Renowned author, professor, and antiracism scholar Ibram X. Kendi spoke to CWU via Zoom on Wednesday May 12 from 4-5p.m. Around 500 attendees were present for the webinar. 

Kendi is the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic and correspondent for CBS News. Kendi was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2020 and is the author of the New York Times Best-Seller “How to Be an Antiracist.”

The Zoom webinar was moderated by Robert Nellams, vice chair of the CWU Board of Trustees. It was hosted by Kandee Cleary, vice president of inclusivity and diversity at CWU.

Kendi spoke about his book “How to Be an Antiracist” and on the topics of racism and antiracism.

“When someone claims to me that they are not racist,” Kendi said. “my first response is, how do you define the term racist? Because you can’t know for sure you are quote ‘not racist’ if you don’t even know what it means to be racist or even not racist.”

In his book “How to Be an Antiracist,” Kendi advises against using the term “microaggression.” Kendi suggests using the term “racial abuse” instead. During the panel Kendi was asked to clarify on this.

 “I think the term ‘microaggression’ is fundamentally focused on the individual act,” Kendi said. “For instance, if I walk out of my house right now and I’m walking down the street and I’m coming upon a woman who catches her purse and then I continue. That’s first my quote ‘microaggression’…All of those are individual, what people would call microaggressions. By the time I get home, I’m not thinking of them in an individual way, I’m thinking of them in a collective way. And they’re making an impact on me, they’re causing me to feel physically and mentally harmed in the way abuse does.” 

The last 20 minutes of the panel were reserved for questions from the audience. Questions included how to make people recognize responsibility and complicity where they typically renounce it, defining the term “defund the police,” how educators should address recent legislation that has banned teaching critical race theory, among others.

Kendi’s book is available for purchase at the CWU bookstore.

A recording of the Zoom panel will be available to those with CWU accounts until May 26. The recording can be accessed on the CWU media page, the CWU Diversity and Equity page and the Diversity at CWU page, all are on the CWU website.