Kendi - How to be an antiracist

Ibram Kendi's How to be an antiracist (2019) challenges numerous ideas and terms that are typical to discourse and writing on racism. After establishing the foundation for why antiracism should be the goal, he provides ideas about how we can get there and how we can change the way our society functions so that the disease of racism is eradicated. After reading his book, I dedicate myself to questioning my assumptions, changing my language, and striving to do all I can to be antiracist and to share this commitment with others.

Kendi asserted that racist ideas can be harbored by anyone, a point that I have not previously thought was possible, primarily because I related racism to exercising power over others based on race. Kendi indicated that when racist ideas are held by people of color, they think less of themselves, and when held by White people, they think more of themselves. Racist ideas also have layers that can perpetuate racist beliefs within groups or extend them to intersectional identities such as gender, sexual orientation, class, and more. Kendi asserted that the opposite of racist is not "not racist" but "antiracist." A person who claims to be "not racist" still "believes problems are rooted in groups of people" rather than the antiracist who "locates the roots of problems in power and policies" (locator 149 in Kindle version). Kendi also rejects terms such as institutional, structural or systemic racism, because the adjectives are redundant - each is simply a way racism is expressed. He challenges the idea that anyone can be race neutral or doesn't see race; the reality is too persuasive that race is seen and Kendi believes it should be transparently recognized as a dynamic that impacts all of our lives. Kendi dismisses the idea of "microaggressions," rejecting the idea that any denigration is minor by any reasonable measure.

A common thought expressed by many White and people of color from the 1950s through 1990s, and advocated by W.E.B. Du Bois as early as 1903, was that people of color needed to be uplifted through hard work, aspiration, and right conduct. As an African American youth, Kendi recognized that he bought into this idea but that he now recognizes the racist implications of seeing groups of people as needing to be fixed rather than the policies and practices that guarantee inequity. The idea of uplift is part of the narrative of temporary inferiority that justifies assimilation which is almost as bad as the permanent inferiority embraced by segregationists. Whether segregationist or assimilationist, Kendi asserts that the root problem is self-interest that drives racist power, which includes hoarding wealth and resources in ways that perpetuate an inequitable society.

Kendi spends several chapters exploring racism through lenses of biology, ethnicity, body, culture, behavior, color, class, space, gender, and sexuality, exposing the pervasive influence of racism in all these forms and in their intersections. In "Failure," Kendi indicts those who blame racists for being unaware, belligerent, and hateful by turning the spotlight on the processes of those who seek to be antiracist. He advocates that if the attempts to change minds and hearts are not working, take a critical look at what's not working and find a better way to create change. Creating this change likely includes a long-term commitment to personal and group protests that force racists to change their policies and practices.

"Antiracism is a powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to racial equity and are substantiated by antiracist ideas" (locator 308) and requires those dedicated to being antiracist to seek self-awareness, self-criticism, and self-examination. The idea that anyone, regardless of identity, is powerless "underestimates Black people and overestimates White people" (locator 2195), an idea proposed in other language by Dr. Martin Luther Kind, Jr. in 1967 when he said, "As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free" (locator 1636). Kendi comments "...but our generation ignores King's words about the 'problem of power, a confrontation between the forces of power demanding change and the forces of power dedicated to the preserving of the status quo'" (locator 3257).

Kendi continued with, "The problem of race has always been at its core the problem of power, not the problem of immorality or ignorance" (locator 3257). In order to confront power, he identifies what must be done by antiracists in order to confront and reverse racism in Chapter 17, "Success." He said that, "Racism has always been terminal and curable" (locator 3490). Confronting ignorance and hate and expecting it to shrink is like treating only the symptoms of cancer, rather than the cause. The steps Kendi advocates in order to become an antiracist include (locator 3540 to 3551):

• Stop using "I'm not racist" or "I can't be racist" as a denial.
• Admit the definition of racists - someone who supports racist policies and expresses racist ideas.
• Confess the racist policies you support and racist ideas you express.
• Accept the source of your racism.
• Acknowledge the definition of antiracist - someone who is supporting antiracist policies or expressing antiracist ideas.
• Struggle for antiracist power and policy in your spaces.
• Struggle to remain at the antiracist intersections where racism is mixed with other bigotries.
• Struggle to think antiracist ideas.

Antiracist teams should start at the local level and the national and international change will follow. The steps Kendi recommends for teams include (locator 3624 to 3635):

• Admit racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people.
• Identify racial inequity in all its intersections and manifestations.
• Investigate and uncover the racist policies causing racial inequity. Invent or find antiracist policy that can eliminate racial inequity.
• Figure out who or what group has the power to institute antiracist policy.
• Disseminate and educate about the uncovered racist policy and antiracist policy correctives.
• Work with sympathetic antiracist policymakers to institute the antiracist policy.
• Deploy antiracist power to compel or drive from power the unsympathetic racist policymakers in order to institute the antiracist policy.
• Monitor closely to ensure the antiracist policy reduces and eliminates racial inequity.
• When policies fail, do not blame the people. Start over and seek out new and more effective antiracist treatments until they work.
• Monitor closely to prevent new racist policies from being instituted.

These are the steps Kendi proposes will be effective in arresting the metastatic cancer of racism that impacts everyone. By offering recommendations for personal and collective action, Kendi helps us see a way forward toward an antiracist world where opportunity truly is equitable. While Kendi's ideas have been controversial in some circles, editorial reviews are positive with the Washington Post and Time endorsing Kendi's new take on racism and how to eliminate it as a cancer on our culture.

Fajgenbaum - Chasing my cure

“Before I got Castleman disease, I was well on my way to an education and career that promised close to supreme authority. We live in a mostly secular, individualistic age, but can you tell me there’s nothing sacred about the symbols of medicine” (locator 3060 in Kindle version)? David Fajgenbaum’s statement late in the text of Chasing my cure: A doctor's race to turn hope into action: A memoir (2019) captured the core of the challenge he faced – trusting in medical experts but realizing that they had little knowledge and fewer treatments for the life-threatening ‘orphan’ disease that had invaded his body.

Castleman disease, and the particular type Fajgenbaum had, sets off a chain reaction in the immune system that attacks vital organs, resulting in multiple system organ failure (MSOF in medical shorthand), and leads to death for all but one out of eight who are diagnosed with it (locator 1038). Fajgenbaum had five such episodes, resulting in him saying good-bye to family and loved ones and given last rights during one episode. He went from a highly physically fit quarterback on the Georgetown University football team to life support for months of recovery. Through Fajgenbaum’s journey and dedication to finding a cure for himself and others, Castelman disease now has a diagnostic classification, is understood to be at the intersection of autoimmunity and lymphoma, and has medications that can slow and, in the best cases, reverse the disease. Fajgenbaum is now engaged in research and treatment of orphan diseases at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and is an advocate for precision medicine (treatment based on “genetic makeup and specific disease characteristics,” locator 2954).

The advances in treatment of Castleman disease don’t stop there. Fajgenbaum’s research has demonstrated relevance to other diseases, most notably cancer. And this journey has surfaced questions and found solutions in medical research and practice, in particular the fact that coordination among researchers and among physicians is often very fragmented. And, information is not well coordinated across the research and practice threshold.

David Fajgenbaum isn’t just any author or physician but someone with whom I had a brief, yet important encounter. He was a participant in a LeaderShape Institute that I facilitated at the Allerton Retreat Center in 2006. David was passionate at that time about founding a group to support college students who were mourning the loss of a parent. This organization is thriving and is now called Actively Moving Forward and is designed to support the 1 in 3 college students who experience the death of a family member or close friend during their years of study. I met David after the death of his mother from brain cancer and before he was diagnosed with Castleman disease. Little did I know what David would face as he continued his studies and his own struggle against a catastrophic disease. David’s courage is humbling and the light he sheds on medical research and practice is instructive for all.

I hope not to forget a number of quotes from Fajgenbaum’s emerging conclusions related to his medical education and life experience:

“I need to live every day the way I’d want the people I love to remember me.” (locator 947)

“…living in overtime (referring to having survived near-death experiences) liberated me to be my best self.” (locator 1528)

“I stopped believing in an omniscient medical system.” (locator 3067)

“I rejected the belief that any institution had all the answers or represented all the available knowledge in the world.” (locator 3067)

“It feels like my soul has stretched its borders, and it has come into contact with others’ in a way I could never have anticipated.” (locator 3067)

“I got a larger life, one more connected to others, and a shared sense of responsibility.” (locator 3067)

“I’ve learned the difference between being hopeful and being invincible in hope.” (locator 3233)

“My greatest regrets on my deathbed were actions I didn’t take… make every second count, because the truth is: We’re all in overtime.” (locator 3395)

Chasing my cure is extraordinarily well written. It chronicles Fajgenbaum’s medical school years, provides detailed scientific evidence, offers some wonderful moments of humor, and folds in anecdotes with family, friends, and Caitlin (the woman who became the love of his life). Perhaps my own struggle in understanding my prostate cancer and my concerns over my treatment choices caused me to be more acutely interested in Fajgenbaum’s book; to say that I was riveted throughout the text is an understatement. This is a book that should be read by anyone diagnosed with a life-threatening disease as well as care-takers who are helping them cope with the difficult choices they face.