The difference between ‘not racist’ and ‘anti-racist’

Ibram X Kendi has been revolutionising African American academic studies for several years, with his deep dives into the history and root causes of racism in the United States.

Kendi argues there is no room for people to deny their racism.

Instead, Americans in the 21st century should look into their hearts and confess their bigotry and prejudice, and then consciously work to be “anti-racist”, he says.

Two of his earlier books, How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning, shot back up into the New York Times’s best-seller recently, after protests swept across the nation demanding racial equality and justice.

Kendi published a children’s book, The Antiracist Baby, on June 16 because, he says: “If we’re not deliberately raising them [children] to be anti-racist, then society is raising them to be racist.”

On June 4, Kendi was appointed to build a new academic foundation in Boston University, the Center for Anti-racist Research.

Join The Bottom Line’s Steve Clemons for a wide-ranging interview with one of the leading scholars on race in the US.