Faculty book discussion: How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

This book discussion is for faculty only. Another book discussion for staff will be announced shortly.

Please join the Office of Faculty Development for a lively two-part book discussion to explore ways in which we can choose to be antiracist. Information regarding purchasing the book is available on the Faculty Development website.

Most people will tell you that racism is all about hatred and ignorance. In How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi’s follow-up to his National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning, he explains that racism is ultimately structural. Racism directs attention away from harmful, inequitable policies and turns that attention on the people harmed by those policies.

Kendi employs history, science and ethics to describe different forms of racism; at the same time, he follows the events and experiences of his own life, adapting a memoir approach that personalizes his arguments.

This is a very effective combination, fusing the external forces of racism with Kendi’s own reception and responses to that racism — the result will be mind-expanding for many readers.

Kendi’s title encompasses his main thesis: simply not being racist isn’t enough. We must actively choose to be “antiracist,” working to undo racism and its component polices in order to build an equitable society.

To read this book is to relate to the author as an individual and realize just how much we all have in common. As Kendi writes: race is a mirage, assigning an identity according to skin color, ignoring the individual.

Discussion led by: Megan Schimpf, M.D., MHSA, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and urology, and ambulatory care clinical chief, U-M Medical School

Part 1: Nov. 9  |  10:30 a.m. – Noon

Part 2: Dec. 10  |  10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

Please plan to attend both sessions!

Register online (Faculty only)

This workshop is hosted by the Office of Faculty Development and is intended for faculty. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation to attend this workshop or have questions about accessibility, please contact us at UMMS-Faculty-Development@med.umich.edu.

Website: https://faculty.medicine.umich.edu/workshops/book-discussion-how-be-antiracist-ibram-x-kendi