Lee Hunts

This is just the scattered musings that I wrote down as I listened to the audiobook. The general idea is that this is a variation of Critical Race Theory made digestible for a wider audience. Kendi tries to dismiss this, but anyone who has read the basics of CRT can see the basic ideas reflected; at best, he criticizes some of the more obnoxious variations of CRT. Racism is not reducible to individual biases, but is systemic/institutional. This assumes that the ultimate problem is racial disparities. Colorblind policies are racist in the context of the wider system, as they do not work against the system, instead allowing the disparities to persist. CRT is especially known for suggesting that our society is built to be racist, rather than racism simply being a bug within a non-racist system. Kendi suggests something similar at the end, concluding that our modern (2020ish) society is basically stage-four cancer. Cap all of that off with a starry-eyed ending about how things can get bett...

This is quite simply one of the most idiotic books on racism that I have ever read. Imagine an ideology that blames everyday white people for racial disparities, one that functions on publicly shaming white people in order to change the world. That ideology fails catastrophically, of course, because people don't like seeing themselves as part of the problem—especially when they are trying to be the solution. Then we have this book, advocating that we publicly shame white people for responding badly to being publicly shamed. Ironically, it is essentially bootstrapping theory applied to white people on racism: if white people just stopped being racist, then racism would go away! And then it fails to work. Well, that's because of white fragility. White people need to bootstrap harder! Stop failing, white people. Basic Structure of the Review: 1. The use of systems is vaguely defined and sweeping in scope. 2. The focus on unconscious bias. What is the scope and power of this? 3. Al...