Kendi How To Be An Antiracist Sparknotes

Within Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “How to be an Antiracist” he expresses a wide variety of different ways to become an antiracist, along with reasons as to why you should do these things. To make the world equal, inclusive, and overall more fair. Kendi makes the point to be an antiracist you must also stand against all other forms of bigotry, such as sexism, homophobia, classism, and all the other forms of discrimination and injustice. This analysis will exhibit why standing against all forms of bigotry is important for standing against racism by pointing out that all forms of oppression are interconnected and stem from the same belief in which they are reinforced by systemic oppression. Which ultimately prevents the world from becoming balanced

One specific form of intertwined oppression is race-sexuality and how queer racism demonstrates this idea. “These children of Black queer couples are more likely to live in poverty because their parents are more likely than Black heterosexual and White queer couples to be poor” (Kendi, 2019, p. 193). The intersection of these identities leads to multiple forms of oppression at once, which leads to the greater increase of harm and discrimination they are being faced with. These policies that target certain races that are then mutually combined together continue to strengthen each other because it is supporting the idea that certain groups, like Black or queer individuals, are not as worthy or deserving of the same opportunities or respect as other groups, like White individuals. If someone was to only fight the racist ideas in society, there would still be those who are facing homophobia, genderism, etc. which is why Kendi continually expresses that you have to fight all forms of

Kendi tells a story of two Black queer feminists he was in discourse with and how they separated the underlying issue from what is commonly conceived as the issue. “They had a problem with homophobia, not with heterosexuals. They had a problem with patriarchy, not with men” (Kendi, 2019, p.200). Kendi goes on further to build the idea that the issues within society that relate to oppression all stem from the same beliefs, which then continues to influence and inform the other systems of oppression. Throughout the entire book it is said that to change the issue you must change the policies that inflict this harm to be able to change society’s