LibGuides: Antiracism: A Resource Guide: How to Be an Antiracist

Introduction

"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."

- Ibrahm X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, Introduction

A Way Forward: How to Be an Antiracist

Admit racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people.
Identify racial inequity in all its intersections and manifestations.
Investigate and uncover the racist policies causing racial inequity.
Invent or find antiracist policy that can eliminate racial inequity.
Figure out who or what group has the power to institute antiracist policy.
Disseminate and educate about the uncovered racist policy and antiracist policy correctives.
Work with sympathetic antiracist policymakers to institute the antiracist policy.
Deploy antiracist power to compel or drive from power the unsympathetic racist policymakers in order to institute the antiracist policy.
Monitor closely to ensure the antiracist policy reduces and eliminates racial inequity.
When policies fail, do not blame the people. Start over and seek out new and more effective antiracist treatments until they work.
Monitor closely to prevent new racist policies from being instituted.

- Ibrahm X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, Chp. 18

Other Resources

Resources for Accountability and Actions for Black Lives
This is a live document compiled by Carlisa Johnson on 5/27/20.
Summary of Stages of Racial Identity Development
This document includes white identity development models, as well as models for people of color.

Book Discussion Guide

Iowa State University Syllabus for "How to Be an Antiracist"
This guide was created in Spring 2020 as part of a discussion series at Iowa State University on the book “How To Be An Antiracist.” Although the series is finished, ISU is continuing to maintain the guide. The syllabus includes additional works by the author, as well as lists of related books, articles, and films for further learning.

Books and Selected Essays by Dr. Kendi

The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972 by Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780230117808
Publication Date: 2012
This book provides the first national study of this intense and challenging struggle which disrupted and refashioned institutions in almost every state. It also illuminates the context for one of the most transformative educational movements in American history through a history of black higher education and black student activism before 1965.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi This National Book Award-winning masterwork reveals how racist ideas were created, spread, and became deeply rooted in American society. Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America--it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. As historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
Call Number: E185.61.K358 2016
ISBN: 9781568584638
Publication Date: 2016
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. This book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives. Download the free educator guide here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Stamped-Educator-Guide.pdf
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781568584638
Publication Date: 2016-04-12
Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi (Editor); Keisha N. Blain (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780593134047
Publication Date: 2021-02-02
A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present

The American Nightmare: To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction.
The Atlantic, June 1, 2020
This is What an Antiracist America Would Look Like. How Do We Get There?
The Guardian, Dec. 6, 2018
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Opposing racism is not the same as building an antiracist society. Our new series, Antiracism and America, looks at the structures that sustain a racist society - and how we dismantle them.
We know how to be racist. We know how to pretend to be not racist. Now let’s know how to be antiracist.
Q&A with Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, Sept. 30, 2019