Kendi’s antiracism entails an overthrow of traditional family norms, Christian teaching about marriage, the American economic system, and indeed the entire social order. In other words, antiracism implies a revolution.

Anyone reading this site over the last several years has probably noticed my growing alarm about leftist “social justice” ideologies. I had already become somewhat acquainted with queer theory while doing research for my book on sexual ethics in 2012-2013. A 2016 lecture on intersectionality by David French, however, helped me to see that queer theory was but one strand of a multi-faceted leftist identitarian movement. I had heard of identity politics, but now I was beginning to understand some of its ideological underpinnings. More and more, it appeared to be a kind of religion.

I began writing informally about intersectionality in this space in 2017 and began to see how that theory was a part of a larger “social justice” project that divides all of humanity into identity groups that can be categorized as either “oppressed” or “oppressor.” That eventually led to more reading—including some of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s seminal work on intersectionality (see here and here) and Delgado and Stefancic’s introduction to Critical Race Theory. As I had previously seen with respect to queer theory, I was quickly coming to the conclusion these other leftist “social justice” ideologies contained premises that are incompatible with the Christian gospel.

If I had a growing alarm about these ideologies from 2012-2019, my concern ballooned into a five-alarm fire over the Summer of 2020. I was as concerned as anyone about the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the like, and I expressed as much in this space. But as American cities began to burn (including my own) due to the violence of radicals, it became clear that what we are facing is more than an academic theory. This “theory” has hands and feet, it’s on the street, and it’s spreading at the popular level—including among those in evangelical churches. These ideologies are well into the mainstream, and every follower of Christ will have to reckon with them one way or the other.

Over the summer as racial tensions began to heat up across the country, the entire nation began groping to understand what they were seeing on their television screens. During that time, two books in particular began flying off the shelves. Indeed one of them was unavailable on Amazon for some weeks because they had sold out of them. Those two books are Robin Diangelo’s White Fragility and Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Anti-Racist (One World, 2019). Both of these books are #1 New York Times bestsellers, and it is safe to say that their ideas and teachings have now been introduced into the American mainstream. I wrote briefly about White Fragility last week. This week, I want to add a few words about Kendi’s How To Be an Anti-Racist, which I finished earlier today.

Kendi’s Book

Kendi’s book is not an academic treatise on Critical Race Theory. Rather, it is a popularized application of Critical Race Theory to our current moment. It is a project to transform theory into “social justice.” Kendi is very concerned that social justice not get lost in the ivory tower of theory. In his own career, that involved moving to Washington, D.C. to take up a teaching post at the American University. Kendi wanted to be closer to the action so that he could impact the policy of the nation. And that is the basic exhortation of his book. He wants readers to focus on changing public policy, not on persuading majorities to accept their theories. He believes that if a minority of activists can change policies, then popular opinion will eventually follow. In the meantime, some policies may have to be changed over the will of the majority (p. 230ff).

Kendi argues that one can either be a racist or an anti-racist. There is no in-between position. There is no such thing as being race-neutral. Race-neutrality or “colorblind” approaches are nothing more than thinly veiled racism. Racism is so endemic to the American project that one has to make conscientious daily decisions to oppose racism (and thus be an antiracist) or one will be a racist. The nation is filled with “racial inequity,” which he says occurs “when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing” (p. 18).

Kendi defines inequity as inequality of outcome not as inequality of opportunity. That means that any measurable social difference between racial groups must be chalked up to racial inequity. If a greater percentage of whites own homes than blacks, that is racial inequity. If whites have more wealth than blacks, that is racial inequity. Anti-racism is aimed at eliminating racial inequity to produce racial equity. That is why Kendi argues that “racial discrimination is not inherently racist” (p. 19). He elaborates,

The defining question is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity. If discrimination is creating equity, then it is antiracist. If discrimination is creating inequity, then it is racist… The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination (p. 19).

In short, Kendi believes that we need racial discrimination in public policy in order to elevate blacks and lower whites into social and economic equity. The distribution of wealth, power, and resources in our society should be based on racial discrimination, not on notions of political liberalism or free markets.

Kendi holds to what is commonly termed “systemic racism,” but he wishes to rename it as “racist policies.” He writes,

A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups… Racist policies have been described by other terms: “institutional racism,” “structural racism, ” and “systemic racism,” for instance. But those are vaguer terms than “racist policy.” When I use them I find myself having to immediately explain what they mean. “Racist policy” is more tangible and exacting, and more likely to be immediately understood by people (p. 18).

Kendi insists that antiracism must be intersectional—meaning that it must not only oppose the oppression faced by racial minorities but also the oppression face by gender and sexual minorities. In other words, antiracism is unequivocally pro-feminism and pro-LGBT rights. Thus antiracism involves a clear rejection of biblical teaching about gender roles. Kendi relays a story about his own activist parents’ wedding, when his mother balked at the suggested wedding vows, “Husbands, love your wives, and wives, obey your husbands” (p. 186).

“I’m not obeying him!” Ma interjected. “What! Pastor Quinby said in shock, turning to look at my father. “What!” Dad said, turning to look at my mother.

“The only man I obeyed was my father, when I was a child,” she nearly shouted, staring into Dad’s wide eyes. “You are not my father and I’m not a child!”

The clock was ticking. Would Dad whip out Bible verses on women’s submission and fight for the sexist idea? Would he crawl away and look for another woman, who would submit?…

Read More