The ideology of anti-racism

The negation of black empowerment

Ibram Kendi, in How to be an antiracist, reports that in 2013, most blacks did not view white racism as the source of racial inequity, and the percentage who blamed white racism had been declining for years. But between 2013 and 2017, there was a dramatic reversal in this long-standing trend in public opinion, such that in 2017, 59% of blacks (along with 35% of whites and 45% of Latinos) affirmed the view that white racism was the principal cause of racial inequity.

Kendi maintains that the reason for the change in public opinion between 2013 and 2017 was a rise in black consciousness, as a result of televised police killings of blacks, and because of the consciousness-raising work of Black Lives Matter.

I would put it differently. In my view, the change was a consequence of the way that tragic cases of killings of black citizens by police were framed and presented to the public by black activists who, when such incidents occurred, instead of calling for calm and waiting until the full …