The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist

Cloe Shasha: So welcome, Ibram,

and thank you so much for joining us.

Ibram X. Kendi: Well thank you, Cloe,
and thank you Whitney,

and thank you everyone
for joining this conversation.

And so, a few weeks ago,

on the same day we learned
about the brutal murder of George Floyd,

we also learned that
a white woman in Central Park

who chose not to leash her dog

and was told by a black man nearby
that she needed to leash her dog,

instead decided
to threaten this black male,

instead decided to call the police

and claim that her life
was being threatened.

And of course, when we learned
about that through a video,

many Americans were outraged,

and this woman, Amy Cooper,

ended up going on national TV

and saying,

like countless other Americans have said
right after they engaged in a racist act,

"I am not racist."

And I say countless Americans

because when you really think
about the history of Americans

expressing racist ideas,

supporting racist policies,

you're really talking about
a history of people

who have claimed they're not racist,

because everyone claims
that they're not racist,

whether we're talking about
the Amy Coopers of the world,

whether we're talking about Donald Trump,

who, right after he said
that majority-black Baltimore

is a rat and rodent-infested mess
that no human being would want to live in,

and he was challenged as being racist,

he said, actually, I'm the least racist
person anywhere in the world.

And so really the heartbeat
of racism itself

has always been denial,

and the sound of that heartbeat

has always been, "I'm not racist."

And so what I'm trying to do with my work

is to really get Americans
to eliminate the concept of "not racist"

from their vocabulary,

and realize we're either being racist

or anti-racist.

We're either expressing ideas
that suggest certain racial groups

are better or worse than others,

superior or inferior than others.

We're either being racist,

or we're being anti-racist.

We're expressing notions
that the racial groups are equals,

despite any cultural
or even ethnic differences.

We're either supporting
policies that are leading

to racial inequities and injustice,

like we saw in Louisville,
where Breonna Taylor was murdered,

or we're supporting policies
and pushing policies

that are leading to justice
and equity for all.

And so I think we should be very clear

about whether we're
expressing racist ideas,

about whether we're
supporting racist policies,

and admit when we are,

because to be anti-racist

is to admit when
we expressed a racist idea,

is to say, you know what?

When I was doing that in Central Park,

I was indeed being racist.

But I'm going to change.

I'm going to strive to be anti-racist.

And to be racist

is to constantly deny

the racial inequities
that pervade American society,

to constantly deny the racist ideas
that pervade American minds.

And so I want to built
a just and equitable society,

and the only way we're going
to even begin that process

is if we admit our racism.