Ibram X. Kendi on Why White America Is Still Shocked by White Supremacy

 

“Racist ideas tell us that white people are nonviolent. That white people are champions of freedom. That white people are the ones who save nations. And so the way in which people have constructed whiteness, and even their identity, or even the identity of white people, prevents them from seeing this white terrorist threat for what it is.”

 

In an interview with Vox, Ibram X. Kendi, award-winning author of How To Be An Antiracist and a Phil Lind Initiative speaker for our 2020 series Thinking While Black, talks about the difference in police responses between the attempted coup of Capitol Hill and the Black Lives Matter protests. Kendi emphasizes “denial is the heartbeat of America” and that tackling this denial is the first step to building an anti-racist society.

 

Read the full interview here.