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A review by birdinflight1
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
4.0
Very enlightening. I'm still digesting this book, and it helped me think deeply about uplift suasion, intersectionality, colorism, racist policies, and the link between racism and capitalism.
One topic that really struck me was his argument before that the important work is to change policy, as opposed to changing people's minds about the problem before changing policy. In so many examples, policy change leads to people changing their minds once the policy has been in place for a number of years. And, conservatives often predict that horrible things will happen if we change the policy, and then, if the policy changes, the horrible predictions do not come true, and most people come to accept the new normal. An example of this that I have witnessed in my lifetime is gay marriage. Conservatives argued that the institution of marriage would be weakened, etc. etc. etc. Well, the policy changed and gay marriage is allowed, and not surprisingly, it has not affected one married couple negatively nor has it ruined the institution of marriage as the conservatives predicted. Now, most people accept gay marriage. I don't hear anyone even talking about it anymore.
The same pattern occurred with interracial marriage, desegregation of schools, the Affordable Care Act, the voting rights act, and many more. Conservatives fear monger, policy changes, horrible predictions don't come true, people accept the policy. It's interesting.
One topic that really struck me was his argument before that the important work is to change policy, as opposed to changing people's minds about the problem before changing policy. In so many examples, policy change leads to people changing their minds once the policy has been in place for a number of years. And, conservatives often predict that horrible things will happen if we change the policy, and then, if the policy changes, the horrible predictions do not come true, and most people come to accept the new normal. An example of this that I have witnessed in my lifetime is gay marriage. Conservatives argued that the institution of marriage would be weakened, etc. etc. etc. Well, the policy changed and gay marriage is allowed, and not surprisingly, it has not affected one married couple negatively nor has it ruined the institution of marriage as the conservatives predicted. Now, most people accept gay marriage. I don't hear anyone even talking about it anymore.
The same pattern occurred with interracial marriage, desegregation of schools, the Affordable Care Act, the voting rights act, and many more. Conservatives fear monger, policy changes, horrible predictions don't come true, people accept the policy. It's interesting.