On Point - 48 - Ibram X. Kendi: “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America”

University of Florida historian @DrIbram joins us this week to discuss his book, “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.” Tracing the genesis and circulation of racist and anti-racist ideas through American history. How our popular understanding of “racist” is far too narrow. Racist ideas in people victimized by racism, and the racial assumptions people can adopt about groups they’re from, from culture. Respectability politics, assimilationism and “uplift-suasion,” all the way back to the 1790s Abolitionists. How we determine “ways to do culture” that aren’t racially exclusive. How any culture can make itself look superior by standardizing it’s attributes and grading others against the standards. The importance of being an anti-racist vs. “not racist.”

“Racial Progress Is Real. But So Is Racist Progress.” NY Times Magazine