Anti-Helpful

From a Columbia University professor, journalist, and MSNBC contributor:

Imagine if the people with all the opinions were actually required to read this before opening their mouths. pic.twitter.com/QBhpzKOZ7r

— jelani cobb (@jelani9) June 18, 2021

 

Imagine, too, if people with all the opinions about racism were actually required at an academic forum to have a clue of what racism is:

In which academic discipline is this circular, naive, deer-caught-in-the-headlights response to a basic and urgent question considered insightful or excellent?

A national culture exempting this (which, sadly, is typical of him) from judgment is unintentionally racist itself. pic.twitter.com/n493NpjFmx

— John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) June 1, 2021

 

Ibram X. Kendi is not a top Critical Race Theory theorist, yet is the inventor of anti-racism, which is linked to CRT. And in the video to which McWhorter links, Kendi states "racism, I would define it, as a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas."

After members of the audience understandably laugh nervously, Kendi continues

Sure- a collection of racist policies that lead to racial inequity that are substantiated by racist ideas. And anti-racism is pretty simple using the same terms. Anti-racism is a collection of anti-racist policies leading to racial- anyone want to take a guess?- equity that are substantiated by anti-racist ideas.

Such splendid double-talk from the author of "How to be an Antiracist" should not go unnoticed.  In a mere 22 words- four of them "I would define it"- Kendi uses racism, racial, or racist four times. He might as well have been a second grade English/language arts teacher giving his students an example of how not to define a word.

No one is more closely identified with "anti-racism" than the former Ibram Henry Rogers- and he cannot define racism. However, the problem is not him, but rather the propensity to describe concepts in whatever ways are most advantageous at the time, devaluing the language while elevating race to an undeserved status.