I’ve recommended Brené Brown’s podcast Unlocking Us before and want to showcase this episode that came out today. She spoke with Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist and the Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.
I’d added his book to my reading list in the past week and the episode was a great conversation. There was a particular part in the middle that hit my heart, so instead of paraphrasing, I transcribed it here. I encourage you to listen to the whole episode.
“To grow up in America is to grow up with racist ideas constantly rained on your head. And you have no umbrella. And you don’t even know that you’re wet with those racist ideas because those racist ideas themselves cause you to imagine that you’re dry. And then someone comes along and says ‘You know what? You’re wet and these ideas are still raining on your head. Here’s an umbrella.’
You can be like, ‘Thank you. I didn’t even realize I was drenched.’
This is why I don’t think people should feel ashamed. There were other people, and very powerful people, and a history that was constantly raining those ideas on your head. So what that means, for instance, if you’re a white American who has racist ideas and you’ve perpetuated those ideas […] you were simultaneously a victim and victimized.
It’s critical for people to recognize […] that there’s a specific reason why you had so many powerful Americans trying to convince white Americans that Black people were inferior. It was out of their own self-interest. Then white Americans and other Americans were tricked into believing that Black people should be enslaved in 1855 and meanwhile poor whites whose poverty was directly the result of the riches of white slaveholders were like ‘yeah it should be this way’ and so those people were able to get richer and richer.
So me coming to that poor white person . . . I’m coming to them and saying here’s the way you were victimized and the way you were a victim. It’s critically important for people to understand that people have been tricked. They’ve been manipulated. They’ve been hoodwinked. That’s what I want people to realize.”
With Love,
Natalie