Publishers Weekly - 14.10.2019

“I am not racist,” while the heartbeat of

antiracism is confession, self-reflection,

and seeking to grow and change.

Can one ever be an antiracist, or is

it a perpetual act of recognizing and

committing to change? Yes, no one ever

becomes an antiracist. The reason why no

one can ever become one is because to

grow up in this country, and in many other

parts of the world, people are raised and

trained to be racist. In many ways, people

become addicted to racist ideas. It’s like a

personality characteristic. Once we decide

that we want to be an antiracist, we can’t

just wake up one day and be one, just like

we can’t wake up one day and be free of an

addiction. It’s an everyday process.

So, someone striving to be antiracist is sort

of like a “recovering racist?” On one level it

is recovery, on the other it’s advancing an anti-

racist project—to challenge those racist policies

and be a part of movements and organizations that are toppling them

and replacing them with antiracist policies.

IBRAM X. KENDI

Saturday, Nov. 23, 10 a.m.

Building 1, Auditorium

T

o fight racism, people need to be antiracist, which

is different from being nonracist. In his new book,

How to Be an Antiracist, ideas columnist for the

Atlantic Kendi explains the distinction.

Antiracist sounds more active than nonracist. What is the differ-

ence? When I look out at American society today, I see that, typically,

when people are charged with being racist, their response is “I’m not

racist.” The term “not racist” has primarily been a defensive term, a term

of denial, and that’s really all its meaning has ever been. So, I would

argue that there is no such thing as “not racist;” it exists only as a denial

of being racist. However, an antiracist would have definitions of racist

ideas and racist policies and would admit when they were being racist,

or when they supported a racist policy, and then seek to essentially not

do that again. The heartbeat of racism is denial, is consistently saying,

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Stamping Out

Racism National Book

Award winner Ibram X. Kendi

talks about his latest book, race,

and antiracism: what it is and why

it’s so important

NONFICTION NICOLE AUDREY SPECTOR

Meet Our Authors at the Miami Book Fair

JOSH CAMPBELL

BROCK CLARKE

JAQUIRA DÍAZ

ROSS GAY

MESHA MAREN

ALGONQUIN BOOKS

@algonquinbooks

Events and Signings on November 23rd and 24th