{"id":3354,"date":"2023-10-08T13:35:51","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T17:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/?p=3354"},"modified":"2023-10-10T18:05:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T22:05:35","slug":"book-review-of-ibram-x-kendis-how-to-be-an-anti-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/2023\/10\/08\/book-review-of-ibram-x-kendis-how-to-be-an-anti-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review of Ibram X. Kendi\u2019s How To Be An Anti-Racist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What can you say about a book that begins with the following sentence, \u201cI used to be racist, homophobic, misogynist, and colorist\u2026\u2026.\u201d? One thing you can\u2019t say about it is that author Ibram X. Kendi is afraid to be honest and vulnerable. In fact, he vigorously holds himself accountable for his numerous cognitive and behavioral crimes and misdemeanors. Throughout the book, he refuses to let himself maneuver away from some very ugly labels used to judge and condemn damaging and destructive human behaviors. In a world where it is difficult to go through a day where someone isn\u2019t being told that they should \u201chold themselves accountable\u201d, Kendi leads the way, and the way is not only as uncomfortable and awkward as one might expect, but it is also filled with humor and good-natured insights.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kendi, an African American author and professor of history and international relations, takes readers on a journey from his raw, adolescent, internalized racist views to his current anti-racist activism. Along the way, he learns that there is immense power in being completely honest with oneself and in examining one\u2019s own flaws with a magnifying class. Once he admits to engaging in noxious thought patterns that range from casual homophobia to viewing his fellow African Americans in the same way that racist whites do while simultaneously lumping all people of European decent into the inferior category of \u201cwhite racists\u201d, he is able to clear away the emotional debris and confront the cognitive dissonance that is\u00a0 embedded in a lot of anti-social behavior. The result is a literal \u201chow-to\u201d instructional guidebook that revolves around his autobiographical experiences.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With chapters entitled \u201cMy Racist Introduction\u201d, \u201cDueling Consciousness\u201d, \u201cEthnicity\u201d, \u201cCulture\u201d, \u201cColor\u201d, \u201cClass\u201d, \u201cGender\u201d, and \u201cSexuality\u201d, Kendi invites readers to see the world through his constantly evolving perspective. As a teenager, he belatedly realizes that he has given a speech full of racist ideas and anti-black tropes to a group of African Americans eager to uphold and internalize negative portrayals of themselves. Later in college, he is forced to acknowledge his unexamined misogyny and gender bias. All along his journey, Kendi uses examples from his own life to illustrate the limitations of certain thought patterns and behaviors. As he states, \u201cThe only way to undo racism [and other dangerous, discriminatory patterns of behavior] is to consistently identify and describe it [them] \u2014 and to dismantle it [them].\u201d Despite the serious nature of Kendi\u2019s rigorous self-analysis, there are plenty of humorous observations and anecdotes woven into the 241-page tome such as the time he realizes upon arriving at college the incongruity of fighting white supremacist ideologies while wearing hazel, \u201choney-colored\u201d contact lenses.<\/h3>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For anyone interested in going beneath the surface of race and gender relations to gain a better understanding of how to rout out undesirable and\/or misguided thought processes, Kendi\u2019s \u201cHow to Be an Anti-Racist\u201d will prove satisfying. He covers a lot of ground in the book from classism and ethnic stereotyping to homophobia, but his chapters never feel rushed or underdeveloped. Instead, he brings a historical lens to all the issues he explores and invites readers along for an enlightening and entertaining ride that leaves them exhilarated and filled with hope at the end of the journey.<\/h3>\n

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Dale News Online Publication: October 2023<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 What can you say about a book that begins with the following sentence, \u201cI used to be racist, homophobic, misogynist, and colorist\u2026\u2026.\u201d? One thing you can\u2019t say about it is that author Ibram X. Kendi is afraid to be honest and vulnerable. In fact, he vigorously holds himself accountable for his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":3355,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3354"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3362,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3354\/revisions\/3362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.farmingdale.edu\/sites\/the-dale\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}