Resentment oozes from every word in Ibram X. Kendi’s 2019 book, “How To Be An Antiracist.” He finds racism literally everywhere: Biological racism. Ethnic racism. Bodily racism. Cultural racism. Behavioral racism. Colorism. Class racism. Space racism. Gender racism. Queer racism. (These terms are all Kendi’s, not mine.) There is not a space, interstice, corner or nook of American life where Kendi does not see the ugly face of racism leering.
I wanted to read and understand “How To Be An Antiracist” because I’ve been reading a lot of what might be called “conservative” analyses of race, and wanted a counterbalance. “America’s Cultural Revolution” (Christopher Rufo), “Taboo” (Wilfred Reilly), “The Identity Trap” (Yascha Mounk)—they’re fine, interesting books that broadened my understanding of the price we pay for embracing, or tolerating, wokeness. But, as someone who fervently believes in hearing all sides of a complicated issue, I needed something that expressed and explained things from a Black activist point of view. I don’t mean the incoherent babbling of people like Carroll Fife or Cat Brooks or Pamela Price. I wanted a smart voice, an educated voice, a good writer who could articulate his thoughts with clarity and artfulness. I found such a book in “How To Be An Antiracist”and such a voice in Ibram X. Kendi.
I read the book closely. I found myself liking Kendi personally, as much as a personal liking can be had for an author one has never met. I liked his “style,” to be blunt. I liked his fairness and honesty: in an anecdote about another Black boy, “Smurf,” who went to his old school in Queens, Kendi describes his lifelong shame after he sat and did nothing on a bus while Smurf beat up a South Indian kid and stole his Walkman. Kendi doesn’t spare his racial colleagues criticism. They come under the same unblinking scrutiny as do the White people and policies which “How To Be An Antiracist” talks about. The difference is that Kendi gives his fellow Black brothers a pass: if they’re violent, it’s because of (fill-in-the-blank) racism.
This is what I mean by resentment oozing from every word in Kendi’s book. The guy is pissed. He describes his intellectual and moral journey from a rather naïve, young inner city kid with a lot of internalized self-hatred to a college professor (American University) and award-winning author of several books on racism. The older Kendi became (he is now 42), the more he drifted toward a more rigidly woke mindset. The more he became enmeshed in that mindset, the more obsessed he became about racism. And the more he thought about racism, the more he perceived it everywhere. When there was no overt racism to be found, Kendi discovered the concept of “microaggressions,” which, again, he finds everywhere.
I would hate to live in such a world as Kendi’s, where everything is annoying and offensive. It must be hard to get through life resenting 99% of what you perceive around you. In psychology they define “self-fulfilling prophecy” as “an expectation or belief that can influence your behaviors, thus causing the belief to come true. The idea behind a self-fulfilling prophecy…is that your belief about what will happen drives the actions that make that outcome ultimately come to pass.”
Think about that. Your own beliefs can make you behave, albeit unconsciously, in such a way as to make them actually become manifest. You get on a bus and expect to be micro-aggressed. Perhaps there’s something in your body language, in your public presentation, in your vibe, that makes some people uneasy. Your expectation creates a defensive and potentially violent aura around you that is menacing. When an old lady moves a little further down the aisle from you, you see a micro-aggression, a form of (fill-in-the-blank) racism. Maybe she moved to be closer to the door when her stop comes. You have no way of knowing, but your expectation confirms your worldview. And the cycle continues.
I disagree with much of what Kendi writes, but at the same time, I wish he lived in Oakland so we could know each other. I feel that we could get together over coffee and talk things out and help each of us to arrive at a better understanding of the other. I might talk Kendi down from some of his resentment and hopefully bring him to realize that America, and White America in particular, is not hostile to him. Kendi might help me understand more about the Black point of view, how it’s been to grow up in this country, and why “antiracism” as he calls it is a necessity. Neither of us, Kendi nor me, is a bad man. We both want the same things: peace, safety, security, love. I happen to believe I’m more realistic than he is, but then, he no doubt believes he’s more realistic than I. Surely we can arrive at a consensus that allows us to hang on to our moral and ethical convictions without feeling like sellouts.
In the end, “How To Be An Antiracist” is like a really well engineered autonomous vehicle. You have to admire the sleek design, the intelligence, the craftmanship, “the mind behind.” But the damn car keeps bringing you to the wrong destination. As much as you like it, you just can’t bring yourself to buy it.
Steve Heimoff