How to Be an Antiracist (30 page)
Read How to Be an Antiracist Online
Authors: Ibram X. Kendi
Skin-lightening products received a boost
:
Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps,
Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America
(New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2002), 44–47.
Some Dark people took too much pride in Darkness
:
For example, see George Napper,
Blacker Than Thou: The Struggle for Campus Unity
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973).
Light children were adopted first
:
Russell-Cole, Wilson, and Hall,
The Color Complex
, 37–39, 51–53, 90–91; Byrd and Tharps,
Hair Story,
112.
“The lighter the skin, the lighter the sentence”
:
Russell-Cole, Wilson, and Hall,
The Color Complex,
38.
Imus compared Rutgers’s Dark basketball players
:
“Networks Condemn Remarks by Imus,”
The New York Times,
April 7, 2007.
casting call for the movie
Straight Outta Compton
:
“The ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Casting Call Is So Offensive It Will Make Your Jaw Drop,”
Huffington Post,
July 17, 2014, available at
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/straight-out-of-compton-casting-call_n_5597010.html
.
Skin-bleaching products were raking in millions
:
“Lighter Shades of Skin,”
The Economist,
September 28, 2012, available at
www.economist.com/baobab/2012/09/28/lighter-shades-of-skin.
In India, “fairness” creams topped $200 million
:
“Telling India’s Modern Women They Have Power, Even Over Their Skin Tone,”
The New York Times,
May 30, 2007.
70 percent of women in Nigeria; 35 percent in South Africa; 59 percent in Togo; and 40 percent in China, Malaysia, the Philippines,
: and South Korea:
See “Mercury in Skin Lightening Products,” News Ghana, June 13, 2012, available at
www.newsghana.com.gh/mercury-in-skin-lightening-products/
.
the United States elected the “orange man”
:
See “NeNe Leakes Once Liked Donald Trump but Not ‘This Orange Man Talking on TV,’ ”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
September 7, 2016.
tanning bed every morning
:
“Omarosa Manigault Newman Says Trump Uses a Tanning Bed in the White House Every Morning,”
People,
August 14, 2018, available at
people.com/politics/omarosa-trump-daily-routine-tanning-bed-diet-coke-unhinged/
.
Surveys show that people consider tanned skin…more attractive
:
Cynthia M. Frisby, “ ‘Shades of Beauty’: Examining the Relationship of Skin Color to Perceptions of Physical Attractiveness,”
Facial Plastic Surgery
22:3 (August 2006), 175–79.
Jeb Bush’s termination of affirmative-action programs
:
“Jeb Bush Roils Florida on Affirmative Action,”
The New York Times,
February 4, 2000, available at
www.nytimes.com/2000/02/04/us/jeb-bush-roils-florida-on-affirmative-action.html
.
Al Gore’s winning face flash on the screen
:
“The 2000 Elections: The Media; A Flawed Call Adds to High Drama,”
The New York Times,
November 8, 2000, available at
www.nytimes.com/2000/11/08/us/the-2000-elections-the-media-a-flawed-call-adds-to-high-drama.html
.
a narrow lead in Florida of 1,784 votes
:
“Examining the Vote; How Bush Took Florida: Mining the Overseas Absentee Vote,”
The New York Times,
July 15, 2001, available at
www.nytimes.com/2001/07/15/us/examining-the-vote-how-bush-took-florida-mining-the-overseas-absentee-vote.html
.
stories of FAMU students and their families back home not being able to vote
:
For example, see “FAMU Students Protest Election Day Mishaps in Florida,”
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education,
December 7, 2000, available at
diverseeducation.com/article/1034/
; and “Florida A&M Students Describe Republican Attack on Voting Rights,”
World Socialist Web Site,
December 6, 2000, available at
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/12/flor-d06.html
.
11 percent of registered voters but comprised 44 percent of the purge list
:
Ari Berman, “How the 2000 Election in Florida Led to a New Wave of Voter Disenfranchisement,”
The Nation,
July 28, 2015, available at
www.thenation.com/article/how-the-2000-election-in-florida-led-to-a-new-wave-of-voter-disenfranchisement/
.
Palm Beach County
:
Henry E. Brady et al., “Law and Data: The Butterfly Ballot Episode,” in
The Longest Night: Polemics and Perspectives on Election 2000,
eds. Arthur J. Jacobson and Michel Rosenfeld (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002), 51.
Florida’s highest percentage of Black voters and the highest spoilage rate
:
“1 Million Black Votes Didn’t Count in the 2000 Presidential Election,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
June 20, 2004, available at
www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/1-million-black-votes-didn-t-count-in-the-2000-2747895.php
.
a
New York Times
statistical analysis
:
“Examining the Vote: The Patterns; Ballots Cast by Blacks and Older Voters Were Tossed in Far Greater Numbers,”
The New York Times,
November 12, 2001.
Ted Cruz served on Bush’s legal team
:
Ari Berman,
Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015), 210.
a silent march of two thousand students
:
See “FAMU Students Protest Election Day Mishaps in Florida” and “Florida A&M Students Describe Republican Attack on Voting Rights.”
Message to the Blackman in America
:
Elijah Muhammad,
Message to the Blackman in America
(Chicago: Muhammad Temple No. 2, 1965).
According to the theology he espoused
:
For this story, I used the even clearer theology that Malcolm X espoused in his autobiography, as taught to him by Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X and Alex Haley,
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
(New York: Random House, 2015), 190–94.
“our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy”
:
“Gore: ‘It Is Time for Me to Go,’ ”
The Guardian,
December 14, 2000, available at
www.theguardian.com/world/2000/dec/14/uselections2000.usa14
.
“The white man is the devil”
:
Malcolm X and Haley,
The Autobiography of Malcolm X,
184–85.
The Hate That Hate Produced
:
See “The Hate That Hate Produced (1959): Malcom X First TV Appearance,” available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYWD2EqavQ
.
“Never have I witnessed such”
:
Malcolm X, “Letters from Abroad,” in
Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements,
ed. George Breitman (New York: Grove Press, 1990), 59.
“You may be shocked by these words”
:
Ibid., 61.
“I totally reject Elijah Muhammad’s racist philosophy”
:
M. S. Handler, “Malcolm Rejects Racist Doctrine,”
The
New York Times,
October 4, 1964.
as the resistance within White nations shows
:
See, for example, Sarah Jaffee,
Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt
(New York: Nation Books, 2016).
identified anti-White discrimination as a serious problem
:
“Majority of White Americans Say They Believe Whites Face Discrimination,” NPR, October 24, 2017, available at
www.npr.org/2017/10/24/559604836/majority-of-white-americans-think-theyre-discriminated-against
.
President Andrew Johnson reframed this antiracist bill
:
Andrew Johnson, “Veto of the Civil Rights Bill,” March 27, 1866, in Teaching American History, available at
teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/veto-of-the-civil-rights-bill/
.
“hard-core racists of reverse discrimination”
:
Robert Bork, “The Unpersuasive Bakke Decision,”
The Wall Street Journal,
July 21, 1978.
Alicia Garza typed “Black Lives Matter” on Facebook
:
“Meet the Woman Who Coined #BlackLivesMatter,”
USA Today,
March 4, 2015, available at
www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/03/04/alicia-garza-black-lives-matter/24341593/
.
Giuliani called the movement “inherently racist”
:
“Rudy Giuliani: Black Lives Matter ‘Inherently Racist,’ ” CNN, July 11, 2016, available at
edition.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/rudy-giuliani-black-lives-matter-inherently-racist/index.html
.
these ground troops shelling out racist abuse
:
“Living While Black,” CNN, December 28, 2018, available at
www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/us/living-while-black-police-calls-trnd/index.html
.
bold black letters against a yellow background
:
“Where Does That Billboard Phrase, ‘Anti-Racist Is a Code Word for Anti-White,’ Come From? It’s Not New,”
The Birmingham News,
June 30, 2014, available at
www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2014/06/where_does_that_billboard_phra.html
.
Robert Whitaker, who ran for vice president
:
“Following the White Rabbit: Tim Murdock Sits Atop an Online Cult, Spreading Fears of ‘White Genocide’ That Have Fueled Violence and Terrorism,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 21, 2013, available at
www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2013/following-white-rabbit
.
43 percent of the people who gained lifesaving health insurance
:
“Who Gained Health Insurance Coverage Under the ACA, and Where Do They Live,” Urban Institute, December 2016, available at
www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/86761/2001041-who-gained-health-insurance-coverage-under-the-aca-and-where-do-they-live.pdf
.
destroyed the lives of more than forty million White people
:
“Research Starters: Worldwide Deaths in World War II,” The National WWII Museum, available at
www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war
.
more than five hundred thousand White American lives lost
:
“The Cost of War: Killer, Wounded, Captured, and Missing,” American Battlefield Trust, available at
www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties
.
a nuclear ideology that poses an existential threat to human existence
:
Ibram X. Kendi, “A House Still Divided,”
The Atlantic,
October 2018.
Diop’s two-cradle theory
:
Cheikh Anta Diop,
The Cultural Unity of Negro Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity
(Chicago: Third World Press, 1978).
Bradley’s version of the same
:
Michael Bradley,
The Iceman Inheritance: Prehistoric Sources of Western Man’s Racism, Sexism and Aggression
(New York: Warner Books, 1978).
The Isis Papers
:
Frances Cress Welsing,
The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors
(Chicago: Third World Press, 1991).
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
:
Lothrop Stoddard,
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1921).
Chris Rock in his 1996 HBO special
:
See “Chris Rock—Bring the Pain,” HBO, June 1, 1996, available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=coC4t7nCGPs [inactive].
“the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man”
:
Alexander H. Stephens, “Cornerstone Address, March 21, 1861,” in
The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, etc.,
Volume 1, ed. Frank Moore (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1862), 44–46.
53 percent of Black people were surveyed
:
“Fewer Blacks in U.S. See Bias in Jobs, Income, and Housing,” Gallup, July 19, 2013, available at
news.gallup.com/poll/163580/fewer-blacks-bias-jobs-income-housing.aspx
.
59 percent of Black people expressed
:
“The Partisan Divide on Political Values Grows Even Wider: 4. Race, Immigration and Discrimination,” Pew Research Center, October 5, 2017, available at
www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/4-race-immigration-and-discrimination/
.
racist Whites dismissing antiracist policies and ideas as racist
:
It is most obvious through the attack on Black Power activists. See “Humphrey Backs N.A.A.C.P. in Fight on Black Racism,”
The New York Times,
July 7, 1966.
“Black people can’t be racist”
:
Here is a typical argument: “Black People Cannot Be Racist, and Here’s Why,”
The University Star,
February 15, 2016, available at
star.txstate.edu/2016/02/black-people-cannot-be-racist-and-heres-why/
.
154 African Americans
:
Ida A. Brudnick and Jennifer E. Manning, “African American Members of the United States Congress: 1870–2018,” Congressional Research Service, updated December 28, 2018, available at
www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/617f17bb-61e9-40bb-b301-50f48fd239fc.pdf
.
more than seven hundred Black judges on state courts
:
“National Database on Judicial Diversity in State Courts,” American Bar Association, available at
apps.americanbar.org/abanet/jd/display/national.cfm
.
more than two hundred Black judges on federal courts
:
“African American Judges on the Federal Courts,” Federal Judicial Center, available at
www.fjc.gov/history/judges/search/african-american
.
more than fifty-seven thousand Black police officers
:
“The New Racial Makeup of U.S. Police Departments,
Newsweek,
May 14, 2015, available at
www.newsweek.com/racial-makeup-police-departments-331130
.
three thousand Black police chiefs, assistant chiefs, and commanders
:
“Blacks in Blue: African-American Cops React to Violence Towards and from Police,” NBC News, July 11, 2016, available at
www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/blacks-blue-african-american-cops-react-violence-towards-police-n607141
.
more than forty thousand full-time Black faculty
:
“Table 315.20. Full-time Faculty in Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions, by Race/Ethnics, Sex, and Academic Rank: Fall 2013, Fall 2015, and Fall 2016,” Digest of Education Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics, available at
nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_315.20.asp
.
eleven Black billionaires and the 380,000 Black millionaire families
:
“The Black Billionaires 2018,”
Forbes,
March 7, 2018, available at
www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2018/03/07/the-black-billionaires-2018/#19dd12935234
; and “Black Millionaires Hardly Exist in America,”
Newsmax,
October 4, 2017, available at
www.newsmax.com/antoniomoore/black-millionaires-wealth-wealth-disparity/2017/10/04/id/817622/
.
sixteen Black CEOs
:
“The Number of Black CEOs at Fortune 500 Companies Is at Its Lowest Since 2002,”
Fortune,
February 28, 2018, available at
fortune.com/2018/02/28/black-history-month-black-ceos-fortune-500/
.
“When you control a man’s thinking”
:
Carter G. Woodson,
The Miseducation of the Negro
(Mineola, NY: Dover, 2005), 55.
Blackwell directed county boards
:
“GOPer Behind Ohio’s Botched 2004 Election Eyes Senate Run,”
Mother Jones,
April 21, 2011, available at
www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/ken-blackwell-ohio-brown-senate/
.
174,000 potential votes walked away
:
“Was the 2004 Election Stolen?”,
Common Dreams,
June 1, 2006, available at
www.commondreams.org/views06/0601-34.htm
.
“Blackwell made Katherine Harris look like a cupcake”
:
Ibid.
Trump officials had not forgotten Blackwell’s state-of-the-art racist work
:
Ken Blackwell, “Time to Clean Up Our Elections,” CNS News, July 17, 2017, available at
www.cnsnews.com/commentary/ken-blackwell/time-clean-our-elections
.
“Negroes…leade a beastly kind of life”
:
Leo Africanus, trans. John Pory, and ed. Robert Brown,
The History and Description of Africa,
3 volumes (London: Hakluyt Society, 1896), 130, 187–90.
“but an act of Justice” Sambo says
:
Richard Ligon,
A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes
(Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 2011), 105–6.
authored the first known slave narrative
:
James Albert,
A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince
(Leeds: Stanhope Press, 1811), 11, 12, 16, 25.
“to those waiting men who receive presents of old coats”
:
For this quote and other details on the rebellion, see David M. Robertson
, Denmark Vesey: The Buried Story of America’s Largest Slave Rebellion and the Man Who Led It
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), 70.
By 1840, he’d acquired seven slaves of his own
:
Ibid., 123.
“next to Mr. Booker T. Washington, the best American authority”
:
“The Negro Arraigned,”
The New York Times,
February 23, 1901. Also, for an excellent analysis of how William Hannibal Thomas fits in with discussions of Blackness at this time, see Khalil Gibran Muhammad,
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).
“intrinsically inferior type of humanity”
:
William Hannibal Thomas,
The American Negro: What He Was, What He Is, and What He May Become
(New York: Negro Universities Press, 1901), 129, 134, 195.
Thomas’s “list of negative qualities of Negroes seemed limitless”
:
John David Smith,
Black Judas: William Hannibal Thomas and the American Negro
(Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 161–64, 177–78, 185–89.
But this “saving remnant” was set “apart from their white fellow-men”
:
Thomas,
The American Negro,
xxiii, 69, 410.
“national assimilation”
:
Ibid., 397–432.
stamped William Hannibal Thomas as the “Black Judas”
:
See Smith,
Black Judas
.
Black officers were as abusive
:
James Forman Jr.,
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017), 107–8.
survey of nearly eight thousand sworn officers
:
“Black and White Officers See Many Key Aspects of Policing Differently,” Pew Research Center, January 12, 2017, available at
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/12/black-and-white-officers-see-many-key-aspects-of-policing-differently/
.
The new crop of Black politicians, judges, police chiefs, and officers
:
Forman Jr.,
Locking Up Our Own,
147.
“Black on Black crime has reached a critical level”
:
John H. Johnson, “Publisher’s Statement,”
Ebony,
August 1979.
doubled the number of discrimination cases it dismissed
:
See Manning Marable,
Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Black America, 1945–2006
(Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), 196.
redirected billions of dollars in federal funds
:
Ibid., 206–7.