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
Explain who the winners and losers. And how sleep became big business. Well meet the man behind a new generation of mattresses giving traditional bed makers nightmares. And as barbies long time boyfriend, ken, gets a makeover hes got new hair styles, body types, new clothes and new skin colours so today we want to know, what childhood favourite of yours should get a revival and makeover . Let us know, just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Do get in touch about ken, plastic fantastic or not . Also any thoughts you might have about the stories we have including this one about uber. Travis kalanick, the Chief Executive of the Ride Hailing Service uber has resigned following demands from five major investors. Last week he said he was taking indefinite leave of absence after a series of scandals hit the company. Its battling allegations of harassment, discrimination, and corporate misconduct. This is a story that has been getting more and more intense in recent weeks, recently published we re re
and even across the world, is because they re so simple. like, dark is bad. light skinned people are beautiful. and these ideas are so simple that even a young pre schooler could internalise them and start thinking that there s something wrong with them, or special about them because of their skin colour. so, we have to actively teach kids a different message to recognise the beauty of the human rainbow and see themselves in it, and recognise all the skin colours as equals. you talk about the beauty of the human rainbow, but isn t there also something about innocence and the joyfulness of childhood, when kids of whatever colour are not exposed to the reality of a world that is often times tainted by human failings and flaws? do they need to be exposed to that truth so very young? well, again, ithink when we think about other things, we recognise it s dangerous to cross the street, right?