Ibram X. Kendi “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” “We must put drug abuse on the run through stronger law enforcement,” Reagan said in the Rose Garden. It wasn’t drug abuse that was put on the run, of course,…
Ibram X. Kendi We must first take account of race As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965, “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the…
Ibram X. Kendi The common idea of claiming “color blindness” The common idea of claiming “color blindness” is akin to the notion of being “ not racist” - as with the “not racist,” the color-blind individual, by ostensibly failing to…
Ibram X. Kendi Denial is the heartbeat of racism It is hard for me to believe I finished high school in the year 2000 touting so many racist ideas. A racist culture had handed me the ammunition to shoot…
Ibram X. Kendi The cycle hardened the racist ideas inside me Like the famous question about the chicken and the egg, the answer is less important than the cycle it describes. Racist ideas make people of color think less of themselves,…
