Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - How to Be an Antiracist

In many ways it feels like a topical memoir, as the ideas contained are illustrated and expanded through the author’s life in a mostly-chronological order. Mr. Kendi discusses his struggles with external, systemic, and internalized racism, and to a lesser degree homophobia and sexism, and now reckoning with those forces led to these ideas.

This book heavily emphasizes definitions, with each topical chapter opening with a definition of a term. At first I thought that was kind of silly, because of course I know what racism is, otherwise why would I have picked up this book? But Mr. Kendi uses these definitions – and he defines these words much differently than I would have, and for good reasons which he explains – to tackle everything from intersectionality to the idea that Black people can’t be racist. The ideas he presents are radically different from most of what I’ve heard about race and racism, and the difference is eye-opening. He makes it clear why most movements against racism today have accomplished little to nothing.

In the early hours of reading this book, I was afraid this would have to go in my “the title promised me actionable things to do but it lied to me” pile, as it was focusing more on explaining what racism and anti-racism were more than how to be an anti-racist. But it gets there. Mr. Kendi wants to make sure we’re on the same page concerning the ideas he’s presenting, but once he’s sure of that he digs into the practical, actionable stuff. And don’t think you can skip over the first sections and go straight to the practical stuff, because the actionable items won’t make half as much sense if you don’t have the context built up in the earlier parts of the book.

This book is amazingly valuable. The perspectives on racism and anti-racism are much different than mainstream ideas about race and racial activism (or at least way different from the twenty-teens Tumblr social justice ideas where I was introduced to these things). I feel like my mind has been expanded, and of course I always appreciate actionable steps. This book and the radical ideas inside are absolutely worth reading.

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rieviolet's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I am really a beginner when it comes to reading about racism and other aspects of social justice, so this book was a very important read for me and helped me a lot to understand better, to learn more and to reflect, even when that meant difficult and painful reflections.

Overall, I think the book was very accessible and easy to follow, although some of the ideas and themes included certainly need time to sink in and to be digested.

I enjoyed the narrative choice of alternating personal experiences and explanatory/reflective segments. It was really fascinating to follow the author's own journey and to see it reflected in the themes included in the chapter.
I very much enjoyed the historical sections and I look forward to expanding my reading and my knowledge of these topics.

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jellybean53's review

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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rubybooks's review

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.5

This is the second book I've read by Kendi, and it did not disappoint. I bought a physical copy, but I really enjoyed listening to Stamped from the Beginning via audiobook so I decided to do the same with this one. Kendi narrates it himself, and this really adds to the personal notes he weaves through his analysis. How to be an Antiracist felt like it had elements of a memoir mixed in, which I loved because I enjoy reading about personal experiences and how they intersect with theory.

I loved how transparent Kendi was about his own harmful views and actions in the past, and the ways he has changed his own views on racism and antiracism. I think it's so important to use racist as a descriptor, because that leaves room for people to also be antiracist and choose to change their impact on the world. I'm still not 100% sure on where I stand with some issues, but this book has really got me thinking - like about using the term institutional racism and whether it minimises the actions of individuals that can be changed.

Ibram X. Kendi also takes time to mention intersectionality and how that comes into play with class racism, gender racism etc. He speaks about how he was questioned by people about what concrete antiracist actions he was taking, which in turn made me reflect on what I can be doing beyond my own reading and research. Especially in today's climate, a lot of people claim not to be racist, but this dismisses our own personal agency in choosing to be racist or antiracist - and passivity does not equal to not being racist.

I didn't love this quite as much as Stamped, purely because of the sheer amount of information I learned while reading the latter. Regardless, this was still an amazing book that people should read, and I'd especially recommend the audiobook. The main thing I took from this is to be open minded in your approach to antiracism - as Kendi said himself, even within antiracism there are different approaches and disagreements. Be aware of discussions of racism, colourism, murder, homophobia, and cancer. 4.5 stars.

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ashleyreads88's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

This book was different than I expected and in a good way. How To Be An Antiracist is more autobiographical than a "how-to" book, and which made it an interesting, engaging read. I loved reading about Ibrams's experiences, thoughts, feelings, and opinions. I also very much enjoyed the definitions at the beginning of the chapters and the ways to be an antiracist throughout the book. I learned a lot from reading How To Be An Antiracist and am excited to read more of Ibram's works.

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melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced

4.5

This book taught me a ton and I really enjoyed it as well.

Kendi does an excellent job interweaving historical examples, personal examples, and well-explained definitions into each chapter to teach about the many intersectionalities of racism and other -ims.

My only complaint is that I felt the chapters on gender and sexuality were severely lacking compared to the rest of the book, and it was very noticeable that these were not up to par.

I felt this book taught a lot and I look forward to reading more of Kendi's work.

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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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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