The Racist Anti-Racist

Who Could I Mean? Why, Ibram X. Kendi

I don’t know why I haven’t gone for the obvious yet—Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racist Baby—perhaps because everyone seems to love it so much. I loathe it. But it’s still popular.

Despite his fall from grace. This book is fortunately not in the lower school library of my former school, but Kendi’s still making a boodle. Not that I object to anyone making money, especially by writing! But this writer thinks racism and capitalism go together. (see especially from 8:47 on.) Need I point out that Dr. Kendi is rich as Croesus, the ancient King of Lydia, known for his wealth? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24).” Following his logic, the deeper his pockets, the deeper his racism? But to the book. No, I wouldn’t ban it. But I sure wouldn’t buy it for my kids. It breaks the very first rule of good writing, especially for children: the text of Anti-Racist Baby is devoid of images. Apart from the illustrations. What will your three year old make of the following?

Babies are taught to be racist or anti-racist

There’s no neutrality.

Take these nine steps to make equity a reality.

Wow. Three abstractions—“racist,” “anti-racist” and “neutrality” in two lines. But I’ll give Kendi a point for rhyming. If, however, your kid is yawning, no wonder. I’m yawning. As a mom, I couldn’t say, “Would you like to draw a neutrality, sweetie?” or “draw me equity” or “a racist?” Not like with my favorite books. It’s easy to say, “Want to draw a picture of The Cat in the Hat? Or of Thing One and Thing Two? Or of Mary and Colin planting flowers in their secret garden?”

Good writing—especially for children—is visual. Kendi’s book doesn’t get more visual as he goes on with:

Some people get more while others get less

Because policies don’t always grant equal access

Again—what is your baby or two-year-old or three-year-old to make of this? The accompanying illustration, of a child pointing at a butterfly, has nothing to do with the text. Here’s where Kendi loses the points I gave him for rhyming!

He’s still getting raves on Amazon for this book. Consider the possibility: if his thinking is this unclear in a children’s book, how reliable can it be in general? A very well-educated trustee of a famous institution answered my criticisms of How to be an Anti-Racist with, “But it’s a bestseller!” Lo, the bestsellers that fell into oblivion a few years later—just Google lists of previous decades. The ones that stick around are the ones we call “classics.” Anti-Racist Baby won’t last long enough to become one. And I’ll answer my question: his scholarship is as faulty as the rhymes in this kiddie book.

The You-Tuber who posted this witty critique has my heart, and I wanted to share it with you:

P.S This, too, needs constant repetition—in universities, corporations, schools. Put this up on social media and tell your friends to do so.