How to Be an Antiracist Consequentialist

Nathaniel Goldberg and Chris Gavaler consider lbram X. Kendi’s requirements for being antiracist.

- Nathaniel Goldberg 

In his New York Times #1 bestseller How to Be an Antiracist (2019), Ibram X. Kendi defines a racist as anyone ‘supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea’ (p.13). He then explains that a racist policy ‘is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups’. Such inequity occurs ‘when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing’ (p.18). A racist idea, in turn, is ‘any idea that suggests one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way’ (p.20). From these definitions, it follows that there are three types of racists: (a) Racists supporting policies that produce or sustain unequal footing between racial groups; (b) Racists expressing that a racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way; and (c) Racists doing both.

Kendi has talked about these ideas to audiences around the world. He’s also been interviewed by the BBC, the major US news outlets, Al Jazeera, and elsewhere. People find his views forceful, provocative, and controversial. Most commentators concentrate on (a) and its focus on policy. However, even sympathetic listeners sometimes have trouble with the fact that, based on his definitions, someone may not intend to be or even know that they’re being racist, and yet still be racist.