Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian and author whose work examines racism, antiracism, and the history of racial ideas in the United States.
Racism: A system of ideas, practices, and institutions that assigns significance to race and produces or sustains racial inequality. Kendi defines racist ideas through their defense of racial inequity.
How to Be an Antiracist: A 2019 book by Ibram X. Kendi combining memoir with an argument for actively opposing racist ideas and policies. This book presents Kendi’s framework through personal narrative and political analysis.
African American history: The study of the histories, cultures, and experiences of people of African descent in the United States. Kendi’s historical writing belongs to this field and revises its accounts of racial ideas.
Angela Davis: An American scholar and activist known for work on prisons, race, feminism, and social movements. Davis’s scholarship and activism provide a related Black intellectual tradition.
Color blindness: An approach that avoids acknowledging race in social judgments or public policy. Kendi argues that ignoring race can leave racial inequities and their causes unaddressed.
Antiracism: The practice of opposing racism through ideas, policies, and actions that support racial equity. Kendi presents antiracism as an active response to racist ideas and policies.
Stamped from the Beginning: A 2016 history by Ibram X. Kendi tracing the development of racist ideas in the United States. It is Kendi’s major historical account of changing arguments about race.
Historically Black colleges and universities: U.S. institutions of higher education established primarily to educate Black students, especially during segregation. Kendi studied the history of Black campus activism at these institutions.
W. E. B. Du Bois: An American sociologist, historian, and civil rights activist who studied race and African American life. Kendi’s history engages a long tradition of Black scholarship on racial inequality.
Racial realism: The view that racial inequality persists despite reform and should be confronted without assuming its imminent disappearance. Derrick Bell’s framework differs from Kendi’s emphasis on changing policy toward equity.