Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Learn More about WPBS Passport! Click Here

HomeVideoWhat Does It Mean to be Antiracist?

What Does It Mean to be Antiracist?

Check out Prideland on PBS Voices: youtube.com/pbsvoices

TEACHERS: Get your students in the discussion on KQED Learn, a safe place for middle and high school students to investigate controversial topics and share their voices.

ABOVE THE NOISE is a show that cuts through the hype and investigates the research behind controversial and trending topics in the news. Hosted by Myles Bess.

*NEW VIDEOS EVERY OTHER WEDNESDAY*

SUBSCRIBE by clicking the RED BUTTON above.
Follow us on Instagram @kqedabovethenoise

**What is structural or systemic racism?**
When a society is designed in a way that reinforces and perpetuates discrimination against certain races.

**What’s an example of systemic racism?**
Between 2012 and 2016, Black males convicted of a crime received sentences — on average — 19 percent longer than White males convicted of essentially the same crime. Perhaps black offenders don’t make as much money as white offenders and so they can’t afford good lawyers. Maybe black people get judges that hand down stricter sentences. Maybe it’s both. But that’s the POINT. Society has been structured in a way that hurts black people harder. And it largely stems from one of the darkest stains on American history — slavery.

**What does it take to be anti-racist?**
In order to address systemic racism, simply being “not racist” isn’t enough.To quote Ibram X. Kendi — a historian and leading scholar of race and discriminatory policy in America: “The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is anti-racist.” And that requires work. Anti-racism is an ACTIVE state of mind. It’s the ACTIVE process of identifying and opposing racism.

SOURCES:
What it means to be anti-racist (Vox)
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/3/21278245/antiracist-racism-race-books-resources-antiracism

How to be Anti-racist (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/health/how-to-be-an-anti-racist-wellness/index.html

The Anti-Racist Revelations of Ibram X. Kendi (The Washington Post Magazine)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2019/10/14/anti-racist-revelations-ibram-x-kendi/?arc404=true

Demographic Differences in Sentencing (United States Sentencing Commission)
https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20171114_Demographics.pdf

Being Antiracist (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/being-antiracist

Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion (The Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion

A Glimpse at the Intersectional Left’s Political Endgame (New York Magazine)
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-the-intersectional-lefts-political-endgame.html

FOR EDUCATORS
KQED Learn https://learn.kqed.org
KQED Teach https://teach.kqed.org
KQED Education https://ww2.kqed.org/education
https://www.facebook.com/KQEDEducation

https://www.instagram.com/kqededucation

About KQED
KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio, and web media. Funding for Above the Noise is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Silver Giving Foundation, Stuart Foundation, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.