Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery

Kindle
$9.99

Available instantly

Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$11.52

Paperback
$11.14

$11.52 with 57 percent savings

List Price: $27.00

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery May 19 - 23 to Nashville 37217 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery May 19 - 20

$$11.52 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from

Amazon

Sold by

Readable Books For You

Returns

30-day refund/replacement

Payment

Secure transaction

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$7.91

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD if applicable. Access code has been used if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. Pages are clean with normal wear. May have limited markings & or highlighting within pages & or cover. Includes dustjacket if applicable. May have some wear & creases on the cover. The spine may also have minor wear. Does not come with CD DVD if applicable. Access code has been used if applicable. Does not come with any supplementary materials. See less

FREE delivery Thursday, May 15 to Nashville 37217 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 14. Order within 9 hrs 31 mins

In Stock

$$11.52 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Sold by Vivé Liber Books LLC and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (425) from $1.36

21 Books I Read This MonthAmazon Books

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

4 VIDEOS

Follow the author

Ibram X. Kendi

Follow

How to Be an Antiracist Hardcover – August 13, 2019

by Ibram X. Kendi (Author)

28,659 ratings

Part of: One World Essentials (12 books)

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$11.52","priceAmount":11.52,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"52","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"KudZt%2FkSkI1mPaOSIiV8ki%2BtbWwjiOPiHIdmN5FwWq%2F9nwVdgcwQjgCWRlMHIaupY9gWDCSQYlNJvONCqMbCk%2B2d9CoRL9rcoAOE3M%2FUZWx5piE%2BkplvlOmZSFEdOAiZo8GcQ4xoXCzH76fchregV6CuA5Jnsrjre9ZwA4Fs0snnU6NxLMPFVGwPAZVRN9aH","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.91","priceAmount":7.91,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"91","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"KudZt%2FkSkI1mPaOSIiV8ki%2BtbWwjiOPiQNQLNRJp%2FodpDja%2BaaDnfaR%2Bg63dREgw6lzx3QPNosevi6I%2FCz4vN0sEOaQdPZXrshZ9T5uhcxvUR%2Bu8gqV0iGm6BE4tfrj8RrtUEcphVjm%2F6o6c7ule3g10DYJLP8iRuia3uFZG4MEN9lgfh7%2Fvsw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a “groundbreaking” (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society—and in ourselves.

“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, The Washington Post, Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

From the Publisher

A “groundbreaking” approach to understanding and uprooting racism says Time magazine

Books by Ibram X. Kendi

__________________________________________________

	Be Antiracist	Four Hundred Souls	Antiracist Baby	How To Be a (Young) Antiracist	Goodnight Racism	How to Raise an Antiracist

Customer Reviews	550	6,373	9,582	83	229	218
Price	$13.05	$15.96	$6.04	$10.73	$4.00	$12.93
	Reflect on your understanding of race and discover ways to work toward an antiracist future with this guided journal from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning.	A "choral history" of African Americans covering 400 years of history in the voices of 90 writers, edited by the bestselling, National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi and award-winning historian Keisha N. Blain.	A #1 New York Times Bestseller! From the National Book Award-winning author How to Be an Antiracist comes a picture book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves.	The #1 New York Times bestseller that sparked international dialogue is now a book for young adults!	National Book Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby) returns with a new picture book that serves as a modern bedtime classic.	The book that every parent, caregiver, and teacher needs to raise the next generation of antiracist thinkers, from the author of How to Be an Antiracist

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of August 2019: Most people will tell you that racism is all about hatred and ignorance. In How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi's follow-up to his National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning, he explains that racism is ultimately structural. Racism directs attention away from harmful, inequitable policies and turns that attention on the people harmed by those policies. Kendi employs history, science, and ethics to describe different forms of racism; at the same time, he follows the events and experiences of his own life, adapting a memoir approach that personalizes his arguments. This is a very effective combination, fusing the external forces of racism with Kendi's own reception and responses to that racism—the result will be mind-expanding for many readers. Kendi's title encompasses his main thesis: simply not being racist isn't enough. We must actively choose to be "antiracist," working to undo racism and its component polices in order to build an equitable society. To read this book is to relate to the author as an individual and realize just how much we all have in common. As Kendi writes: race is a mirage, assigning an identity according to skin color, ignoring the individual. --Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review

Review

“What do you do after you have written Stamped From the Beginning, an award-winning history of racist ideas? . . . If you’re Ibram X. Kendi, you craft another stunner of a book. . . . What emerges from these insights is the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind, a confessional of self-examination that may, in fact, be our best chance to free ourselves from our national nightmare.”—The New York Times

“How to Be an Antiracist couldn’t come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author’s own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . . How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, ‘the basic struggle we’re all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.’”—NPR

“Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is—and what we should do about it.”—Time

“Ibram Kendi is today’s visionary in the enduring struggle for racial justice. In this personal and revelatory new work, he yet again holds up a transformative lens, challenging both mainstream and antiracist orthodoxy. He illuminates the foundations of racism in revolutionary new ways, and I am consistently challenged and inspired by his analysis. How to Be an Antiracist offers us a necessary and critical way forward.”—Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

“Ibram Kendi’s work, through both his books and the Antiracist Research and Policy Center, is vital in today’s sociopolitical climate. As a society, we need to start treating antiracism as action, not emotion—and Kendi is helping us do that.”—Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race

“Ibram Kendi uses his own life journey to show us why becoming an antiracist is as essential as it is difficult. Equal parts memoir, history, and social commentary, this book is honest, brave, and most of all liberating.”—James Forman, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Locking Up Our Own

“A boldly articulated, historically informed explanation of what exactly racist ideas and thinking are . . . [Kendi’s] prose is thoughtful, sincere, and polished. This powerful book will spark many conversations.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A combination of memoir and extension of [Kendi’s] towering Stamped from the Beginning . . . Never wavering . . . Kendi methodically examines racism through numerous lenses: power, biology, ethnicity, body, culture, and so forth. . . . This unsparing honesty helps readers, both white and people of color, navigate this difficult intellectual territory. . . . Essential.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“In this sharp blend of social commentary and memoir . . . Kendi is ready to spread his message, his stories serving as a springboard for potent explorations of race, gender, colorism, and more. . . . With Stamped From the Beginning, Kendi proved himself a first-rate historian. Here, his willingness to turn the lens on himself marks him as a courageous activist, leading the way to a more equitable society.”—Library Journal (starred review)

About the Author

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor. He is the host of the new action podcast Be Antiracist. Dr. Kendi is the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also produced five straight #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

MY RACIST INTRODUCTION

I despised suits and ties. For seventeen years I had been surrounded by suit-wearing, tie-choking, hat-flying church folk. My teenage wardrobe hollered the defiance of a preacher’s kid.

It was January 17, 2000. More than three thousand Black people—with a smattering of White folks—arrived that Monday morning in their Sunday best at the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Northern Virginia. My parents arrived in a state of shock. Their floundering son had somehow made it to the final round of the Prince William County Martin Luther King Jr. oratorical contest.

I didn’t show up with a white collar under a dark suit and matching dark tie like most of my competitors. I sported a racy golden-brown blazer with a slick black shirt and bright color-streaked tie underneath. The hem of my baggy black slacks crested over my creamy boots. I’d already failed the test of respectability before I opened my mouth, but my parents, Carol and Larry, were all smiles nonetheless. They couldn’t remember the last time they saw me wearing a tie and blazer, however loud and crazy.

But it wasn’t just my clothes that didn’t fit the scene. My competitors were academic prodigies. I wasn’t. I carried a GPA lower than 3.0; my SAT score barely cracked 1000. Colleges were recruiting my competitors. I was riding the high of having received surprise admission letters from the two colleges I’d halfheartedly applied to.

A few weeks before, I was on the basketball court with my high school team, warming up for a home game, cycling through layup lines. My father, all six foot three and two hundred pounds of him, emerged from my high school gym’s entrance. He slowly walked onto the basketball court, flailing his long arms to get my attention—and embarrassing me before what we could call the “White judge.”

Classic Dad. He couldn’t care less what judgmental White people thought about him. He rarely if ever put on a happy mask, faked a calmer voice, hid his opinion, or avoided making a scene. I loved and hated my father for living on his own terms in a world that usually denies Black people their own terms. It was the sort of defiance that could have gotten him lynched by a mob in a different time and place—or lynched by men in badges today.

I jogged over to him before he could flail his way right into our layup lines. Weirdly giddy, he handed me a brown manila envelope.

“This came for you today.”

He motioned me to open the envelope, right there at half-court as the White students and teachers looked on.

I pulled out the letter and read it: I had been admitted to Hampton University in southern Virginia. My immediate shock exploded into unspeakable happiness. I embraced Dad and exhaled. Tears mixed with warm-up sweat on my face. The judging White eyes around us faded.

I thought I was stupid, too dumb for college. Of course, intelligence is as subjective as beauty. But I kept using “objective” standards, like test scores and report cards, to judge myself. No wonder I sent out only two college applications: one to Hampton and the other to the institution I ended up attending, Florida A&M University. Fewer applications meant less rejection—and I fully expected those two historically Black universities to reject me. Why would any university want an idiot on their campus who can’t understand Shakespeare? It never occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t really trying to understand Shakespeare and that’s why I dropped out of my English II International Baccalaureate class during my senior year. Then again, I did not read much of anything in those years.

Maybe if I’d read history then, I’d have learned about the historical significance of the new town my family had moved to from New York City in 1997. I would have learned about all those Confederate memorials surrounding me in Manassas, Virginia, like Robert E. Lee’s dead army. I would have learned why so many tourists trek to Manassas National Battlefield Park to relive the glory of the Confederate victories at the Battles of Bull Run during the Civil War. It was there that General Thomas J. Jackson acquired his nickname, “Stonewall,” for his stubborn defense of the Confederacy. Northern Virginians kept the stonewall intact after all these years. Did anyone notice the irony that at this Martin Luther King Jr. oratorical contest, my free Black life represented Stonewall Jackson High School?

The delightful event organizers from Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the proud dignitaries, and the competitors were all seated on the pulpit. (The group was too large to say we were seated in the pulpit.) The audience sat in rows that curved around the long, arched pulpit, giving room for speakers to pace to the far sides of the chapel while delivering their talks; five stairs also allowed us to descend into the crowd if we wanted.

The middle schoolers had given their surprisingly mature speeches. The exhilarating children’s choir had sung behind us. The audience sat back down and went silent in anticipation of the three high school orators.

I went first, finally approaching the climax of an experience that had already changed my life. From winning my high school competition months before to winning “best before the judges” at a countywide competition weeks before—I felt a special rainstorm of academic confidence. If I came out of the experience dripping with confidence for college, then I’d entered from a high school drought. Even now I wonder if it was my poor sense of self that first generated my poor sense of my people. Or was it my poor sense of my people that inflamed a poor sense of myself? Like the famous question about the chicken and the egg, the answer is less important than the cycle it describes. 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.

I thought I was a subpar student and was bombarded by messages—from Black people, White people, the media—that told me that the reason was rooted in my race . . . which made me more discouraged and less motivated as a student . . . which only further reinforced for me the racist idea that Black people just weren’t very studious . . . which made me feel even more despair or indifference . . . and on it went. At no point was this cycle interrupted by a deeper analysis of my own specific circumstances and shortcomings or a critical look at the ideas of the society that judged me—instead, the cycle hardened the racist ideas inside me until I was ready to preach them to others.

I remember the MLK competition so fondly. But when I recall the racist speech I gave, I flush with shame.

“What would be Dr. King’s message for the millennium? Let’s visualize an angry seventy-one-year-old Dr. King . . .” And I began my remix of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

It was joyous, I started, our emancipation from enslavement. But “now, one hundred thirty-five years later, the Negro is still not free.”

I was already thundering, my tone angry, more Malcolm than Martin.

“Our youth’s minds are still in captivity!”

I did not say our youth’s minds are in captivity of racist ideas, as I would say now.

“They think it’s okay to be those who are most feared in our society!” I said, as if it was their fault they were so feared.

“They think it’s okay not to think!” I charged, raising the classic racist idea that Black youth don’t value education as much as their non-Black counterparts. No one seemed to care that this well-traveled idea had flown on anecdotes but had never been grounded in proof.

Still, the crowd encouraged me with their applause. I kept shooting out unproven and disproven racist ideas about all the things wrong with Black youth—ironically, on the day when all the things right about Black youth were on display.

I started pacing wildly back and forth on the runway for the pulpit, gaining momentum.

“They think it’s okay to climb the high tree of pregnancy!” Applause.

“They think it’s okay to confine their dreams to sports and music!” Applause.

Had I forgotten that I—not “Black youth”—was the one who had confined his dreams to sports? And I was calling Black youth “they”? Who on earth did I think I was? Apparently, my placement on that illustrious stage had lifted me out of the realm of ordinary—and thus inferior—Black youngsters and into the realm of the rare and extraordinary.

In my applause-stoked flights of oratory, I didn’t realize that to say something is wrong about a racial group is to say something is inferior about that racial group. I did not realize that to say something is inferior about a racial group is to say a racist idea. I thought I was serving my people, when in fact I was serving up racist ideas about my people to my people. The Black judge seemed to be eating it up and clapping me on my back for more. I kept giving more.

“Their minds are being held captive, and our adults’ minds are right there beside them,” I said, motioning to the floor. “Because they somehow think that the cultural revolution that began on the day of my dream’s birth is over.

“How can it be over when many times we are unsuccessful because we lack intestinal fortitude?” Applause.

“How can it be over when our kids leave their houses not knowing how to make themselves, only knowing how to not make themselves?” Applause.

“How can it be over if all of this is happening in our community?” I asked, lowering my voice. “So I say to you, my friends, that even though this cultural revolution may never be over, I still have a dream . . .”

I still have a nightmare—the memory of this speech whenever I muster the courage to recall it anew. It is hard for me to believe I finished high school in the year 2000 touting so many racist ideas. A racist culture had handed me the ammunition to shoot Black people, to shoot myself, and I took and used it. Internalized racism is the real Black on Black crime.

I was a dupe, a chump who saw the ongoing struggles of Black people on MLK Day 2000 and decided that Black people themselves were the problem. This is the consistent function of racist ideas—and of any kind of bigotry more broadly: to manipulate us into seeing people as the problem, instead of the policies that ensnare them.

The language used by the forty-fifth president of the United States offers a clear example of how this sort of racist language and thinking works. Long before he became president, Donald Trump liked to say, “Laziness is a trait in Blacks.” When he decided to run for president, his plan for making America great again: defaming Latinx immigrants as mostly criminals and rapists and demanding billions for a border wall to block them. He promised “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Once he became president, he routinely called his Black critics “stupid.” He claimed immigrants from Haiti “all have AIDS,” while praising White supremacists as “very fine people” in the summer of 2017.

Through it all, whenever someone pointed out the obvious, Trump responded with variations on a familiar refrain: “No, no. I’m not a racist. I’m the least racist person that you have ever interviewed,” that “you’ve ever met,” that “you’ve ever encountered.” Trump’s behavior may be exceptional, but his denials are normal. When racist ideas resound, denials that those ideas are racist typically follow.

When racist policies resound, denials that those policies are racist also follow.

Denial is the heartbeat of racism, beating across ideologies, races, and nations. It is beating within us. Many of us who strongly call out Trump’s racist ideas will strongly deny our own. How often do we become reflexively defensive when someone calls something we’ve done or said racist? How many of us would agree with this statement: “‘Racist’ isn’t a descriptive word. It’s a pejorative word. It is the equivalent of saying, ‘I don’t like you.’” These are actually the words of White supremacist Richard Spencer, who, like Trump, identifies as “not racist.” How many of us who despise the Trumps and White supremacists of the world share their self-definition of “not racist”?

What’s the problem with being “not racist”? It is a claim that signifies neutrality: “I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.” But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “antiracist.” What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a 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 in-between safe space of “not racist.” The claim of “not racist” neutrality is a mask for racism. This may seem harsh, but it’s important at the outset that we apply one of the core principles of antiracism, which is to return the word “racist” itself back to its proper usage. “Racist” is not—as Richard Spencer argues—a pejorative. It is not the worst word in the English language; it is not the equivalent of a slur. It is descriptive, and the only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it—and then dismantle it. The attempt to turn this usefully descriptive term into an almost unusable slur is, of course, designed to do the opposite: to freeze us into inaction.

The common idea of claiming “color blindness” is akin to the notion of being “not racist”—as with the “not racist,” the color-blind individual, by ostensibly failing to see race, fails to see racism and falls into racist passivity. The language of color blindness—like the language of “not racist”—is a mask to hide racism. “Our Constitution is color-blind,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Harlan proclaimed in his dissent to Plessy v. Ferguson, the case that legalized Jim Crow segregation in 1896. “The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country,” Justice Harlan went on. “I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great heritage.” A color-blind Constitution for a White-supremacist America.

The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what—not who—we are.

I used to be racist most of the time. I am changing. I am no longer identifying with racists by claiming to be “not racist.” I am no longer speaking through the mask of racial neutrality. I am no longer manipulated by racist ideas to see racial groups as problems. I no longer believe a Black person cannot be racist. I am no longer policing my every action around an imagined White or Black judge, trying to convince White people of my equal humanity, trying to convince Black people I am representing the race well. I no longer care about how the actions of other Black individuals reflect on me, since none of us are race representatives, nor is any individual responsible for someone else’s racist ideas. And I’ve come to see that the movement from racist to antiracist is always ongoing—it requires understanding and snubbing racism based on biology, ethnicity, body, culture, behavior, color, space, and class. And beyond that, it means standing ready to fight at racism’s intersections with other bigotries.

This book is ultimately about the basic struggle we’re all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human. I share my own journey of being raised in the dueling racial consciousness of the Reagan-era Black middle class, then right-turning onto the ten-lane highway of anti-Black racism—a highway mysteriously free of police and free on gas—and veering off onto the two-lane highway of anti-White racism, where gas is rare and police are everywhere, before finding and turning down the unlit dirt road of antiracism.

After taking this grueling journey to the dirt road of antiracism, humanity can come upon the clearing of a potential future: an antiracist world in all its imperfect beauty. It can become real if we focus on power instead of people, if we focus on changing policy instead of groups of people. It’s possible if we overcome our cynicism about the permanence of racism.

We know how to be racist. We know how to pretend to be not racist. Now let’s know how to be antiracist.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ One World; First Edition (August 13, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525509283
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525509288
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.93 x 1.21 x 8.43 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #44,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Books)
- #20 in Discrimination & Racism
- #102 in Sociology Reference

Customer Reviews:
28,659 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ibram X. Kendi

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of many highly acclaimed books including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award. He has also authored five #1 New York Times bestsellers, including How to Be an Antiracist, Antiracist Baby, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, co-authored by Jason Reynolds. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.

Customer reviews

28,659 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Review this product

Write a customer review

Customers say

Customers find the book exceptionally enlightening, with one noting how it expertly teaches complex concepts. Moreover, they appreciate its readability, considering it a foundational read that's worth re-reading sections, and its writing style that combines personal narrative with historical background. Additionally, the book receives positive feedback for its honest, deeply personal approach to discussing racism and antiracism, and its short chapter structure. Customers also value its timeliness and historical content, with one review highlighting how it connects American and African-American history.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

Thought provoking Readability Writing quality Racism Historical content Honesty Timing Chapter length

429 customers mention "Thought provoking"377 positive52 negative

Customers find the book exceptionally enlightening and loaded with insights, praising its thorough topical narrative.

"...That includes the format of mixing personal narrative with propositional statements. And the overall content. Why did I like it?..." Read more

"...What a masterful, even magisterial, piece of work...." Read more

"...This book reveals the problem and proposes the cause not just the symptoms. The problem is multi facted and has festered for centuries...." Read more

"...Simply put, this book is one of the most effective, thought provoking reads that I have dug into...." Read more

349 customers mention "Readability"332 positive17 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a wonderful foundational text that is worth reading sections multiple times.

"...And the overall content. Why did I like it? 1) Kendi has a clear definition of antiracism that makes sense to me...." Read more

"...Jury is still out on that one. This is definitely worth the time to read but it will not be easy...." Read more

"...Simply put, this book is one of the most effective, thought provoking reads that I have dug into...." Read more

"Loved everything about the book." Read more

198 customers mention "Writing quality"158 positive40 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, finding it easy to read while being thought-provoking, with one customer noting how it brings in autobiographical views and another highlighting its clear framework.

"This book was written at a very important moment in history...." Read more

"...are presented in HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST in a more personal, memoir like format in which Kendi takes the reader through his own struggle to divest..." Read more

"...One of the things that impress, and is helpful in discussion and debate are clear definitions...." Read more

"...However, this one was different. This one begins with vocabulary and making sure you understand the background knowledge prior to getting into it...." Read more

187 customers mention "Racism"163 positive24 negative

Customers appreciate the book's approach to racism, noting its critical theory on race and how it documents an evolutionary model of antiracism.

"...Kendi points everyone in the same action direction: change racist policies!..." Read more

"...book is not centered around these ideas, it is a genuinely important book on racism and antiracism. Pick up a copy today!" Read more

"...Kendi does a thorough job of breaking down racism historically as well as how racism reveals itself in many different areas...." Read more

"...But, I feel, it straddles the line of being politically neutral while also being pointed in its criticisms of voter suppression, racial inequality,..." Read more

78 customers mention "Historical content"61 positive17 negative

Customers appreciate the historical content of the book, which weaves together personal narrative and background in black history, providing much-needed information.

"...Stamped from the beginning is more academic, much longer, and more historical...." Read more

"...To add to this I include the rich history of African people before modern racism infected the world...." Read more

"...The book has its strength: There is interesting history here such as the origin of the concept of inferior and superior races only emerging 600..." Read more

"...The problem is multi facted and has festered for centuries...." Read more

27 customers mention "Honesty"27 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's honesty, describing it as deeply personal and candid, with one customer noting the author's ability to model humility.

"...The end of the book is the most personal. Kendi recounts how soon after they were married, his wife developed breast cancer...." Read more

"...In many ways it gives visibility into the experiences of people who are confronted by institutional racism...." Read more

"...He admits to his own racism and his realization of such. Honest, educational, and candid. Thank you, Kendi." Read more

"...Most importantly, Dr. Kendi is so honest in his thoughts and growth as he fights to understand racism and how to rid our society of this ugly plague..." Read more

15 customers mention "Timing"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book timely, with one mentioning its immediate applicability.

"...I listened to a chapter on a daily walk, perfect timing. I will listen to this book over and over again...." Read more

"I feel more enlightened, more ready, and more able to participate in the work of healing the wounds of racism in the country I love...." Read more

"This was a quick and important read. I think all educators and really everyone in the US should read it...." Read more

"Timely book! Very readable and useful to people who need to know more about they can be allies in the BLM movement...." Read more

11 customers mention "Chapter length"11 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the chapter length of the book, with several noting its short format, and one customer highlighting the 40 pages of notes at the end.

"...How to be an Antiracist is much shorter, more personal and, in a helpful way, not academic...." Read more

"...but the content of the chapters is clear and educational...." Read more

"...The book was very readable. The chapters are short and well-focused. The ideas build on each other and are woven throughout the chapters...." Read more

"...Each chapter is short enough to engage even bleary over-worked student brains, and each can stand alone for a modular lesson or discussion, while..." Read more

Reviews with images

See all photos

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

Ken Christiansen
Antiracism requires all of us from whatever background to work together to change racist policies.
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2020
Verified Purchase

I just finished reading Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist. I really liked the book. That includes the format of mixing personal narrative with propositional statements. And the overall content. Why did I like it?

1) Kendi has a clear definition of antiracism that makes sense to me. He identifies antiracism as working to change racist policies. Racist policies in government. Racist policies in corporations. Racist policies anywhere. He sees racist ideas as following racist policies rather than leading racist policies. This doesn’t rule out learning as much as you can about racist ideas – Kendi’s major work Stamped From The Beginning was a thorough history of just that. But where do racist ideas come from? He finds that source in the self-interest of policy makers including both persons who directly make laws and persons with economic power to protect who influence them.

2) Kendi acknowledges racist ideas and actions in the black community throughout the book. This includes his own disparaging of blacks in his prize-winning high school Martin Luther King Day speech; E. Franklin Frazier’s sociological writings which dominated sociological thought about race from the early 1930s through the mid 1960s; the misguided widespread support in the black community for the War On Drugs which eventually included the 26 out of 38 members of the Black Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives voting for the 1994 anti-crime legislation that led to mass incarceration; and many other examples. Kendi explicitly refutes the argument that black people can’t be racist because black people don’t have any power.

3) Kendi affirms everyone’s basic humanity. This is where the question of assimilation gets a little sticky. Many advocates of assimilation see those whom they want to assimilate as inferior. This was very true of Oscar Romero’s1966 book, The Culture Of Poverty, and only slightly less true of the monumental 1944 Carnegie Foundation study by Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s 1965 Johnson Administration report, The Negro Family: The Case For National Action, drew heavily from E. Franklin Frazier’s 1955 book, Black Bourgeoise, to make the case that fixing the Negro family should be a top governmental priority – all the government needed do for black America.

4) Kendi points everyone in the same action direction: change racist policies! He doesn’t talk about “white supremacy culture” as in Critical Race Theory. He doesn’t say “white should fix it” as I understand Critical Race Theory to say. His message to blacks, to whites, to everyone is that we need to identify specific racist policies and then work hard and work together to get them changed.

5) Kendi’s message contrasts directly with the penchant in many contemporary anti-racism training programs to look for racism only in the white psyche.

The personal narratives included in the book make the entire message come alive. I can't recommend it more highly.

Read more

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report
Adam Shields
A personal, memoir informed, look at the difference between being ’not racist’ and an antiracist.
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2019
Verified Purchase
I picked up How to Be an Antiracist almost immediately after I finished <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stamped-Beginning-Definitive-History-America-ebook/dp/B017QL8WV4/">Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America</a>. They are very different in approach. Stamped from the beginning is more academic, much longer, and more historical. How to be an Antiracist is much shorter, more personal and, in a helpful way, not academic.

Despite it being shorter and less academic, I think this is a book I am going to need to read again, while I doubt I will re-read Stamped from the Beginning. How to be an Antiracist is making subtle changes to the recent Critical Race Theory informed definitions of racism. And while I think I mostly agree with Kendi’s critiques, I also think I need to both re-read this book to be sure I understand what he is doing, and read some others responding to him to make sure I am not missing some of the implications of his critiques.

At the most basic, Kendi is rejecting the prejudice plus power definition of racism. At the same time, he is rejecting racist as a descriptor of a person. He wants racist to be the descriptor of the idea or action. “A racist idea is any idea that suggests one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way.” Similarly, “A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups.” In another place, "What is racism? Racism is a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities…Racial inequity is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing."

Kendi uses the metaphor of racism not as an identity (or tattoo), you either are or are not racist, but a sticky name tag that you put on and take off. He is unequivocal that anyone can express racist ideas or perform racist actions. And he is not at all rejecting the concept of racism as a systemic reality. He does not like the term systemic racism (because it is too vague). He wants to concentrate on ‘racist policies.’
<blockquote>A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.</blockquote>
There will, I think, be several White people that are opposed to the Critical Race Theory line of thinking about racism that wants to embrace a part of Kendi’s point. They will like that anyone can express racist ideas or actions. But will not understand Kendi’s more significant point that the movement to antiracism is rooted in the empowerment of Black and other minorities. Kendi’s position is not that Blacks can be racist against Whites, but that Blacks can be racist against other Black people. Kendi is not empowering the idea of ‘reverse racism’ but expanding racism to included Black people being racist against other Black people or other minorities.

Throughout How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi talks about three approaches. In general, people are or have been, segregationists, assimilationists, or antiracists. Segregationists want to maintain separate racial hierarchies. Assimilationists wish to break down legal segregation, but also do not go far enough in breaking down the internal understanding of racial superiority. Assimilationists want acceptance and often are willing to have either partial approval or behavior-based acceptance of some, as opposed to all. In Kendi’s approach, segregationists and assimilationists are both forms of racism. It is only antiracists that are focused not just on legal segregation and discrimination, but also on internal feelings of superiority or inferiority that move society beyond racism.

Antiracism, like feminism in its ideals, is not about reversing the patriarchy or racial hierarchy, but about equality. To be antiracist in Kendi’s ideal means to not only be opposed to racism and for racial equality, but also to be against division based on, "gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, skin color, nationality, and culture, among a series of other identifiers.” To be antiracist means that you are also an antisexist, against religious discrimination, against xenophobia, etc.

Kendi is also not interested in suasion.
<blockquote>The original problem of racism has not been solved by suasion. Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist.</blockquote>
When I say this book is personal, I mean that. Kendi uses his own life primarily as an example of moving from racism to antiracism. He talks about how he, at one point, had adopted the racist ideas against other Black people that were common at the time and won a speech competition by reciting them. He talks about anger and hatred against White people for both the historical harm and the continued indifference to racism. He talks about his own internalized sexism and homophobia. In each of these areas and more, he came to realized that a sense of superiority or alienation, no matter how large or small, perpetuates differences and violates the antiracist ideal.

The end of the book is the most personal. Kendi recounts how soon after they were married, his wife developed breast cancer. Together they walked through that cancer and instead of being newlyweds and she starting her medical career after 12 years of preparation to become a doctor, she became a cancer patient. And then not long after his wife was cancer-free, he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

Cancer becomes the metaphor for racism at the end. Racism has embedded itself in our society. It is spreading and distorting culture and if it is not rooted out, not just in the racial aspects, but the sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc., it will continue to metastasize and transform. According to an interview on NPR I heard last week, his cancer is in remission for now, but he has a very high likelihood of reoccurrence, and he is not fooling around because he is not sure how long he will be alive to oppose racism.

Read more

91 people found this helpful

Helpful

Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Beukema D.
super rapide
Reviewed in France on May 28, 2023
Verified Purchase

Super

Read more
Report
M. Pereira
Leitura obrigatória!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
Como muita gente por aí, li esse livro depois de ver diversas recomendações nas mídias sociais durante os protestos que ocorreram esse ano. Antes de pegar ele, eu me achava informada até. Descobri que não sou nem um pouco. Dificuldades "básicas" que os negros sofrem desde a nascença são coisas que nunca pensei sobre e nem ouvi ninguém falando sobre, a minha vida inteira. E que erro imenso é esse que estamos cometendo como sociedade!
Entendo hoje que não sei nada mesmo, e que por ser uma mulher cis branca, conto com privilégios que eu nem sabia serem privilégios - como saber de onde a minha família vêm no mundo. O mínimo que posso fazer é me educar.

Read more
Report
Translate review to English
Chloe
An eye-opening read for all
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book was so successful because it tackled every subject relating to racism that you might think of, from both sides, and then Kendi supported his ultimate arguments with real statistics and quotations with linked sources for each one. There is truly no room for argument when you're presented with straight facts like this.

The tone of the writing is quite matter-of-fact, a well constructed piece that can come across like an essay, but it's deeply personal, and Kendi talks about his own life experiences as a basis for every point he makes. That made it a lot easier and more enjoyable to read than if he were only writing down facts and nothing to make it personal.

I recommend this to everybody, of all races, who believe that just not being racist is enough. It's not, and you're probably not entirely not racist. It's okay to accept that so that you can work on changing all of your racist ideas and behaviours that you might not even be aware of. It's time for us all to wake up and be antiracist.

Read more
Report
Devin Hogg
An excellent book and very timely!
Reviewed in Canada on June 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
I highly recommend giving this book a read. The author shares his own journey into antiracism and in so doing holds up a mirror to all of us to choose again and again the antiracist in us. The book is filled with definitions and stories which bring clarity and help toward understanding and several chapters are devoted towards the importance of intersectionality. Everybody should give this book a read, especially in light of recent times. Everybody will benefit from doing so.

Read more
Report
Mamadou Bobo Diallo
Sehr gutes Buch
Reviewed in Germany on October 7, 2020
Verified Purchase
Das ist eins der besten Bücher über Rassismus.

Read more
Report
Translate review to English

See more reviews

Amazon Prime includes:

Follow the author

How to Be an Antiracist Hardcover – August 13, 2019

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

More items to explore

From the Publisher

Books by Ibram X. Kendi

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Product details

Videos

Videos for this product

Videos for this product

Videos for this product

About the author

Ibram X. Kendi

Customer reviews

Review this product

Customers say

Select to learn more

Images in this review

Reviews with images

A Must Read—Powerful Book for Today!!!

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

5.0 out of 5 stars Antiracism requires all of us from whatever background to work together to change racist policies.

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal, memoir informed, look at the difference between being ’not racist’ and an antiracist.

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars super rapide

5.0 out of 5 stars Leitura obrigatória!

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening read for all

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book and very timely!

5.0 out of 5 stars Sehr gutes Buch

Antiracism requires all of us from whatever background to work together to change racist policies.

A personal, memoir informed, look at the difference between being ’not racist’ and an antiracist.

super rapide

Leitura obrigatória!

An eye-opening read for all

An excellent book and very timely!

Sehr gutes Buch