. In this powerful book, Ibram Kendi takes the reader on a journey, the author's own journey, through not only what it means to suffer from endemic racism but also through the uncomfortable path of exploring one's own racist biases. It is disturbing and, if you let it, transformative.

"How to Be An Antiractist" is far from being a perfect book. It is a somewhat repetitive and can come across as borderline self-righteous and sermonizing at times. However, this is the exception rather than the rule across the book. These shortcomings are most likely unwanted consequences of the author's deep passion for the topic and a rushed editing process. The book is by no means dogmatic. In fact, the author's narrative overall pushes the reader towards introspection, providing him/her with enough space to make his/her own mind.

One of the most powerful arguments presented in the book is the notion that there is no middle ground between being a racist and being an anti-racist. Kendi points out that there is thereby "no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy" because "every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups." (p. 18) That initial stance leads the author to make the point that to adopt a neutral position towards racial inequality is in itself racist. It contributes to sustaining a status quo that is systemically racist. Kendi goes as far as arguing that, in fact, "[t]he most threatening racist movement is not the alt right's unlikely drive for a White ethnostate but the regular American's drive for a 'race-neutral' one" (p. 20).

That theoretical foundation has significant policy implications. In fact, advocates of so-called "race-neutral" policies posit that that the mere fact of acknowledging and talking about race constitutes racism. They will put forward the idea that "there is only one race, the human race" and therefore resist, for instance, census policies that use racial categories in order to map the relative distribution of ethnic groups across a given country. There is no debate to be had about the fact that race has no biological standing today. Homo Sapiens has been the only human species on Earth for over 12'ooo years.

Still, Kendi interestingly argues that because racial categories have been socially constructed, they cannot simply be wished away, as "Race is a mirage but one that humanity has organized itself around in very real ways" (p. 54). As a result, Kendi makes the point that "terminating racial categories is potentially the last, not the first, step in the antiracist struggle," to which msut precede the process of identifying and challenging existing racist policies. Yet, stopping using racial categories actually prevents us from seeing the reality of racial inequality, without which no strategies or policies can be devised to challenge and remedy it. Furthermore, without a clear picture of the baseline of racial inequality to start with, actually tracking and measuring progress on potential anti-racist policies is impossible. The author perfectly sums up the toxicity of endemic racism: "If we cannot challenge racist policies, then racist power's final solution will be achieved: a world of inequity none of us can see, let alone resist" (p. 54).

The book's structure is undoubtedly one of its strengths. With each chapter adressing one specific dimension of racism, from biology, ethnicity and color to culture, behavior, space, gender, sexuality and power, the author unpacks the subject of racism at a level of historical and sociological depth that is rare. Moreover, Ibram X. Kendi elegantly combines such a demanding scholarly endeavor with a personal touch, offering personal and meaningful anecdotes to illustrate each chapter. These excerpts from his own journey through racial awareness are splitted to open and close the chapters, which provide for a very appealing narrative style.

Ultimately, one of the most powerful and chilling points Kendi gets across comes from the chapter on "Power". In it the author traces back the history of the first global powers to the advent of the slave trade, showing how racial constructions and territorial "discoveries" have been inextricably linked by design, as "[...] racist constructions normalized and rationalized the increased importing of the supposedly 'strong' Africans and the ongoing genocide of the supposedly 'weak' Indians in the Americas" (p. 41). In this key chapter, the author dismantles the commonly-accepted notion that "the root problem of racism is ignorance and hate" that cause racist ideas, which in turn cause racist policies. In fact, if history and this book can teach us something, it is that "the root problem - From Prince Henry to President Trump - has always been the self-interest of racist power. Powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest - the primitive accumulation of capital [...] - has been behind racist policies." (p.42). This book will anger you, take you out of your comfort zone and make you think. I strongly recommend it.