PD Meeting 3--Ch. 1 and 2 (cont.), Ch. 3 and 4
How to Be an Antiracist is a combination academic treatise and memoir in which the author, Ibram X. Kendi, considers the different forms of racism in society and how we can best eliminate them, while also sharing his personal experiences with racism.
In the introduction, Kendi recalls winning an oratorical contest in high school in which he spoke about Black youth failing to live up to the standard of excellence demonstrated by Martin Luther King Jr. In retrospect, Kendi is embarrassed for using stereotypes about his peers, and for shaming them. He explains that the opposite of “racist” is not “not racist,” but “antiracist” (9), a term he uses to refer to those who speak or act in ways that advance racial equity in society.
In Chapters 1-3, Kendi narrates his parents' early relationship in 1970s New York, where they were both students and Black liberationists. After they married and settled down into their respective careers, however, they became assimilationists, meaning they believed Black people could and should integrate into White society and prove themselves equal through hard work and impeccable moral conduct. Kendi introduces W.E.B. Du Bois' idea of the dueling (or double) consciousness, in which Black people are torn between feeling racial pride and feeling the need to conform, to be accepted by White people. Kendi notes that the concept of race was invented by the biographer of Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator in the 15th century as a means of legitimizing the earliest iteration of the slave trade.
In Chapters 4-8, Kendi outlines some of the most common forms of racism, their origins, their effects, and his experiences with them. He begins with biological racism, the belief that the different races are biologically different, and that there is a resulting hierarchy in which (usually) White people are superior. Then there is ethnic racism, which is the belief that people of different ethnic origins are different from one another. Many people believe, for example, that African immigrants are more intelligent and hard-working than African Americans, though in reality they usually just have better resources. Bodily racism most commonly suggests that Black people are more physically dominant, violent, and threatening. This belief means that African Americans are much more likely to be the victims of police brutality. Kendi notes that even he believed this stereotype, and it caused him to feel unsafe in his neighborhood and at his high school. Cultural racism is the belief that Black culture is inferior, and even deviant. Hip hop culture in particular is singled out for scorn. Kendi asserts that behavioral racism can be traced back to slavery, when people from different parts of Africa were evaluated and ranked based on their worth to slave traders. Stereotypes related to behavioral racism caused Kendi to believe his race contributed to his poor performance as a student in high school.
I had to leave the meeting last week early and wanted to post some of my reactions/ideas about chapters 3 and 4 here. These chapters had a lot of historical information that I was not aware of. I was unaware that "Henry the Navigator" was principally responsible for initiated the African Slave trade or that he hid this atrocity under the guise of religious expansion. When Kendi touched on biological racism in chapter 4 I was able to make the connection to Zora Neale Hurston's, Their Eyes Were Watching God. This is a text that I teach yearly in my English III class. In one of the later chapters of the novel there is a character named Ms. Turner, this woman believes that she and the main character, Janie, are better than the other people of color in their community because of the lighter color of their skin. This resonated for me as a result of biological racism, Hurston wrote this novel in 1937 and was pointing out how wrong this idea was then...yet this is STILL an issue in America today. What do we need to do to move towards being antiracists as a community and nation? It has been too long!
ReplyDeleteSusan - I totally agree that there was so much historical information in these chapters that I was also unaware of. Why weren't we taught these things in school? Are children today being taught these things? How can we change that?
DeleteI could not attend the meeting on Wednesday because I was working in the morning, but I also wanted to post some of my eye opening moments from chapters 3 and 4. I have to admit that when I started teaching in the RCSD I often would use the phrase "I don't see color" as a way of proving that I wasn't a racist. How could I be? I chose to teach in the city! But over the last few months of my anti-racist journey (and I call it a journey because I truly believe it is a long and never ending process) I have seen the error of my ways. I love in Chapter 3 when Kendi talks about his racial awakening and that "the gift of seeing himself as Black instead of color-blind is that it allowed him to clearly see himself historically and politically....and to accept and empower the racial difference of all kinds". I think it's so powerful for white teachers to embrace the culture and look for the differences in their students. We need to embrace and celebrate their differences, because only then, will they truly feel accepted and seen.
ReplyDeleteAlso in Chapter 3 I found it very powerful how Kendi talked about the "root problem" of racism. Most people are taught that racist ideas cause racist policies, but Kendi shows that even in the time of Prince Henry and up through present day with Trump, the root problem has always been the self-interest of racist power. There is great economic and political power in racism. It fuels our capitalistic society. Powerful people produce racist ideas in order to justify their racist policies and to help redirect the blame of inequalities onto the people themselves.
In Chapter 4 something I read really struck a cord with me. Kendi tells the story of the young black girl in his class who was rejected and ignored by the teacher. He goes on to explain how these "microaggressions" - which he describes as persistent daily abuse - physically change who children become. As teachers we are compassionate by nature, but so many black and brown children do not receive the same empathy and compassion that their white counterparts do. We often hold them to "adult standards" and label them as misbehaving kids, instead of inquiring to figure out what is causing the behavior. It's been so eye-opening and this book keeps getting better as I read on!