Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

4 reviews

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

This book is well put together in the way Dr. Kendi is able to concisely explain history, how it applies to today, and also interweave his own story and  how he learned these things  (this  humanizes him too, and shows he’s made mistakes, which helps readers be more open to it themselves. Def not preachy even though it could have been!). I would say the only thing that could have improved is more actionable steps on how to be antiracist. I understand we need to work to dismantle racist power, but how do we actually do that? It’s not working so far, and it feels like things have only gotten worse since this book was published. I definitely learned a lot, don’t get me wrong, I just wish I learned how to be antiracist and not just think like one. But maybe that’s the first step??

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

"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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