Introduction
Scope and Main Ideas
Although many of Ibram X Kendi's books were published for general audiences rather than youth, young people (especially teenagers) have embraced his powerful ideas about racial justice in America. As his books have begun to make their way into school libraries and school curriculum, adults and parents in communities across America have responded by demanding their removal from collections. Kendi's books confront racism directly and encourage readers to engage in anti-racist thinking and activism.
As you navigate this website you'll find discussion of some of Kendi's major works that have been banned/challenged, as well as his own words about censorship and intellectual freedom. In studying the reasons for his books being challenged, I hope to answer the larger questions at hand: Why are people angry about racism being addressed in this way? Why do some people feel that youth need to be protected from discussions of race? How can educators and librarians prepare to defend Kendi's books (and other books about racism) from bans and challenges?
Author Biography
Who is Ibram X. Kendi?
Kendi was born in 1982 in Jamaica, Queens, where he lived and attended private school until his family moved to Manassas, Virginia when he was 15 years old. He attended Florida A&M University where he double-majored in African-American Studies and magazine production. He "initially aspired for a career in sports journalism," but eventually his interests evolved to "engaging in racial justice work." In 2010, he earned a Ph.D in African-American Studies at Temple University. He has taught at SUNY
Oneonta, SUNY Albany, the University of Florida, American University, and Boston University, as well as serving as visiting professor for several universities.
In 2020, Kendi was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Professorship by Boston University. He is the founding director of BU's Center of Anti-Racist Research. In 2021, he was named a Young Global Leader the World Economic Forum, joining a cohort of "the most promising leaders around the globe under the age of 40." He also has connections to the library world: he served a fellowship in American History at the Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center from 2010-2011. He also writes for The Atlantic and CBS News.
Kendi is widely regarded as a pre-eminent scholar of racial studies and is frequently called upon in the media about such topics. In 2016, he published Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racism in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction (at 34, that makes him the youngest person to ever with the NBA for Nonfiction). Along with numerous op-eds and academic texts, Kendi has published five #1 New York Times bestsellers: How to Be an Antiracist, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, (an adaptation of the original Stamped for teen audiences, co-authored with YA author Jason Reynolds), Antiracist Baby, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky (which was famously used as a prop by Senator Ted Cruz during the hearing of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson), and Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019. Stamped has also been adapted for middle grade readers by Dr. Sonja Cherry-Paul.
His upcoming releases are Goodnight Racism, a bedtime picture book, and How to Raise an Antiracist, a parenting guide based on his own experiences becoming a father. Kendi, his wife, Sadiqa, and his daughter, Imani, currently live in Boston, Massachusetts.
On Censorship
Kendi's own words on challenges and book bans
On why censors target ideas that are different from the majority:
“I think in general, people who recognize the way that particular ideas can be a detriment to their own political, economic or even cultural interests, are typically the people who are behind censorship. They of course try to censor, or de-legitimize, at least, those ideas that are directly critical or a threat to the ideas that they themselves stand on. And I think the reason why they censor those ideas is because they know their own ideas, or what they stand on. Presumably people could realize that it’s a lot hollower than they make it out to be.” - The Interview Project, ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom.
I highly recommend watching this video from an MSNBC Interview where Kendi speaks on censorship!
On why books about race and antiracism are especially being targeted lately:
An excerpt from the interview above: “I think people have been misled into believing that the problem isn’t racism, isn’t racial inequality, isn’t racial injustice, [but that] the problem are those who are speaking out against racial inequity and injustice – that they’re anti-white. I think people believe this white nationalist talking point that those who are striving to create equity and justice for all – whether it’s by race or class or gender or sexuality – that somehow we’re the problem. So books, of course, reveal the true problem, and reveal it to young and old people, and for whatever reason, people want to stop that revelation.”
On the unique challenges of combating censorship in the 21st century:
“[The current climate] necessitates more bravery. When you’re striving to be antiracist, and there are some people who are loudly and forcibly striving to be racist who end up combating you and people like you, it takes more courage [to respond] than it did, for instance, at this time last year. We have to ensure that we are organizing and building the capacity to not just withstand assaults from those who seek to either maintain or create injustice but also build toward equity. Where there are efforts to take books off shelves, we have to organize to put more books on shelves so we can build a better democracy.” - American Libraries Magazine