This month was so full of amazing things happening in real life, I only managed to finish one book even though I’m currently reading three others. Here’s to catching up in April!
#9: How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Part of the reason that I didn’t read many books this month is because I really wanted to sit with this one. I’m still digesting so many of the ideas posed and stories told within this book. This is not a book for beginners to understanding racial systems in America, especially for white people beginning to understand their own part within that racial system. If you have received DEI training in the past or have read several “primer” texts on the subject, I think this book was excellent at taking this topic to the next level. If you’re looking for an intro-level book, I would recommend So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, which I read last year.
One quote I’ll leave from Kendi: “Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism 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.”