Ibram X Kendi’s new book “How to be a (Young) Antiracist” co-authored with Nic Stone, published January 2023, is based on Kendi’s original “How to be an Antiracist” bestseller but is specifically aimed at teenagers and young people. Kendi draws on his own experience at high school and college, recognising that at that age we start to internalise ideas, including racist and anti-racist ideas as we form our sense of selves.
In an interview in Time Magazine with Janell Ross, Kendi explains: “ideas that are suggesting to us that our racial group is either better or worse than another racial group... or antiracist ideas that are saying there’s nothing wrong or right, better or worse about any group because of the color of their skin. And even our cultures are equals despite differences, despite different skin colors and hair textures.... [for] young people who are really gaining a more sophisticated understanding of the world, these are the types of conversations that they’re having with themselves.”
The book also focusses on definitions and explores in particular the idea that if we think about “racist” or “antiracist” as adjectives rather than nouns it is easier to account for the complexities surrounding questions of race.
In the same interview, Kendi says “racist or antiracist is not who you are, but what you’re saying in any given moment... We were trying to get young people to think less about who they essentially are, and [more about] what they’re saying and what they’re doing. I think even if older people thought that way, we’d be much more attuned to what we’re saying and doing.”