July Book Club Pick: How to Be an Antiracist
During our Literally book club meeting last week, we barely brushed the surface of what "Hood Feminism" means as it relates to our experience of "feminism." To say most of us found Hood Feminism to be eye opening, enlightening and hard to read is an understatement - we are a group of largely privileged women with careers, supportive networks and the privilege in itself to attend a book club. Confronting our privilege as a group proved to be an uncomfortable yet cathartic exercise, and at the end of our meeting we decided to continue our education together with another book about antiracism.
Ibram X. Kendi's biography is a seemingly endless list of accomplishments, accolades and recognition. There are more than a few ways to describe him: author, professor, historian, activist, antiracist. In his 2019 book and our July book club pick, How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi explores the culture of racism in America (though I believe it will be relevant to our global readers) and, more important, it's opposite: antiracism. Rather than seeing ourselves as simply "not racist," Kendi offers up ideas for creating a truly antiracist society - one that actively pushes against the intersectional oppression that people of color face, all through a lens of history, law, science and his own personal experience of becoming an antiracist.
I am looking forward to continuing my education on racial and social justice, and hope you'll read along with us this month!
P.S. Cover image from ibramxkendi.com