Black man wearing white sweater

Hey everyone, thanks to all who sent me heartfelt get better wishes, including any of you who sent them telepathically only. I have received your messages, and they are bolstering me through this difficult time of concussion setback recovery. It’s unfortunately going to be a two-week process of getting back to where I was before the setback. But the good news is, the first week of it is almost over, and that’s the hard week. The second week will be easier: I’ll be able to do much more and function much better!


Today I’d like to share with you the most profoundly important sentence in the book How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. People, this is huge. Huge, huge, huge . . . yuge? No, def just HUGE.

Kendi explains that, as a scholar of racism, he had to, every day for years and years and years, read about some of the most horrific moments in American and world history. He read everything he could find about race and racism. He read about slavery and its origins and how and why it persisted, and he read about what happened after it was abolished. He explains that this was emotionally difficult for him. He writes about the anguish of visiting and revisiting this history on a daily basis.

And then he explains that, throughout much this time, he believed that ignorance was the source of racism. And he believed that education was the solution to eradicating racism.

But his research, he was finally forced to admit, pointed toward a different source of racism. Here’s the bombshell sentence of the book:

“The source of racist ideas was not ignorance and hate, but self-interest.”

—Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, 2019

Self-interest. Pure and simple. Wow.

So here’s the conclusion Kendi draws, as a result of this bombshell:

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“I had to forsake . . . researching and educating for the sake of changing minds. I had to start researching and educating to change policy.”

Want to be an antiracist?

Vote.


On that note, happy Friday, all! How’s your health? Do you know when your state is holding its next election? Click on your state in the map here to find out!