Must read for everyone, whether or not you are raising children. Kendi prompts a change in paradigm. Recent events have demonstrated that it is not enough for one not to be racist, we need to actively be anti-racist. We need to unlearn our bad habits and actively teach all those around us.

This was a great read - super easy and flowed so nicely. I raced through it which is always a good sign!

The personal and almost confiding nature of the narrative, with personal experience woven in with academic research and calls for action, made it an attractive read, making me feel we were all in it together if we want equity for all peoples and an end to systematic as well as personal racism, and understanding that antiracism is a journey and we can exhibit aspects of both antiracism and racism (especially given that racism includes seeing racism yourself and doing nothing about it, the kind of "default" "neutral" status people try to claim as "I'm not racist") as we move along that journey.

Although Kendi was working on his "How to be an Antiracist" when his daughter Imani was born, but he admits it didn't strike him till much later that alongside he and his partner Sadiqa child-proofing the house against accidental injury, they should have been child-proofing her against racism. Then he admits he finds it uncomfortable to have to do that, to introduce the idea of racism to his small, innocent daughter.

He then takes the background of first Sadiqa's treatment when she was pregnant (she is a paediatrician and knew something was wrong anyway but was naysaid and disbelieved until it was suddenly clear that something was very wrong; this is set against figures showing that the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the US is more than three times that for White women); their first moments with their baby; Imani's daycare (where only White dolls were available; this is compared to the famous sociological Doll Test); and her first school - as she's only five by the end of the book, we then follow Ibram and his brother's journey through their own school lives (encountering racism from caregivers and teachers; compared with research on racist and ablist perceptions and actions of teachers, underfunding of schools, overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of learning disabilities, etc.). So all through the book, he takes personal experience expressed clearly and honestly, then compares it to the research that has been done on all types of children and families, and then offers points to work on, learning points and action points.

One small issue I have with the book is of course that it's a US-based book, so the stats and experiences include Latinx and Native (as he calls them) American people, with South Asians being lumped together, where the UK experience obviously has a smaller proportion of GMP populations but more people from South and East Asia as a proportion. But obviously the issues are very similar, and the statistics here will be similar based on our populations. I still have a bit of trouble getting my head around the levels of school grades in the US, and while he talks about class-based issues and poverty, I'm not sure the class issues are the same in both countries. This is obviously not a criticism, just an aspect of reading this book from here, and there are plenty of books that show the UK stats and issues.

Anyway, the powerful options he suggests are useful anywhere: teaching critical thinking, discussing what has happened in the news or what the child has seen. He extends this nicely to cover other issues such as gender, people with disabilities and the accommodations they might need, class and poverty issues, showing how we can influence the children in our lives to see and notice inequity and protest against it. There's a call for both changing ourselves AND society at the end:

We must stop problematizing children and start problematizing power and policy - and ourselves. We can parent better. We can teach better. We can care for the child better. But there are limits to what we can do as caregivers, especially when resources are lacking, when kids are irritable from hunger, when parents and teachers keep getting evicted from homes or buildings, or because the state, through its policies, is imposing a racist curriculum onto parents and teachers.

The afterword builds a picture of the backlash in the US after George Floyd's death and the growth of the BLM movement - I hadn't realised about all the curriculum changes made since then by White supremacist activists trying to remove "critical race theory" from schools to as they claim protect their children from hating their own race (research shows White children don't end up hating their race from being educated about racism; there's a chance Black children will stop self-hatred when that education is there). I don't think that's a thing in the UK, where curriculum reform is adding GMP history into schools, though I'm not entirely sure on this.

A great book with lots of really powerful and useful, practical points. The referencing is done well, with authors' names being given in the text but with no footnotes or endnote numbers to break the concentration and a reference list done by chapter and page at the back - suitable for a book like this, I think.

If you are raising, teaching or around babies to teenagers and want to explore introducing antiracism in their lives, I recommend this book.

My blog review (out 19 July) https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2022/07/19/book-review-ibram-x-kendi-how-to-raise-an-antiracist/

"Nothing raises an antiracist child more effectively than an antiracist society."



I don't have my own children. But I do believe we are constantly raising ourselves to be better people, so I'd still definitely recommend you pick up this book regardless. And besides, it takes a village right?

Kendi highlights a point that is becoming clearer in modern times - it is no longer enough to just not be racist, we must be actively anti-racist in our actions and beliefs if we are truly to achieve fairness and equality, and to unlearn countless years of systemic discrimination and hatred. He examines the roles of not only parents but wider society and their responsibility to not only protect the children of the world but educate them so they can grow up in a better world than we did.

This is a fairly short read but is brimming with information - Kendi provides useful stats and facts, but rather than just running off numbers on a page, he gives context to everything with his own learned experiences and real-life accounts of bias, discrimination and racism. This book isn't geared particularly to a specific group of people - it focuses on the benefits of an antiracist society to everyone and promotes intersectional equality and awareness.

With accessibly written chapters and a familiar yet professional tone - the writing is very easy to follow and no doubt perfect for revisiting again and again. There is a wealth of resources and further materials listed at the end of the book so this is a perfect start to anyone looking to educate themselves or expand their awareness.

How To Raise an Antiracist will make you uncomfortable. It will make you reflect inwards at your own potential bias, your privilege but most importantly - your power to make real, meaningful change.

This is a short book that I know I will come back to read again and again. I’m not a parent but I am a teacher and this informed and reminded me a lot of how far the world needs to come. Facts inter woven with personal anecdotes made this book unput downable for me.