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Dec 08, 2019sandraperkins rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Mr. Kendi previously wrote Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. While Stamped From the Beginning is long and comprehensive, How to Be an Antiracist is short and powerful. It could indeed be a textbook for a course in How to Be an Antiracist, and it is a very helpful resource for any individuals who want to understand what racism is and how to change it. How to Be an Antiracist is also a personal story of the author’s journey and the evolution of his understanding about what racism is and what it is not. Readers of Stamped From the Beginning will recognize some of the lessons the author explained in that book. He does not flinch from criticizing his own earlier understandings (many of which were unknowingly racist), and it is clear that his own understanding of racism, and how to be an antiracist, is continuing to evolve. Here is one insight that resonated with me: A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. Mr. Kendi notes, “There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every nation is either producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.”