Searching for the ‘Anti’ in ‘Antiracism’
The premier expositor of antiracist philosophy, Ibram X. Kendi, is admirably forthright about his prescriptions for allaying America’s legacy of racial prejudice. “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination,” he wrote in the best-selling book
How to Be an Antiracist. “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”
As critics of Kendi’s outlook have observed, the prefix “anti” here seems superfluous. His philosophy is a familiar one: discrimination now, discrimination tomorrow, discrimination forever.
Proponents of the antiracist theory of social organization fancy themselves insurgents arguing passionately against the country’s prevailing ethos, but that is a dated self-conception. Antiracism didn’t just go mainstream in 2020—it became downright establishmentarian.