the us is post slavery, post segregation, but definitely not post racism. my guest is ibram x kendi, an influential writer and academic who argues the only way to not be racist is to be actively anti racist a message he says children must hear. is his approach bound to intensify america s internal conflict? ibram x kendi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you here. your focus right now seems to be on children, and your contention that children, very young children even, should be told about racism, even if it s not a daily reality that they are actually living with. why? because unfortunately, studies are showing that it is a daily reality that they re living with. one study found that kids as early as three years old have what one scholar called an adult like concept of race . they re already attaching skin colour to behaviours like who s smart, who s clean, and even who s honest. and so, if we re not teaching children to not connect
an influential writer and academic who argues the only way to not be racist is to be actively anti racist a message he says children must hear. is his approach bound to intensify america s internal conflict? ibram x kendi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you here. your focus right now seems to be on children, and your contention that children, very young children even, should be told about racism, even if it s not a daily reality that they are actually living with. why? because unfortunately, studies are showing that it is a daily reality that they re living with. one study found that kids as early as three years old have what one scholar called an adult like concept of race . they re already attaching skin colour to behaviours like who s smart, who s clean, and even who s honest. and so, if we re not teaching children to not connect skin colour to behaviour, to recognise that, you know, someone s skin colour is not a reflection of
their intentions to run. those are the headlines. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. the fractures in american society are widening over guns, abortion, education, and more. but the deepest, most traumatic fracture is surely over race and it impacts all of the others. the us is post slavery, post segregation, but definitely not post racism. my guest is ibram x kendi, an influential writer and academic who argues the only way to not be racist is to be actively anti racist a message he says children must hear. is his approach bound to intensify america s internal conflict? ibram x kendi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you here. your focus right now seems to be on children, and your contention that children, very young children even, should be told about racism, even if it s not a daily reality that they are actually living with. why? because unfortunately, studies are showing that it is a daily
and we recognise it s important to teach young children to look both ways, because they could be hit by, let s say, a car. and similarly, if we recognise that there are these messages that can hit children, even young children, then why would we not seek to protect them by teaching them that those messages are wrong and bad? i guess what s interesting about it is the notion of teaching about racism. i mean, would it be not possible, at this stage of a child s life, simply to exemplify respect, caring, sharing, non discrimination, and leave it at that? in your view, why does it have to be made so explicit? and why do conversations about it and analysis of it have to begin so young? well, for younger children, actually, a lot of it is about what we re modelling. and so, one of the ways in which we re modelling equality is by showing our children that we have an interracial set of friends. we can model equality
well, for younger children, actually, a lot of it is about what we re modelling. and so, one of the ways in which we re modelling equality is by showing our children that we have an interracial set of friends. we can model equality by putting them in diverse environments. we can model that everyone is equal when we re walking down the street and we come across a black male at night, we don t our child doesn t see us get scared. so, for younger children, actually, what s called nonverbal language is actually more influential than what we re actually stating. do you think, as you look at america today and you are steeped in, sort of, anti racism studies, you look at the way american society works, and you try to improve it do you believe that most young people, whether they be black or white, are coming out of american school systems with in built prejudices and fears, and problems when it comes to race? well, i think.