Antiracist Baby

As a black, independent man in his 20s, I came to this book (and purchased it) upon mention of it during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I like that the book provides actionable steps that children can follow. It was a nice touch by the author to include teachings and guidelines for parents at the end. I wish only that the illustrations matched the theme the words portray. Ironically, this book itself is (in a way) racist. There is an illustration of a baby knocking down a stack of “cultural blocks”; one of which depicts a white power symbol. Toward the end, there is another illustration that depicts a black power fist symbol on the cover of a book. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Furthermore, within the adult section of the book, parents are being guided to inform their children that the impoverished conditions of Black and brown people are no fault of their own, rather it is racist policies that are the sole contributor; this is not always the case and we shouldn’t be painting economical disparities with such a narrow brush. It is my opinion that this promotes prejudice within children. This book was clearly written with Black and brown families as the target demographic. I can see why people who are not Black or brown find it to be unfair. As much as it is important to teach or children about systematic injustice and inequalities, it is also important to ensure that we are not, in turn, engineering unpatriotic, begrudged citizens.

As a Black woman, I found this book to be close-minded and unfocused. There is violent racism spewing from individuals in all races. And in us all is judgment and prejudice. We cannot only focus on one race’s prejudice towards another, but rather every act of violent hate in which it dramatically affects another. This is not only a White on Black issue. This is a Black on White, Asian on Black, Black on Asian, White on Asian, Asian on White, or any combination of any race kind of issue! If we all pretend that law enforcement’s negative actions are only inflicted on one race, we’ll continue to ignore the officers who actually need to be weeded out (by this, I mean fired or charged). Like the officers who restrained a man named, Tony Timpa. He was an unarmed Caucasian male (enduring a schizophrenic episode) whom was suffocated by police officers during their restraint against him (although he did not resist arrest or pose a threat to any of the officers). They jested about him “not making it to school” and even jested that he “wasn’t breathing”. When the paramedics arrived and informed the officers he was dead, one replied, “I have his mother on the phone”. His mother didn’t know what actually happened to her son for a very long time. I think by this book—all of this author’s books—focusing simply on his race experiencing prejudice from one other race, he is continuing to fuel the prejudice. He should instead focus on the violent acts of hate performed by each race (based off of prejudice, AKA racism) and write individual books about each individual race issue. There are plenty of violent acts in which Black people unjustifiably injure or murder someone because of their race or because of their differing ideologies. And plenty, for that matter, White people who do the same. Or any other race. Everyone needs to understand that there are much worse types of racism than simple prejudiced feelings or beliefs; there are violent, hateful, horrible acts of pure racism performed by every race inflicted on all different races. Please, don’t only listen to one narrative no matter your political standpoint. And never believe what you hear unless you’ve checked that it’s true, even some sources which seem reliable blatantly spread false information and make fabricated accusations without cessation. Anyways, thank you for taking your time to read my review of this book, and please understand that I wrote this from my honest perception of the book. Nothing I stated was intended to upset anyone nor was it intended to judge any particular race. This was simply my thoughts on the book and my honest understanding on racism. Again, I thank you for your time. 🙏🏾

Ok if I say anything I’m racist if I give it less than 4 stars so yeah also very expensive so just thought I’d say that

Actionable steps. Beautiful illustrations!

I love how they made a book about anti-racism for children, as well as adults. Great book! ✊