Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Como ser Antirracista

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Como ser Antirracista by Ibram X. Kendi

45 reviews

ajdotcom's review against another edition

challenging reflective medium-paced

2.5

(PLEASE SEE REVIEW END)
Every sentence in this book is a new piece of wisdom. Don't go into it thinking it will mirror other antiracism books you may have read before; Kendi has quite a different viewpoint in some places, which made me face my own stubbornness and conviction that my views on the problem are "right". Chapters are split into half memoir, half historical/legal/etc. context. The memoir parts are really touching and it's inspiring to see Kendi's own journey from racism to antiracism; hearing how he's changed over years and through the help of others gives me hope that I and others can do the same. I sometimes found the factual context sections a little intellectually overwhelming; there are a lot of legal cases, dates, facts and figures mentioned, so I don't feel like I took it all in, but the parts I did absorb added much-needed context to the memoir sections and the antiracism struggle in general. This book is absolutely rammed with much-needed information and I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
EDIT: Since writing this review, I have been signposted to the That's Not How That Works podcast's episode about this book, which you can listen to here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/129eEvOkro4MQO0hRRJK44?si=EUs9Ocg2QUiApdCL9dJOiw&utm_source=copy-link. I did not have the required critical thinking skills to see what lens this book was written through, and my positive review was reflective of that. Please listen to Trudi and Weeze's podcast; I have changed my rating to a 2.5 so I don't have an impact on the book's overall rating on the StoryGraph. I have a lot more to learn, and I'm sorry that I contributed to harm through lack of critical thought.

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jonbrady's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

It took me a long time to get through this book - because it was difficult, after decades of being “not racist”, to proactively engage with truly antiracist thinking. It serves as part educational manual and part autobiography of the author, a renowned scholar on race who by his own admission used to subscribe to internalised racist ideas.

It would be easy to just say that this is an essential book for anyone who truly believes that opposing racism is about more than being “not racist”. But in reality it’s a book for everyone to read, to improve society for all.

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enchantressreads's review against another edition

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emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective tense

4.0

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lucinotlucy's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative medium-paced

4.75

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felicity2023's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring slow-paced

4.25

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meganperfect's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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challenging informative

5.0

This book is intense and absolutely bursting with ideas about racism and anti-racism that I’ve never heard before.

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 against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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