Ibram X. Kendi

The National Book Award winner on “the R word,” the end of capitalism and his new book, How to Be an Antiracist

- Lily Rothman

Your new book combines theory and memoir. Why did you decide to weave in your own story?

I did not want to use personal narrative; I’m a very private person. But I was trying to think of a way to convey the journey one has to embark on to be antiracist, and eventually I relented.

The journey included your own moments of racism as well as seeing it in influential figures from black history. How do you reconcile that with your admiration for them?

Some of these leaders started out their activist careers thinking like many other people did, thinking part of the problem was with black people. The more they engaged in the problem, the more they realized there was in fact nothing wrong with black people and everything wrong with racist policy and power. Seeing those stories— somebody like W.E.B. Du Bois, who grew over the course of his life—is actually what inspires me the most.

You make the point that racist is a crucial descriptive word, not a slur, but many people see it as an insult. Is it possible to reclaim the word?