What makes this book so engaging is its honest autobiographical nature. Kendi, who is Black, pulls no punches in identifying the way racism influenced him in his youth. He describes the step-by-painful-step process required for him to arrive at the understandings of racism and antiracism he has today. He ends by sharing his personal health threats that parallel the threat to human well-being that racism poses.
Kendi’s words helped me accept that no matter where I am on my own journey toward being “an antiracist,” it is okay to be there and it is also necessary for me to be ready to move to a more comprehensive knowledge of racism and a more public practice of antiracism.
How to Be an Antiracist is not an easy book, and it certainly has raised some controversy. But if you are struggling with even the vaguest sense that you want to know more about racism and how you can do something about it, it may move you in the right direction. None of us is perfect, and none of us ever will be…but we can still learn and grow morally and ethically. How to Be an Antiracist may encourage you do just that.
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Afterword…I’ve had a lot of thoughts about the days just prior to the inaugurations of President Biden and Vice President Harris, about that day itself, and about the first few days of the new administration. I suspect most Americans have been trying to absorb it all, and that is a good thing.
I do hope all of us will be careful to base our thinking upon fact and truth, and to resist any temptation to accept something as truth just because we like it or agree with it. I hope we will commit to not passing on as truth information that has not or cannot be tested and verified. Government of, by, and for the people absolutely depends upon our mutual integrity. Without that, democracy dies.
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