The Future is Another Country
The anti-racist protests of the Kerner Commission reveal that if structural racism can be overcome in U.S. democracy, the moral weight of white supremacy must be eradicated otherwise democratic protest will forever be read as a threat.
Ibram X. Kendi’s much-anticipated second book, How to Be An Antiracist, hit shelves across the world last month.
The Activist History Review invites proposals for our September 2019 issue, “Antiracism in America.”
“I’m proud to be white,” someone recently told me. He interjected the comment in a contentious political conversation. I responded by advocating “more caution” in expression. The exchange fizzled without resolution. Yet this phrase, “proud to be white,” continues to disturb. My conversation partner was no white supremacist. But his chosen phrase would have fooled many. What lies within it is a key for understanding a threatening and intractable problem of American society: what I call “the problem of white people.”
