Racist Stereotypes
In this work, Kendi discusses how harmful stereotypes are and how these stereotypes affect Black Americans, limiting their confidence and opportunities. Not only do these stereotypes exist in the minds of racist people and in the laws and rulings of racist policymakers, creating prejudice and violence, but they can also exist in the minds of those being victimized. Those who are stereotyped against internalize these stereotypes and can have lowered self-esteem, resulting in lowered expectations about what they can do and achieve.
Antiracism
This work is about how it isn't enough to be non-racist: a person must also actively fight against racism. Thus, Kendi uses the term "antiracist" to denote someone who works proactively towards creating a fairer society. While both the non-racist and the antiracist are not explicitly racist, those who are neutral and do not actively fight racism are thereby complicit in racism.
History
In addition to analyzing racism in the modern day, this text also explores the origins of racism, from slavery to Jim-Crow-era segregation. The text explores the movement from de jure racism to de facto racism and how policy-makers failed to ensure that Civil Rights laws were implemented in practice. There is no way to understand mass incarceration, disparities in wealth, redlining, etc. without understanding the history of race, racism, capitalism, the slave trade, Jim Crow, and other facets of history. History helps ground us in the present by helping us better understand where we came from and where we want to go.
Self-Reflection
This book isn't just Kendi telling his readers how to be an antiracist: it's him modeling that by telling his own life story and how he journeyed from being anti-Black, even though he is a Black man, to being committed to antiracism. He does this by being introspective, thoughtful, and honest; he challenges himself and makes himself feel uncomfortable. He admits what he does not know and educates himself by reading and talking with people who can help him. He was not born racist or antiracist, so he commits to becoming who and what he wants to be by engaging in critical, unsparing self-reflection.
Intersectionality
As a young man, Kendi does not initially give credence to the calls of Black and queer feminists for attention to the issues that plague them specifically. He ruefully identifies himself as a sexist and a homophobe due to the way he was brought up and a lack of critical self-reflection, but, ever willing to challenge his preconceived notions, he engages in intersectionality research and comes to see just how fundamentally the intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation shape a person's life. Antiracists must be feminists; they must be queer allies.
Precision of Language
From the beginning of the text, Kendi stresses the need for precise, clear, and accessible language and terms. He says, "If we don't do the basic work of defining the kind of people we want to be in language that is stable and consistent, we can't work towards stable and consistent goals" (17). He wants to avoid terms that are ambiguous or take too much time to explain—structural racism, systemic racism—and use clearer ones like racist policy. He worries that the term "microaggression" is misleading because "racist abuse is not minor"; he does not use the term anymore and uses "racist abuse" instead. He calls for "antiracist" to be the term used by people who want to get rid of racism rather than "not racist" or "colorblind" because those are either neutral or problematic. All in all, Kendi wants to avoid obfuscation and confusion so we can move more quickly and successfully towards an antiracist future.
Racism as Disease
Kendi makes this metaphorical comparison in detail at the end of the text, but this theme is actually woven throughout the work. Racism is not a permanent state of mind: it can be identified, treated, and eradicated. It can be present in small amounts or large amounts; it can vanish and come back if not monitored and treated properly.
