I'm POC, fyi, but I tried reading my yt friend's copy of "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibrahim X Kendi last summer. This friend was just starting to develop some political consciousness as a result of the protests. I figured it had to be somewhat less cringe than White Fragility. The first page says, basically, "look, racism is systemic and I won't tell you how to fix that. But with practice, you can develop individual habits that will 'bubble up' into social change." Even if he wanted to (?) actually make a difference, you can't publish one of these white self-flagellation manuals if you address the capitalist elephant in the room.
I read “How to Be an Antiracist” too and credit where credit is due, Kendi does dedicate a chapter each to both imperialism and capitalism and how both have borne racist policies/instilled racist values. I mean, you won’t see him calling for the government to be overthrown, but he doesn’t not call for it lol. It was better than White Fragility for sure, which is just self-flagellation.
Word-i figured it wasn’t written with bad intentions. The author seems actually kinda good, just there’s an enforced limit to how much they can rock the boat.
I'm POC, fyi, but I tried reading my yt friend's copy of "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibrahim X Kendi last summer. This friend was just starting to develop some political consciousness as a result of the protests. I figured it had to be somewhat less cringe than White Fragility. The first page says, basically, "look, racism is systemic and I won't tell you how to fix that. But with practice, you can develop individual habits that will 'bubble up' into social change." Even if he wanted to (?) actually make a difference, you can't publish one of these white self-flagellation manuals if you address the capitalist elephant in the room.
Individual habits try to bubble up, but the ruling class just uses
event.stopPropagationon the parent element.smh react-ionaries
The liberal conception of racism is that it is an individual moral failing that can only be restrained by constant self-restraint
I read “How to Be an Antiracist” too and credit where credit is due, Kendi does dedicate a chapter each to both imperialism and capitalism and how both have borne racist policies/instilled racist values. I mean, you won’t see him calling for the government to be overthrown, but he doesn’t not call for it lol. It was better than White Fragility for sure, which is just self-flagellation.
Word-i figured it wasn’t written with bad intentions. The author seems actually kinda good, just there’s an enforced limit to how much they can rock the boat.