Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

20 reviews

starlight63's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime and Racism

jojo_'s review

informative medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Cancer, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Slavery, and War

leah_alexandra's review

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

This book was fine. I would say it's definitely on the introductory level in terms of books about racism/American racism, but lots of people are looking for that, and all power to them! This book is best appreciated as Kendi's internal examinations of his own journey grappling with the pervasiveness of racism and its intersections with other kinds of identity-based oppression as opposed to a guidebook for other people. There are two substantive points he makes that I take issue with: I think the chapter discussing racism within non-white groups has a misplaced assumption when it critiques the idea that "Black people can't be racist." It delves into the ways that Black folks (and other non-white folks) can perpetuate anti-Black racism through thoughts and actions, which certainly is a thing that happens. But I feel like that statement is better understood as people saying that POC cannot perpetuate racism against white people, not other POCs, because of how the power dynamics are structured. So I think that argument was a bit disingenuous. I also have been learning from folks in disability activism who critique the comparisons of racism to cancer or other diseases. I understand that Kendi was and is facing cancer in very personal ways, but the analogy of an illness that was not imposed by choice to a societal problem that very much was has its limitations. People do not choose to give others cancer (although there's an argument that racist and classist policies actually have given people cancer or higher rates) but many people make the choice every day to uphold racism. 

Small nit-pick: the definitions that introduce each chapter were a bit too schtick-y for me, and I thought they actually were a bit alienating.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Colonisation, Hate crime, Medical content, Murder, Racism, and Racial slurs

kylieqrada's review

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

12/5⭐s. Ibram X. Kendi is IT, folks. I will unquestioningly consume everything he puts out, up to and including his computer post-it notes. I bet they would be everything. All that being said, I really really really really love How To Be An Antiracist. An engaging mix of historical fact, personal experience, and antiracist philosophy, I definitely highlighted the vast majority of this book and will be pressing it into anyone's hands who will receive it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Rape, and Trafficking

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

"Americans have long been trained to see the deficiencies of people rather than policy. It's a pretty easy mistake to make: People are in our faces. Policies are distant. We are particularly poor at seeing the policies lurking behind the struggles of people.”

Ibram Kendi takes a good hard look at racism in this book. He discussed how racism tries to turn the word "racist" into an epethet so racist people can be mad about being called racist, and speaks at length about fighting racist policies that create racial inequity. He also spends quite a lot of time examining his own racism (and other things like homophobia) in his past endeavors to fight racism and how he's learned from that. I recommend this read, but it may be hard for anyone who's lives have been touched by cancer (discussed in the ending). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Racism

Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Forced institutionalization

alayamorning's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Transphobia, and Violence

Minor: Drug use

schenkepanky's review

challenging informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Each chapter tackles a different type of racist power and policy - it's blended memoir and US history that challenges and overturns so many common and misguided tropes we carry about race. It's mostly about the history of Blacks in America, but the beginning chapters outlining his ideas about racism vs. active anti-racism (i.e., there is no such thing as passive "not racist") is universally applicable and necessary reading. 

I listened to the audio version narrated by the author. His narration is well done - stylized and slow at about 11 hours. Listening at about 1.5 speed felt about the pace of other books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

jhpepper's review

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, and Violence

daydreamermoonwalker's review

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Cancer, and Hate crime

Minor: Mass/school shootings and Rape

nytephoenyx's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

This book is dense and filled with history, sociology, psychology, and politics.  It's a personal narrative as well as a social narrative. It's good, really good, and I completely understand why it's on so many must-read lists, especially this year.

At the same time, though, I personally struggled with How To Be An Antiracist.  This book is a very slow read because of how packed full of information and formal studies and explanations it is.  Kendi's choice to include relatable stories and a personal narrative alongside this mountain of information was a good one - it picked up the flow enough to urge me forward when I felt like I was drowning.

The weight and quantity of information isn't bad, mind you.  It's necessary.  But it is heavy and reading this book was a very slow process for me as I tried to catalogue everything and reflect on it.  How To Be An Antiracist challenges its readers to look at the information and reflect on their own beliefs and reactions.  This is best read by someone who really does want to be an antiracist, not someone who is picking up the book because they think they should.

Depending on where you are in your personal journey, some of the chapters may feel redundant or unhelpful.  Everyone starts from a different place, and we all have different daily struggles.  If you've been working on antiracism for a while, maybe chapters like "Definitions", "Biology", and "Ethnicity" don't offer much to you (other than reiterating practices you have already put in place).  I personally resonated more with the latter half of the book.  Every once in a while, I would come across a statement or sentiment that would stick with me - like the idea that we aren't one-or-the-other, but constantly striving to make antiracist choices in every decision.  Like the comparison of racism to cancer.

If the early chapters don't hook you in, I encourage folks to keep reading.  Each chapter is an individual essay to be mulled on and processed.  And we are, none of us, perfect.  There is no person who had finished the journey and achieved excellence - sometimes, we all falter.  We will inevitably fail, and when we do, it's important to get back up and brush ourself off, make amends, and be better next time.

For more reviews and bookish content, come visit The Literary Phoenix.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Hate crime, Gun violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Xenophobia