Why Deracializing People Is Essential to Combating Racism

The solutions to America’s social problems are more complex than what leading antiracist thinkers like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo propose. The moral vision needed to enact these solutions is wider, the policy solutions more ambitious, and the leadership even more inclusive.

One way to think bigger is to address racism at its source: the very notion that humans can be divided into biological races with distinct and essential characteristics. This belief is one of the few things that otherwise opposed political camps agree on. White supremacists swear by it. Antiracists treat it as real, if not central to their cause. People critical of antiracists won’t lay a glove on it. Everyone else accepts it without a second thought.

Such “racial essentialism” has no support in science. Experts in disciplines ranging from genetics to anthropology report that racial classification is biologically meaningless. Although humanity contains a multitude of cultures and ancestries, there is only one human race. You, I and the other 7.8 billion inhabitants of the planet share 99.9 percent of our genetic material. The handful of genes that code for skin color and facial features tell you nothing about a person’s character, intelligence, or athletic ability. In the words of journalist Isabel Wilkerson, skin color is like a birth mark that covers the entire body.

The history of racial essentialism is not pretty. Southern plantation owners used it to justify the enslavement of human beings. Many people think that racism created slavery, but it’s the other way around. Chattel slavery (ownership for one’s lifetime) had existed for decades as a profitable enterprise before state legislatures created legal racial categories to justify it. They did this because slavery ran afoul of the country’s democratic ideals. How can you keep human beings in bondage doing unpaid labor yet claim to believe that “all men are created equal?” Simple: declare that enslaved people are a different and inferior race. In an instant, all forms of brutal treatment become permissible.

Most Americans today abhor such brutality yet go along with the racial essentialism that undergirds it. Every day, in families, workplaces, and public spaces, Americans act as though biological races are real. Referring to someone as “white” or “black” is as natural as calling them “tall” or “short” and feels just as true.

Race is also embedded in how we talk about public problems. Consider, for example, statistics about health, income, and crime. Although we may disagree about what these data mean, we unquestionably accept the racial categories in which they are reported. “Race” also appears on official documents that confer legitimacy to it. What could be more legitimate than the U.S. Census?

The Costs of Racial Essentialism

The widespread practice of racial essentialism carries substantial costs:

• Every time we racialize another person by calling them “black” or “white,” we stop seeing their full humanity. We assume things to be true about them rather than recognizing their unique individuality.
• Racial essentialism keeps racism alive. The more entrenched racial categories are in the public mind, the easier it is for white power advocates to use them for their own nefarious purposes — and for the rest of us to slip into old stereotypes and cognitive biases.
• The American conversation around race and racism is stuck. One big reason: we haven’t untangled ourselves from this false and divisive concept.

Neither mainstream antiracists nor their critics talk about these costs. Meanwhile, white power advocates see them not as problems, but as opportunities. Polarization and racialization fuel their movement.

More Than One Way to be Antiracist

When you look around at the landscape, there doesn’t appear to be an alternative to embracing racial essentialism. Antiracists who accept it have big megaphones and large audiences. If you’re not totally down with their program, it can feel like you have no place to go.

Fortunately, there is way out. The first step is to realize that there is more than one way to combat racism — more than one way to be antiracist.

You can stand up for dignity and against injustice while honoring each person’s humanity as a unique raceless individual. You can dedicate yourself to improving people’s lives without going along with racial essentialism. You can appreciate someone’s cultural heritage and ancestry without confusing either with false biological categories. Doing these things requires seeing the world with fresh eyes and stretching yourself into new habits. This isn’t easy, but it gives you a solid place to stand. There is no need to apologize for being less than other antiracists. After all, your aim is larger: not simply pointing out examples of racism, but undermining it at its source.

This is the path of the anti-race antiracist.

When I first heard Greg Thomas use this term, I was both inspired and intrigued. How can we combat racism if we aren’t willing to talk about race?

Race as Topic versus Race as Classification

We can start by clearing up a common misunderstanding. When people hear the phrase “anti-race,” they often think this means opposition to discussing how police violence, wealth inequality, and the criminal justice system affect some groups more than others. This interpretation is understandable, because it follows from one of the most common ways we use the word “race.” When people say “We need to talk about race,” they are using “race” to represent a catch-all umbrella of topics related to racism, discrimination, skin color, affirmative action, and police violence. They don’t want to talk about whether “black” and “white” people have meaningful genetic differences. They want to discuss health disparities, redlining, or the debate about removing Confederate statues. I call this Race as Topic.

If you are an anti-race antiracist, you support Race as Topic. You may not agree that racism is the sole or even major cause of these social problems. But you recognize that it plays a role (varying in size depending on the problem) and are committed to discussing it.

What the anti-race antiracist opposes is racial essentialism, or what I call Race as Classification. Here we are using “race” to represent a system for classifying human beings into distinct categories like “black” and “white,” each of which claims to capture a group’s biology, character, and other essential attributes. Race as Classification was created to justify slavery, has no genetic basis, and is at the root of racism.

The anti-race antiracist says yes to Race as Topic and no to Race as Classification.

• Yes to Race as Topic. It’s important to discuss racial bias, racial inequality, and racial injustice.
• No to Race as Classification. It’s not helpful to view people as members of a biological race. Human beings are complex creatures who differ in culture and ancestry, but not biological race.

Embracing Culture

Americans use the word “race” to refer to two other things: culture and ancestry. This confusion is understandable yet unfortunate. Culture and ancestry are important phenomena, but neither requires a belief in biological racial categories.

Let’s start with culture. Although there is no such thing as a black race, there is Black American culture. This culture is based not on immutable biological categories but on shared traditions and social practices. Take, for example, President Obama. Although he was born with darker skin than me, he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, places with little Black American culture. Only after moving to New York and especially Chicago did he immerse himself in and become part of this rich culture. Obama wasn’t born with Black American culture. He grew into it. That’s because culture is related to but not dictated by skin color, and neither is connected to the falsehood of biological race.

This is good news. It means that you can let go of the disaster of Race as Classification while staying true to the dignity of culture.

Doing this brings a second benefit. It allows you to more fully appreciate the power and flexibility of culture. Once culture is something you learn rather than something you are born with, it opens up enormous possibilities. No music, art, language, movement, or humor is the sole and exclusive property of any particular group. There is no divine European right to Beethoven any more than there is a divine Black American right to Louis Armstrong. In both cases, you can listen because you are curious and keep listening if you enjoy it. Over time, the music becomes part of your own cultural makeup. Such is true with art, language, humor, movement, and every other dimension of culture.

Acknowledging Ancestry

Then there is ancestry. Ancestry is about geography: where your great-great-great-great grandparents came from. Whereas biological race is an immutable category, ancestry is a story of traveling. Whereas biological race has no scientific basis, ancestry is something you can trace (as long as a record of it exists). Most importantly, the origin of your ancestors tells you nothing about your character and very little about your genetics. On a genetic level, a person from Senegal is 99.9 percent as similar as a person from Northern Ireland as they are to a second person from Senegal. Think about that for a second.

This brings more good news: you can love and acknowledge your ancestors even while ridding yourself of biological race.

This also has vital medical implications. Certain diseases are disproportionately present in specific portions of the population. Knowing who these groups are helps health care providers diagnose and treat their conditions. Fortunately, we don’t need Race as Classification to do this. Ancestry will do. For example, sickle-cell anemia is common in people with ancestors from certain African counties like Senegal (among other places, like India and Greece), and cystic fibrosis in people with ancestors from certain Northern European countries. Scientists describe such correlations by referring to these countries, not to terms like “black” and “white.”

We can rid ourselves of racial essentialism while still tending to distinctive medical conditions.

Benefits of Being an Anti-race Antiracist

The path of the anti-race antiracist may appeal to you if you are:

• Committed to combating racism and wrestling with American history yet uncomfortable with the simplistic thinking and dogmatism that marks much of today’s antiracism
• Attracted to thoughtful critiques of antiracism yet longing for the passionate engagement with injustice that is often absent in these critiques
• Open to reconsidering long-held worldviews if they prove counterproductive and/or unscientific
• Willing to experiment with deracializing yourself and others as part of your growth journey as an adult

This journey allows you to:

1. Combat racism more effectively. As we’ve seen, racial essentialism underpins hateful ideologies and makes all racism possible. Growing beyond this and showing others how to do the same help you stand for something better.

2. Focus on improving lives. Having a broader vision than most antiracist thinkers allows you to prioritize the impact of proposals on actual people’s lives.

Consider: If you heard of a public policy that didn’t directly combat racism but improved the lives of Americans racialized as black, would you support it?

3. Speak more freely. It’s exhausting to walk on pins and needles while having conversations. That’s the problem with believing in racial essences. When you call someone “black” or “white,” you’re not just talking about their skin color or hair. You’re invoking assumptions about their character, personality, and intelligence — even their genetic makeup. In such a minefield, being careful with your words isn’t paranoid. It’s prudent.

In contrast, when you abandon racial essentialism, things feel different. Instead of calling someone “black,” you note that they have “mocha skin.” This is a factual assertion that suggests nothing about the person’s essence. When you know this in your heart, you don’t need to worry about offending them. And if others get offended, you don’t need to take responsibility for their emotions. At the very worst, you’ve displayed your own ineptitude with finer color distinctions. This you can correct.

4. Carry less burden. When introducing the possibility of deracialization to others, particularly folks identified as white, I hear one reaction over and over again: “I feel liberated.” That’s because racial essentialism places a heavy burden on all of our shoulders. By letting go of this notion, we feel less burdened and more energized to act. Some people reading this may think, “The purpose of all this isn’t to unburden white people.”

Consider: If you could improve the lives of Americans racialized as black, but this required unburdening white-identified people, would you do it?

5. Sleep better at night. Refuting the core foundation of the ideology of slaveholders and white nationalists feels good. It creates a peaceful and harmonious feeling. This is good for sleep.

6. Build backbone. It’s easy in today’s climate to get knocked off balance. When a true believer antiracist suggests that your perspectives aren’t strong or radical enough, part of you believes them. Recognizing the problematic nature of racial essentialism changes all of this. Now it’s you, not the true believer, who is aiming more directly at the roots of racism. You don’t have to take a back seat to anyone.

7. Get more curious about people. The less you classify and categorize someone, the more dimensions of their experience you have to explore. If you don’t know their essence, that leaves much to discover.

There is more than one way to be antiracist. Growing beyond racial essentialism is a useful place to start.

This is an excerpt from How to Be an Anti-race Antiracist. Get this free e-book here.

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