I’m still digesting this book but I think the main message is:

Racism is not just interpersonal prejudice or discrimination. It is racist policies (targeting/negatively impacting one race) put into place because of self-interest and a desire for power. These racist policies require racist ideologies to support them. The racist ideologies continue a cycle of ignorance and hate that makes it difficult to change the policies.

I was encouraged by the reminder that racism is not timeless and that history is one of antiracist actions and thoughts continually fighting against racist actions and thoughts. Failure to change racist policies is not inevitable.

One of the hardest things to wrap my head around was how Kendi views education. It seems like the shift from prioritizing education to prioritizing policy change was relatively fresh for him, and those ideas felt confused to me. He talked about the importance of meeting people with grace and candor and changing perspectives, but he also said this can be a waste of time and we should focus on policy change because power is what really matters. He said to change policy first then change minds, but also seemed to think that education people is helpful in mobilization? I’m still not 100% solid in the dynamic between education and policy change, and racism as ignorance/hate vs self-interest/power.

I enjoyed how the chapters focused on different aspects of racism, but I did feel that he repeated himself a lot. His writing contains a lot of repetitive lists and phrases, which is helpful for giving more information, but hard to digest. However, I do think he included many well-placed anecdotes or historical stories.

I was already exposed to many of these ideas, but it was still thought provoking, especially regarding the interaction between policies and attitudes.