This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work

“My optimism has brought me to action and to sharing these words with you because I believe you will help to dismantle and work toward ending racism. We need justice. No one’s names should be memorialized in hashtags.”

Here, Jewell alludes to the victims of police brutality and racist violence, including Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, and Sandra Bland, three Black people whose deaths sparked protests about police brutality in America. Their names became rallying points on social media through hashtags. Jewell wants to imagine and, through Allyship, Activism, and Social Change, work toward a future where police officers do not murder Black people.

“The dominant culture is what has been considered ‘normal’ and this ‘normal’ has been created and is maintained by those who are in the box. It is this version of normal that has shaped how we see ourselves and the world around us.”

This quote examines how power structures are constructed starting at the individual level. The dominant culture creates an imaginary box, or an idea of “normalcy,” that people are expected to aspire to fit into. In turn, people often use this box to understand themselves and others in terms of how well they fit into it.

“Understanding who you are allows you to grow and know more about yourself. It can give you direction and empower you. The world will try to tell you who you are, but you are the only person who gets to decide that.”

Here, Jewell expands on the idea of the imaginary box. Although she acknowledges that readers’ communities are likely to push them to fit into the box, by understanding themselves better, readers can reject existing pressures to fit into what is perceived as “normal.” She argues that naming and owning their own identities can help readers navigate societal pressures to conform. Furthermore, this knowledge will foster more knowledge and, with it, greater capacity to resist.

“Our social identities are broken down into groups, or categories, that we get lumped into. This is not always our choice. Others may place you in categories even though you may not identify in the same way.”

Categories are social constructs that are often incorrectly assigned to people. For example, someone like Jewell may identify as Black biracial, but may be assigned to the category of white in certain circumstances, especially if they have light skin. This quote lays the foundation for understanding race as a social construct and examines the complexity of individual identities.

“Unlike race, which specifically looks at your physical features, ethnicity zeroes in on your family’s cultural and ancestral heritage—like language, traditions, and history—to place you into categories.”

Jewell outlines the distinction between race and ethnicity, albeit noting that the two systems work together to categorize people. Like many systems of categorization, race and ethnicity are socially constructed. Nonetheless, they are real in the sense that they affect people’s history, how people live their lives, and how people are perceived and treated in society.

“Racism is personal prejudice and bias AND the systemic misuse and abuse of power by institutions. When I refer to racism, this is the definition I am using.”

While many people still think of racism solely as a personal prejudice, Jewell is very specific in her analysis of the systemic aspect of racism. Understanding the power of institutions in creating and maintaining systems of oppression is crucial to understanding Jewell’s goals in writing this book: to educate young readers so that they can work to dismantle Racism and Systemic Injustices.

“When you only read one account of history through a single lens, you do not have the whole truth.”

The dominant culture benefits from telling one version of history and obscuring the stories of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. People’s perceptions are shaped just as much by what is absent as by what is present. Jewell argues that when people only understand this one version of history, it makes it hard for them to see the power structures that uphold Racism and Systemic Injustices.

“She tried to make us fear my friend. Her words told us there was something wrong with being Black and African. She tried to make us feel like he was less than human. She showed us she didn’t care about us.”

Jewell demonstrates how her school teacher’s racism is both personal and systemic. The teacher was personally biased against Black and African people, having internalized the narrative that being Black and African means being “inferior.” On a systemic level, the teacher was able to enforce this racist narrative in a classroom in an effort to indoctrinate the other students. In other words, the teacher was able to rely on the authority granted to her as a teacher and as a white adult within a racist system.

“Because my race was not clear to some, they felt the need to question me in order to categorize me. They needed to know if I was ‘one of them’ or not.”

Jewell explores the tension of living outside of the clear categories of white and Black. Her existence and ambiguous identity cause discomfort in others simply because she defies easy categorization. This discomfort reveals people’s wish to identify her as either an insider or an outsider to their own category.

“PREJUDICE is the personal side of racism. It is in an attitude towards an individual or group of folx based on the social group they belong to. Prejudices can be based on stereotypes, misinformation, or fear, and—while they are not always negative—they most often are.”

The personal side of racism almost always centers around identity and how certain identities are given power, or privileged, over others. Jewell explores the personal side of racism as a way to demonstrate how categorizing people can give rise to stereotypes and misinformation about certain groups of people.

“And colonial rule never truly left. While some countries are sovereign, and are not officially owned by other nations, they were left without many of their natural resources, left with overly harvested land, and infertile earth.”

Jewell examines the continued impact of colonization on people from colonized countries as well as on the land. Though she does not outright address this topic, the issue of land is an important one when talking about Racism and Systemic Injustices. The process of colonization involved separating Indigenous people from sovereignty over their land, as well as removing African people from their ancestral homelands to enslave them in America.

“The legacy of enslavement has left us with racist attitudes being our everyday normal.”

In order to justify slavery, white Europeans constructed racial categories that positioned Black people as inferior to white Europeans. Jewell highlights how fabricated racial hierarchy affects people today. The ideas that were invented to justify slavery manifest in society to justify Racism and Systemic Injustices against Black people.

“But one of the results of this [court decision] was the schools for Black children were closed and Black teachers lost their jobs. This resulted in Black children being left with all white teachers who held the belief that Black folx are inferior to white people. They did not understand their new students because they looked at them through a racist lens.”

Jewell looks at the unintended consequences of desegregating schools in the United States, including many Black students losing access to Black teachers, who were able to understand their students in a way that white teachers could not. Jewell is not implying that schools should have stayed segregated. Rather, she is pointing out that Black teachers losing their jobs as a result was a manifestation of institutional racism within the educational system. This harm was compounded as racist white teachers took on Black students and generally failed to deconstruct their own racism so that they could help their Black students better.

“While some were working hard to build the foundation of racism into the solid structure it is today, there has always been resistance to racism.”

When pursuing Allyship, Activism, and Social Change, it is important to remember the history of resistance to Racism and Systemic Injustices. People who are opposed to anti-racism often position anti-racist work as a new social movement. This positioning, however, ignores the long and storied history of resistance to racism. It represents an effort to tell history through only the dominant culture’s lens. Jewell works to challenge this belief when she outlines several examples of activists throughout history who have fought hard for racial equality and resisted racism for hundreds of years.

“When you are silent absolutely nothing changes. You are reinforcing the dominant culture. You are allowing racism to continue on. You not saying anything also tells others you are complicit (okay) with the status quo (how things are).”

This quote looks at one of the many ways that Racism and Systemic Injustices are allowed to continue: through silence and inaction. Jewell argues that when people stay silent, they are contributing to the power structures that keep Black, Brown, and Indigenous people marginalized. Only by being a good ally and speaking up about racial injustices will people be able to combat the complicity of silence and work toward real social change.

“It is okay if people are not happy with this. It is okay for them to be uncomfortable. Racism is not a comfortable existence for Black, Brown, and Indigenous Folx of the Global Majority.

COMFORT WILL NOT END RACISM.”

Here, Jewell emphasizes the role that discomfort plays in Allyship, Activism, and Social Change. Because white people built and, for the most part, uphold systems of racial discrimination, their comfort cannot be centered in anti-racist work. Too much of the way the world works centers the comfort of white people; Jewell encourages readers to flip this narrative and center Black, Brown, and Indigenous people for a change. Rather than striving to keep white people comfortable, everyone should be working to undo the discomfort and suffering that racism causes.

“This is not your work alone. It can’t be. Working in solidarity with others is an incredible way to take action and build collective power for change.”

Jewell often talks about the importance of solidarity and allyship throughout This Book Is Anti-Racist. She cautions against trying to achieve social change alone. Rather, she advocates for readers to find like-minded people with whom they can work to dismantle racist systems.

“I know who I am. And I am still learning how all the parts of me make me a whole person in our society. I know that there are parts of me that exist outside of the box, and parts of me that are inside the box or appeal to the dominant culture.”

Jewell’s journey toward gaining a better understanding of herself is intricately connected to her journey toward being a good activist. By understanding how all of the different parts of her identity work together, Jewell is able to zero in on society’s problems, including the ones that impact her and the ones that do not. Identity is complex, and few people are either wholly within or wholly outside of the dominant culture.

“My adjacency to the dominant culture is my power in undoing it. And I can use this to keep the doors that have been opened for me wide open for those who are on the margins. You can do this too—especially if you are a person in the dominant culture.”

In her examination of Identity, Privilege, and Intersectionality, Jewell points out that many people have at least some degree of privilege in society, even if some aspects of their identities are marginalized. In her case, for instance, her light skin allows her to access some of the privileges of whiteness. Being aware of that privilege and deliberately using it to help others is essential to anti-racist activism and organization.

“Allyship is not about you. It’s not a performance or something you do to get more likes on social media. It’s something you are working toward for a more just society.”

Jewell explains the purpose of allyship in her discussion of Allyship, Activism, and Social Change. It can be tempting and easy for people to understand their activism and allyship as a way to make themselves look better, but Jewell notes that that is not enough. True allyship is selfless, challenging, and sometimes without recognition. Despite those difficulties, being an anti-racist ally is still worth it for the benefits that anti-racism can bring to society.

“For a long time I tried to change a very slow-moving institution and move them toward having an anti-racist identity. I tried to do this alone. I shared a lot of my time and energy, knowledge and resources for free. I was exhausted, frustrated, angry, disheartened, and ready to give up.”

Solidarity is crucial to anti-racist organizing. Racism and Systemic Injustices are upheld through intricate systems of power; striving to dismantle these systems alone can quickly become overwhelming and draining. Jewell learned the hard way that she needed the emotional support of other anti-racists to gain ground and maintain her energy.

“I have spent my whole life understanding who I am. My skin color hasn’t changed, but my awareness of it has. So has my understanding of how my own history of being a descendant of both the colonizers and the colonized has impacted how society views me and how I see myself.”

A lot of This Book Is Anti-Racist focuses on understanding one’s own position in broader systems. As an individual’s understanding of their place in the narrative grows, so does their ability to dismantle systems of oppression and do the important work of anti-racism. Identity, Privilege, and Intersectionality are complex topics that are not always intuitive. Understanding them takes practice and careful self-reflection.

“Everyone makes mistakes and we can learn from these so we can do better.”

Jewell readily acknowledges that the work of Allyship, Activism, and Social Change is often imperfect. Understanding what racism is and how it functions does not guarantee that an individual will be able to address these issues in their own life without making mistakes. Jewell also acknowledges that her own activist practice is similarly imperfect, giving young readers a role model to look up to who is human and flawed just like them.