On “How to Be an Antiracist”: Power and Biology

In the 2019 book, How to be an Antiracist, the author Ibram X. Kendi discusses how racism is ingrained in our society. Then he gives readers potential individual actions that can make a difference and proposes systemic changes. As a Black man in America Kendi reflects on his personal experiences with racism and understanding race. The book reveals the immense amount of racism that is a part of daily life and then informs the readers on what they can personally do to prevent and actively fight against racism. The main theme of this book is to explain that there is no such thing as being, “Not racist,” because inaction against racism or being a bystander is the same as being racist. Kendi proposes that to truly not be racist, society as a whole must be able to recognize racism and then dismantle it. This paper will highlight information and analyze two of the chapters in the book, chapter three, “Power,” and chapter four, “Biology.”

Chapter 3, Power

In chapter three titled, “Power,” Kendi gives readers insight into some of his first experiences understanding his race and the role it played in his life. He shares a story of arriving at a new school and meeting his third grade teacher. The teacher happened to be the only Black teacher in the entire school and Kendi was confused by this. He noted that on this day he, “Began to feel the encroaching fog of racism overtaking my body. It felt big, bigger than me, bigger than my parents or anything in my world and threatening” (Kendi 2019, 37). This is the first encounter of race having an effect on his situation that he noticed. It caused such a strong emotion that he never forgot it. He describes this understanding of racism as his racial puberty. Referring to the first time that he realized that it mattered.

Then he goes on to discuss his identity as a Black person and how it affects his daily life. He discussed the mirage of race that exists in our society, and how much of our beliefs and ideas are persuaded by this. Race has only one objective and it is to divide people. He describes it as being a, “Power Identity,” that has historically put White people on a pedestal and has disvalued people of color (Kendi 2019, 38). Race allows people to group and discriminate against others and gives power to oppressive groups. He explains the origins of the word, “Race,” which leads back to 1481, but wasn’t given a definition until 1606. It was defined as, “Race… means decent” (Kendi 2019, 40). The creation of race was the first act of racism. It was created by Europeans to group the entire population of Africa together, and to build negative qualities around them to instill hierarchy.

By the 18th century, LatinX, Indigenous peoples, Asian people and Middle Easterners were all given categories of their own, and stereotypes along with them. The negative stereotypes given to people or color were used to reinforce an idea of white superiority. Whiteness was given stereotypes of, “Vigorous, muscular, very smart, inventive” (Kendi 2019, 41) While people of color were given traits of, “Stern, greedy, ill-tempered, stubborn, sluggish” (Kendi 2019, 41). There was an obvious goal to demean and disvalue people of color as they were creating stereotypes of black people to assist in the slave trade. Giving less credibility or humanity to an entire group of people caused the world to perpetually disregard them.

Chapter 4, Biology

Within chapter 4, Biology, Kendi describes what it means to be biologically racist and biologically antiracist. Someone who is biologically racist is someone who believes that races are meaningfully different biologically and that it creates a hierarchy of value. Biologically antiracist people are described as expressing that the races are biologically the same and there are no genetic differences between them. He also continues sharing personal experiences that happened after he transferred to another school during third grade. He was in a very diverse class, with a White teacher. This teacher was racist and frequently gave more attention and recognition to the white students in the class. He stated that,

The sad part of this is that it is very common.

He shared a story of a Black peer of his who raised her hand fearfully and was ignored by the teacher the second a White hand was raised. He said that he could see her self-esteem plummet after this occurrence. Kendi described the teacher as not even noticing the incident. Microaggressions like this, which is the frequent verbal and nonverbal abuse that racist White people unleash on the Black community, are instilled in society because of superficial stereotypes that are placed on Black people. (Kendi 2019, 46-47). These norms that have been given to the Black community are only based on hate speech and perceptions and have no biological components.

Black people are treated as acting and reacting a certain way, but that is not the case. There are no actual biological differences between any races, yet so many people have racist stigmas that are rooted in segregationist ideas that lead them to believe that someone who is Black is different than someone who is White. There are many assumptions against Black individuals such as, “more natural physical ability, black women had naturally large buttocks” (Kendi 2019, 49). These claims of genetic differences are backed by no research and are based in racist ideas. Assigning a continent of ethnicities a single race, makes it appear that they all share the same genetic profile. It has been discovered though, that, “Ethnic groups in Western Africa are more genetically similar to ethnic groups in Western Europe than to ethnic groups in Eastern Africa” (Kendi 2019, 53). This reinforces the idea that there are no genetic biological differences that the entirety of Black people have.

Analysis

After reading chapter 3, Power, it is almost impossible for me to not feel horrible about the experiences that the author and other people within the Black community face on a daily basis. I have come to understand that race is not only a constructed idea, but it was only created to oppress and setback people of color. I am horrified to come to this understanding because the term, “Race” never even occurred to me as having any connotation, to me it was just a word to describe different groups of people who are connected by their culture. Now knowing that it was only idealized as a word to group and categorize non-White people, I have more understanding of how to not group people together, because everyone should be treated equally.

Chapter 4, Biology, was very interesting to me as well because I had to learn to rethink certain stereotypes that I unknowingly had. Society instills certain ideas in people that are almost impossible to avoid until someone is given the education that this book gave me. To think that Black people are categorized into these boxes based on stereotypes that are not even based on anything actually about them, is so sad. There is less of a chance for Black citizens to be seen as themselves because there are so many predispositions that are instilled in our society.

Personal Reaction

This book was very thought provoking and I am very glad to have been introduced to it. It is sharing information on the Black Community from a Black man’s perspective. So much of Black history is told by White voices, so I was thoroughly excited to be able to learn about Black history and the history of racism from an author like Kendi. Someone who has experienced many setbacks and racist occurrences and who can share them to reflect on racism as a whole. Overall, I now have a more active brain when looking out for and detecting racism. I was able to recognize certain racist thoughts that I unknowingly had. I am so glad that I am able to now see those things and prevent them from happening. I hope that what everyone takes away from this book is that racism is something that surrounds people of color everyday, and calling out that racism and actively working against it is the only way that we can create change.