Antiracist Is Distinct From Nonracist
Kendian antiracism says you're either racist or antiracist, but is that true?
KEY POINTS
- According to Ibram X. Kendi, people can be described as either "racist" or "antiracist."
- Kendian antiracism is characterized by active attempts to redress current and historical racial injustice, rather than being "not racist."
- Antiracism and nonracism both exist and have different correlates from a psychological perspective.
Increasing numbers of individuals and organizations are adopting "antiracist policies and practices" in response to societal moves to redress historical injustices. From retail businesses to academic institutions to professional scientific bodies, expressions of antiracism are the emergent zeitgeist in relation to institutional statements on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Despite these moves, there has been relatively little empirical attention paid to the topic of antiracism, with most of what is popularly known about the concept emerging from Ibram X. Kendi's book, How To Be an Antiracist. That is until recently when a team of psychologists from Bates College and Florida State University explored how antiracism expresses itself from a psychological perspective.
What Is "Antiracism"?
The term "antiracism" was not commonly heard in social discussions about racial injustice outside of academia until Kendi published his bestseller in 2019. In the book, Kendi—a historian by background with a doctoral degree in African American Studies—sets out his thesis, which in essence divides society into two groups: racists and antiracists.
In this dichotomy, antiracism is the process of taking active steps to counter current and historical racial inequities. It is activist behavior that distinguishes antiracism from racism. That is, if somebody does not work to dismantle or disrupt processes that are said to uphold or perpetuate inequities between white people and people of color, that individual would be classified as racist in the absence of any explicitly discriminatory views, and even when they expressly find racial discrimination repugnant. The importance of activism is central to the claim that "white silence is violence," which also became a mainstay of discussions surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
Kendi's doctrine has received criticism for itself endorsing racist ideas, including a call for reversing historical discrimination by engaging in present-day discrimination against white people. Specifically, in How To Be an Antiracist he says:
Despite the nature of these ideas, Kendian antiracism has become the language of contemporary policies related to equity, diversity, and inclusion within most organizations.
Does Nonracism Actually Exist?
Central to the antiracism doctrine is Kendi's "racist/antiracist" dichotomy and the claim that it is not possible to simply be "nonracist." However, new research, led by Jennifer LaCrosse of Bates College (Lewiston, ME) and coauthors, has cast doubt on this.
LaCrosse and colleagues developed a measure of antiracism that explicitly found two dimensions:
- Antiracism, as measured by items such as "It is important for White people to actively try to promote equal treatment of Blacks and Whites" and "White people should proactively (i.e., with words and actions) show that they are anti-discrimination."
- Nonracism, as measured by items such as "I would never discriminate against a Black person based on race" and "I think White people and Black people should be treated equally in academic and employment settings."
Exploring the validity of their newly developed measure, LaCrosse and colleagues found that antiracism (but not nonracism) predicted a self-reported likelihood for volunteering for a campus organization engaged in anti-inequality marches and protests, a perception among participants that white people need to be involved in advancing civil rights initiatives, and support for tax breaks for organizations who actively support racial diversity.
Antiracism (but not nonracism) was also associated with lower victim blame in relation to a fictitious case of a police officer shooting an unarmed Black criminal suspect, higher levels of officer blame, and much clearer preferences for harsh punishments.
Nonracism was not associated with opposite trends and cannot, therefore, be meaningfully considered "racist," unless one is to adopt the Kendian dichotomy. Instead, nonracism was unrelated (statistically) to any of these outcomes. That is, explicit racist attitudes were unrelated to victim and officer blame, or to punishment preferences.
Despite seeming to provide data that transcend Kendi's dichotomy, LaCrosse and colleagues appear to endorse the antiracist doctrine in their conclusion, stating:
Despite this, further work might be done to explore whether it is possible on this new scale to be nonracist but not antiracist and to compare the decision-making processes, attitudes, and behaviors of these individuals to explicitly antiracist people. In doing so, a more direct test of the Kendian dichotomy of "racist or antiracist" might be possible.
