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How to Be an Anti-Racist Book Club Guide

This guide includes the curriculum you need to run a book club based on Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist, as well as supplementary reading and videos.

Chapter 18

A downloadable copy of this guide can be found here.

Goals for Chapter 18

  • Identify areas of personal growth you have gone through
  • Identify specific policies to work on going forward
  • Critique the use of education as an anti-racism strategy

Discussion Questions

Go over the group agreements, then discuss the following questions:

  • How has it been for you since the last meeting? Did anything from the book stick with you during that time?
  • What were your “aha!” moments while reading this chapter?
  • Why do you think Kendi structured the final chapters in this order (failure -> success -> survival)?
  • Kendi writes on page 230, “Educational and moral suasion is not only a failed strategy. It is a suicidal strategy.” Why is this? What is the alternative?
  • What are you doing to change policy? What is OSULP doing to change policy? What is OSU doing to change policy?
  • On page 238, Kendi writes “But before we can treat, we must believe.” Discuss the beliefs Kendi lists out in this paragraph.
    • Do you believe in the things on this list? Why or why not?
    • What does a future with these truths look like?
  • Thinking back over the last year, where have you grown the most? Where do you still want to learn more?

Wrap up: Depending on time, you may ask people to put these in chat

  • What is a specific action you can take in the next week that is anti-racist?
  • What worked today? What didn’t work?

Additional Materials