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

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

35 reviews

anniereads221's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative sad

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brookey8888's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

I found this very interesting and thought provoking. I learned a lot. That being said I don’t know if I fully agree with some of the things mentioned. I am a white person and I don’t think you can be fully racist towards white people(obviously you can be hateful and mean), but I do think that will turn people off from reading this book because people don’t believe that. I do think it was interesting and I understand why he said that. Know this isn’t really a how to guide on how to be anti racist, it’s more of a here’s things that are racist and then what is considered anti racist. So if you listen to that you will learn how to be more anti racist. I do recommend this because I did learn a lot and I think it would benefit people to read this.

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horrorandscience's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative sad medium-paced

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rickjones's review against another edition

4.0

hopeful informative reflective tense

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lucinotlucy's review against another edition

4.75

challenging hopeful informative medium-paced

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

5.0

challenging informative

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

5.0

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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rubybooks's review against another edition

4.5

challenging informative medium-paced

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

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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