For anti-racist researcher Ibram X. Kendi, abolishing standardized tests may be a more effective way to get more young black people to universities than adopting affirmative action.
In the USA there are no quotas in the same way as used in Brazil. Actions vary according to the law in each state, and there are regions that allow considering the racial factor in admission assessments, as a way of bringing diversity to institutions. In other places, the practice is not allowed.
This type of initiative began in the 1960s, was approved by the US Supreme Court, but new questions may lead the court to review the decision. “As a result of the pandemic, many highly selective universities have made admissions tests optional. As a result, many of them have received record numbers of applicants from low-income families and people of color. , says Kendi.
“We know that standardized test scores are more a reflection of the wealth and income of families than the perspective of a student’s performance in college. And white people have ten times more wealth than black people in the United States”, points out the academic. .
Kendi, 39, director of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University, has in recent years published books on how to be anti-racist and the origins of racist ideas and the black community in the US.
In “Marked”, for example, he maps how several European thinkers sought a theoretical basis to justify the enslavement of Africans, with biblical interpretations and the attempt to compare blacks to animals —Kendi says that many of the ideas of that time still circulate, as an argument for justify social inequality. THE sheet the writer also talked about free speech for racist ideas, Joe Biden’s government policies towards black people, and the work he does for children.
How can society contain the circulation of racist ideas and reconcile this with freedom of expression? There are ideas and things that people say are despicable, wrong, kind, exaggerated. But people should have the right and freedom to say these things. And people should also be free to describe them as racist, or anti-racist, or despicable, or good, or exaggerated, etc.
We must also have an educated world and societies where people can discern between racist and anti-racist views. Another challenge is that most people who express racist views do not know they are racist. And even someone saying they are racist, they refuse to acknowledge it.
And how can we better educate people about it? It would help if we systematically teach children, through schools, adults and the media, the history of racism. It’s important that we find ways to engage our children, as parents, teachers, caregivers, and teach them that racism is the problem, not darker skinned people. Teaching that inequality exists as a result of bad policies, not bad people. Teaching that there are different cultures and different ways of being and looking at the world.
We must appreciate and embrace this difference. It’s what makes our country, our world, beautiful. We have to actively teach our children, and my next book is about that, how to raise an anti-racist, so caregivers can do that with the next generation.
The US Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to affirmative action. Do you assess that there is a risk of reduction in actions to help blacks access universities? Affirmative action is a minor admissions factor. There are other bigger factors. We know that standardized test scores are more a reflection of the wealth and income of families than an indicator of whether a student will do well in college. And white people have ten times more wealth than black people in the United States. So the SATs [espécie de Enem dos EUA] they grant special treatment to certain groups of people who have money, and white people and Asian Americans are disproportionately wealthy. The problem is not affirmative action, but that the main admissions factors are classified as racially neutral, when they are anything but.
And how to fix this problem? As a result of the pandemic, many highly selective universities have made admissions tests optional in the past year. Thus, many of them received record numbers of low-income, non-white applicants. And they ended up admitting classes that were as qualified as the previous ones. So, more and more universities are going to the optional test model, because we know that with standardized tests, certain students have the ability to pay for an expensive prep course and thus get more points.
How do you rate the criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement? In 2020, millions of people across the United States, from the smallest cities to the metropolises, attended Black Lives Matter protests. [vidas negras importam]. And studies since then have shown that 93% of those acts were peaceful, and the remaining small percentage were non-peaceful. In most cases, they were not peaceful because the police acted violently against the protesters. So empirically, at least in the most recent uprising, we know that the Black Lives Matter protesters were almost completely peaceful.
Unfortunately, some people think the problem is not, say, police violence, but people protesting police violence. They think the problem is not structural racism, but people speaking out against it. The problem is not the fact that black lives, in many cases, don’t matter, but the people who say black lives matter? I don’t think this is right.
Some critics of the anti-racism movement say that focusing on racial issues and identities based on race and gender is not a good idea, because it would divide society, and that the best way out would be for equality for all. How do you see this argument? This view assumes that racial groups are equal and that we should see the problem as bad policies, as opposed to bad people. What is really divisive is treating each particular group as if they are superior or inferior because they are lighter or darker. What is really divisive is ignoring the racial disparities and inequalities in our society and then blaming the darker, dying people who are at the bottom of these disparities for the existence of these inequalities.
We must appreciate all cultures. Human diversity is what makes humanity beautiful. And it’s a challenge that some people don’t think like that and want to privilege specific cultures or groups.
You talk about the importance of fighting racist public policies. Which one should be changed most urgently? From Brazil to the US, black people are more likely to be murdered by the police. There’s a whole set of policies behind this, but one of them is our decision as a nation to say “what’s needed in these black communities: more police over other resources.”
How do you rate the Biden administration’s actions to combat racism? It was incredibly important that Democrats introduced two voting rights laws to curb the massive amount of racial gerrymandering. [mudar distritos eleitorais para favorecer um partido] and the suppression of votes [burocracias para desencorajar eleitores de votar]. And it was incredibly difficult and damaging that all centrist Republican senators rejected these laws, and two Democratic senators rejected ending the filibuster. [procedimento que permite à minoria barrar projetos no Senado]which would pave the way for strengthening a multiracial democracy in America.
How do you see the anti-racism movement in Brazil and Latin America? I observe from afar and I see a lot of organization. I’m seeing black Brazilian writers really emerging, and their work being read at unprecedented levels in Brazil, especially their work on racism.
X-ray
Ibram Kendi, 39
A historian, he is director and founder of the Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University. Born in New York City, raised in Manassas (Virginia) and graduated in Journalism and African American Studies from Florida A&M University in 2004. Six years later, he received a PhD in African American Studies from Temple University. He has been a university professor and visiting researcher at several US institutions. The author of eight books, he won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2016. He also contributes to The Atlantic magazine and hosts the Be Antiracist podcast.
Author’s books
Launched in Brazil
- “How to be Anti-racist?” (Alta Cult Publisher, 2020)
- “Marked: Racism, Anti-racism and You”, with Jason Reynolds (ed. Galera, 2021)
Abroad
- “The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972” (The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
- “Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America”
- “Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America” ​​(Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America), with Keisha N. Blaim (ed. One World, 2021)
- “Antiracist Baby” (anti-racist baby, ed. Penguin, 2020, children’s)
To be released in June in the US
- “How to Raise an Antiracist”
- “Goodnight Racism” (good night, racism, children)
