{"id":20424,"date":"2020-12-12T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=20424"},"modified":"2020-12-16T18:17:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T22:17:35","slug":"how-to-be-an-antiracist-quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-be-an-antiracist-quotes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be an Antiracist Quotes: 4 Important Passages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are some How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> quotes? How does each quote highlight an important concept from Ibram X. Kendi’s book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> quotes identify the key themes in Ibram X. Kendi’s book. Starting with the concept of antiracism and myth of neutrality<\/a> and ending with the idea that racism is like a cancer, these How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> quotes will help you remember the important messages of the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for four How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> Quotes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’ What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy<\/a> as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The first of the quotes from How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> is about the nature of Race neutral<\/a> programs can actually be more dangerous than the agenda of the alt right.<\/strong> While the alt right is unlikely to actually create a White ethnostate, race neutrality has a track record of leaving policies that create inequity in place and striking down programs that create equity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, race neutrality often goes hand-in-hand with ideas around ignoring the existence of race (the notion of being \u201ccolor blind\u201d). While race is a power construct, not a meaningful scientific category, it still affects everyone\u2019s lives. Pretending it doesn\u2019t exist allows racists to carry out business as usual\u2014if we ignore race, then we\u2019re blind to racial inequity. Dispensing with racial groups will be one of the very last<\/em> steps in the struggle to end racism, not the first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no in-between when it comes to antiracism and racism\u2014anything that\u2019s not antiracist is racist.<\/strong> Likewise, there is no such thing as a \u201cneutral policy\u201d: All policies and ideas either advance or hamper equality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform example: Racist policies have created funding imbalances between Black and White schools. A scholarship program open only to Black people is antiracist because it strives for educational equality between racial groups. Axing this scholarship program because White people aren\u2019t allowed to apply may seem \u201cneutral,\u201d but, in fact, canceling the program would be racist because it would mean canceling something that\u2019s aimed at remedying the current funding imbalance and thereby promoting racial equity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBlack people are apparently responsible for calming the fears of violent cops in the way women are supposedly responsible for calming the sexual desires of male rapists.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the How to Be an Antiracist<\/em> quotes that show how Black people have to adjust their own actions to manage others’ racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cops are scared of Black people, even unarmed kids. The US population is 13% Black, but people killed by police are disproportionately Black\u2014in 2018, 21% of people killed by police were Black. White people are half as likely to be killed by police as Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, there are no inherently violent or dangerous races. <\/strong>Researchers have found that there\u2019s a much stronger correlation between unemployment and violent-crime levels than race and violent crime levels, for example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n