“Courage is the strength to do what is right in the face of fear, as the anonymous philosopher tells us. I gain insight into what's right from antiracist ideas. I gain strength from fear. While many people are fearful of what could happen if they resist, I am fearful of what could happen if I don't resist, I am fearful of cowardice. Cowardice is the inability to amass the strength to do what is right in the face of fear. And racist power has been terrorizing cowardice into us for generations.” FearPowerCourageStrengthRacismCowardiceAntiracism Book:How to Be an Antiracist Source: How to Be an Antiracist
“Of course, ordinary White people benefit from racist policies, though not nearly as much as racist power and not nearly as much as they could from an equitable society, one where the average White voter could have as much power as superrich White men to decide elections and shape policy.” PowerRacismEquityElectionsWhitesWhite PeoplePoliciesRacist PoliciesRacist Ideas Book:How to Be an Antiracist Source: How to Be an Antiracist
“Every single person actually has the power to protest racist and antiracist policies, to advance them, or, in some small way, to stall them.” PowerRacismProtestAntiracismPoliciesRacist Policies Book:How to Be an Antiracist Source: How to Be an Antiracist
“The root problem—from Prince Henry to President Trump—has always been the self-interest of racist power. Powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest—the primitive accumulation of capital in the case of royal Portugal and subsequent slave traders—has been behind racist policies. Powerful and brilliant intellectuals in the tradition of Gomes de Zurara then produced racist ideas to justify the racist policies of their era, to redirect the blame for their era’s racial inequities away from those policies and onto people.” PowerRacismSelf InterestAntiracismRacist Policies Book:How to Be an Antiracist Source: How to Be an Antiracist