Books, NonFiction

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Worth A Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review “Not Racist” is inherently racist. We’re all racist, but some of us are actively fighting against racism in the world and within ourselves, and that’s called antiracism.

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Reading How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi in Houston, Texas. | Dress  | Headband |

 

I didn’t know who Ibram X. Kendi was until this book. Now I’m a fan. I would love to go to coffee with him and discuss racism, history, and the meaning of life. He seems like the kind of guy who will point out how you’re being an asshole and let you grow from it because he spends How to Be an Antiracist pointing out the times he was a racist and grew from it. These are my favorite people; the people who acknowledge their growth by admitting the reality of their pasts. If only all of history could do the same, the world would be in a much better place. Books like this one are a step in that direction. It calls attention to history at large and personal to demonstrate and juxtapose how the two intertwine and affect each other. History is an amalgam of individual’s choices for good or bad, and all of those choices converge to create society, thought, and policy, which in turn influence individual choice for good or bad. 

Kendi doesn’t state anything revolutionary. If you’re tuned into policy, psychology, history, anthropology, sexuality, philology, African/African-American studies, sociology, gender studies, feminism, ethnic studies, etc., you’ll be aware of most of the topics and ideas in How to Be an Antiracist. The difference is in the wording. Kendi writes clearly and effectively, saying what he means even, especially, when it makes people uncomfortable. I had to stop taking notes and writing down quotes because there were so many poignant moments of blatant honesty. He names things as they are instead of finding a polite way of identifying racism, “Only racists shy away from the R-word – racism is steeped in denial.” As a writer, linguist, and reader, I’m a words person. I like them to be exact, and Kendi is the same. I love that Kendi does not like the word “microaggression” because of its inexactness. As an advocate, I have always used the exact words to describe things because anything else gives room for people to make excuses and shirk personal responsibility. Kendi calls racism racism, especially when it makes people uncomfortable. I’ve always believed people are uncomfortable because they can see themselves in it. 

How to Be an Antiracist is told through personal anecdotes, world history, policy, and culture. Kendi points out what’s wrong with society, policy, and everything by pointing out the ways he has had to face and overcome his own racism while breaking stereotypes, destroying myths, and shedding light on the truth. 

The book is pretty much summed up in the quote, “We know how to be racist. We know how to pretend to be not racist. Now let’s know how to be antiracist.” For more clarification on the term antiracist and the title, this quote speaks for itself,

“The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “antiracist.” What’s the difference? One endorses either the  of racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an antiracist. 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 antiracist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no inbetween safe space of “not racist.” The claim of “not racist” neutrality is a mask for racism.”

How to Be an Antiracist is intellectually stimulating and emotionally draining. Racism is rampant, systemic, cyclical, institutional, and ingrained in culture, history, religion, and policy. So many lines felt like a punch to the chest. I will never have to live in a world where my skin is viewed as a crime and a threat. I will never be able to comprehend that kind of pain, but Kendi’s words cut, making me ache to hug the pain away for every person who has been wronged, forgotten, abused, and left behind. I was also left to question, ‘What would I have done in that White person’s shoes. Would I make those same racist choices? Or would I have been better, done better?’  

Not only is Kendi a brilliant writer and scholar, he is a role model. Everyone has internal biases, which is a nice way of saying: we’re all racists. It’s hard to confront the ugly parts of ourselves, but society can’t move forward until we do so. Kendi is setting an example and a new standard for the way allies, advocates, and activists create change. He does so from the very first page in his introduction where he calls himself out for his racist ideas and misconceptions about the community he belongs to.

People often think books about racism or Black culture are antiwhite, but that, in and of itself, is a racist idea. As How to Be an Antiracist states, “The only thing wrong with White people is when they embrace racist ideas and policies and then deny their ideas and policies are racist.” Calling attention to racism is just that: calling attention to racism. It doesn’t matter your background, ethnicity, education, intelligence, skin color, we are all capable of being racist, but we are all capable of combating that and being antiracist. 

Memorable Quotes
“Internalized racism is the real Black on Black crime.”
“Racism itself is institutional, structural, and systemic.”
“The Black child is ill-treated like an adult, and the Black adult is ill-treated like a child.”
“Racist ideas make people of color think less of themselves, which makes them more vulnerable to racist ideas. Racist ideas make White people think more of themselves, which further attracts them to racist ideas.”
“The use of standardized tests to measure aptitude and intelligence is one of the most effective racist policies ever devised to degrade Black minds and legally exclude Black bodies.”
“Racist ideas love believers, not thinkers.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: How to Be An Antiracist
Author: Ibram X. Kendi
Publisher: One World (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525509288

Books, Fiction

Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

Worth a Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review A collection of stories centering around latina women of indigenious descent and their lives as women, mothers, sisters, friends, and as people in the American West. 

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Reading Sabrina & Corina in Galveston, Texas | Bikini Top | Bikini Bottom
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Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine at the beach in Galveston, Texas.

Kali Fajardo-Anstine writes a beautiful and haunting collection of stories in her debut book Sabrina & Corina. Each story is a snapshot into the life of latina-indigenious women in the American West. 

The stories are complicated and deeply laced with heartache and perseverance. There is strength in the women Fajardo-Anstine creates, and a fearlessness in the stories she tells. The women live in different times and under different circumstances, but they are all a testament to the scars of their homeland and the truth of being a woman and a minority in an inhospitable land. 

I truly love the way the stories ebb and flow in Sabrina & Corina. Fajardo-Anstine brings voices to a population often left out of the narrative. The world is in dire need of stories about latina-indigenous women.

Sabrina & Corina is absolutely enveloping. I read it in a day because I couldn’t put it down. There are so many things about the stories I can relate to as a woman, and so many things I can’t relate to because I do not share the characters ethnic background. Nonetheless, it is impossible to not feel deeply while reading the stories. 

Memorable Quotes
“I was ashamed of myself that I still wanted her close to me, even after everything she had done.”
“”Dead people,” he said, “are like white people. They can’t dance.””

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Title: Sabrina & Corina
Author: Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Publisher: One World
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525511298

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Books, NonFiction

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Worth a Read YES
Length 400
Quick Review Eight pieces previously written by Ta-Nehisi Coates are combined with observations and opinions he has looking back while We Were Eight Years in Power.

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We Were Eight Years in Power at Oak Alley Plantation | Shirt | Jeans | Shoes | Sunglasses

I am ashamed to say I had not read a Ta-Nehisi Coates book until We Were Eight Years in Power. From the very first page, I was hooked. The majority of Coates’ writing has focused on race in the U.S, and he has become known as a “black writer” for better or worse. Over the course of Obama’s presidency, Coates wrote a great deal. Looking back over that time, he chose eight pieces to document those eight years. Before each, he included addendums, thoughts, opinions, hopes, and more.

From the very first page, I was a little in love with Coates’ style. There is some tongue-in-cheek phrasing throughout We Were Eight Years in Power to subversively emphasize the all too present hypocrisy, blindness, and iniquity within American society. I love reading simultaneously intelligent and accessible works. Coates is like your favorite professor who is really smart but also swears a little. He has a truly remarkable knowledge base spanning classics, science, pop culture references – I absolutely looked up 96.92% of the latter – and everything in between. Reading this was overwhelmingly stimulating in the best kind of way.

One of the most fascinating pieces was “The Case For Reparations.” It was amazing and chilling. Coates brings a light to the haunting realities black Americans live with on a daily basis. Americans (read that as white Americans) need to read it. We cannot be a country divided. To survive, we need to face history. Ruins are not just in Rome, they are all around us. We live in the ruins we created centuries ago. Chicago comes up a great deal throughout We Were Eight Years in Power for good reason. It is a prime example of what we have yet to overcome, “Today Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in the country, a fact that reflects assiduous planning.” If we refuse to even acknowledge the reality of Chicago, how can we possibly move forward?

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We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Obama was the first black president. The progress was followed by a giant side step/fall/catastrophe. Trump won the presidency. (Sadly.) Coates is a realist, but there is an optimist underneath. Like many others, Coates did not believe it was possible for Trump to win, but win he did. Coates was wrong. (Sadly.) The optimist helped him believe in America, even though his career has focused on the stubborn and insidious white supremacy rooted in American tradition, society, and legal institutions. Hope helped so many believe Trump was impossible. Fear made it possible.

I love We Were Eight Years in Power. Ta-Nehisi Coates is a master of words and insight. They say the pen is mightier than the sword. His pen is not a sword. It’s a scalpel cutting precisely to dissect society and humanity to see the reality our country faces. As I was reading Coates’ words, I wondered if he ever reads his writing and thinks ‘damn, I am a magician with words.’

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*By the way, I decided to take the pictures for this book in front of slaves’ quarters at Oak Alley Plantation. Our history and current success is due to the thousands and thousands of people who were never considered people at all. They were stolen from their homes, owned, beaten, raped, murdered, and more. America needs to start recognizing history as it happened not how it has been taught or recorded for generations.

Memorable Quotes
“All my life I had watched women support the dreams of men, hand over their own dreams to men, only to wonder, in later years, whether it was all worth it.”
“America had a biography, and in that biography, the shackling of black people – slaves and free – featured prominently.”
“White people are, in some profound way, trapped; it took generations to make them white, and it will take more to unmake them.”
“I would like to believe in God. I simply can’t.”
“The essence of American racism is disrespect.”

Title: We Were Eight Years in Power; An American Tragedy
Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World (Penguin Random House)
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9780399590573