In this chapter about space, Kendi explains how Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus are inherently racist, but Mercury is antiracist because of it being a darker planet, not trying to hide its blackness. That’s not really what this chapter is about (“LOL JK” is how the kids would say it nowadays), but if you’ve read my other reviews of this book, this idea wouldn’t really be surprising since we are called to find the racism inherent in everything. That is the critical part of critical race theory. Space, in the context Kendi talks about in this chapter, refers to the physical space we share as a people. This space can either be governed by a certain race or be made up of a majority of a certain race. Kendi starts the chapter by defining Space Racism and Space Antiracism.

“SPACE RACISM: A powerful collection of racist policies that lead to resource inequity between racialized spaces or the elimination of certain racialized spaces, which are substantiated by racist ideas about racialized space.
SPACE ANTIRACISM: A powerful collection of antiracist policies that lead to resource equity between integrated and protected racialized spaces, which are substantiated by antiracist ideas about racialized space.”

There is a ton to unpack in the definitions above. Kendi takes a very Marxist view on resources. Resources are not meant to be found, obtained, given productive value in a marketplace, and a capital exchange given to the person or persons who found a way to utilize that resource to incentivize more discover and innovation, but resources are just entities owned by the people (or the state) and must be distributed equally (or to whomever is in the favor of the state at the time). Racialized spaces is a concept he will explain throughout the chapter, but in its base form, is just segregation as a form of discrimination to correct past discrimination, or what people outside of critical theory would call racism. This leads us to the final part of each definition above which is the substantiation of racism through racist ideas about racialized spaces. Basically, if you disagree with me, you’re a racist. Very airtight logic here. Who needs science and objective truth when we have critical theory to explain how we should view the world?

“We called our African American studies space a Black space – it was, after all, governed primarily by Black bodies, Black thoughts, Black cultures, and Black histories. Of course, the spaces at Temple University governed primarily by White bodies, White thoughts, White cultures, and White histories were not labeled White. They hid the Whiteness of their spaces behind the veil of color blindness.”

This is the opening paragraph of the chapter. Kendi starts off most of his chapters with openly ignorant statements which he then critiques and corrects throughout the chapter to show how much he has grown as a person. This is a very useful writing technique if you can stay on message, something Kendi is awful at. The contradictions in this book just keep on coming. A few chapters ago, Kendi would have claimed the idea that black thoughts or white thoughts would be a racist idea using his own definitions. This would mean there is such a thing as a black or white idea. Kendi continues on after the opening paragraph to dive into African American studies positions that claim European ideas took over the way that all Western people view the world. This isn’t a racist idea itself, although it isn’t correct, but he then conflates European ideas with white ideas to stay on his racist narrative. This conflation directly contradicts the message he pretends to push in his book. There aren’t spaces of any color hiding behind a veil of deception, but there is racism hiding behind the veil of antiracism.

“A space is racialized when a racial group is known to either govern the space or make up the clear majority in the space… Policies of space racism overresource White spaces and underresource non-White spaces. Ideas of space racism justify resource inequity through creating a racial hierarchy of space, lifting White spaces as heaven, down-grading non-White spaces as hell.”

If Kendi wants to end the use of the term “black/white community,” I’m all for it. That seems to be what he is saying here, although many quotes he gives throughout this book would dispute that, and it isn’t a popular idea among most critical race theorists. The next part is where he uses inequity in terms Karl Marx would approve of. If we consider resources to just be commodities that are owned and distributed by the government, then we should demand these resources be distributed more equally, but that isn’t what resources are in a free society. Resources are gained through labor and investment. There are some resources distributed by government via tax dollars, and local dollars will benefit those taxpayers more than a different neighborhood with lower tax revenue, but we can’t mark that up to racism. Some communities have more wealth than others. The only remedy people like Kendi see for this inequity is to demand the resources paid for by those who found a way to build capital of their own. Not all rich people are good or moral people, the same way that not all poor people are good or moral people, but that doesn’t mean we should use the government gun to force them to give up their money. That is a recipe for disaster where the rich will leave and the only other option is to not allow them to leave, Soviet Union style. Kendi ended this paragraph by quoting President Trump saying, “We have a situation where we have our inner cities, African Americans, Hispanics, are living in hell, because it’s so dangerous.” He then juxtaposed this quote with another President Trump quote saying, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Other than these quotes and the accompanying contexts are separated by 2 years, Kendi tries to conflate the message of (1) inner city crime disproportionately affect black and Hispanic populations, and (2) immigration from impoverished or crime ridden countries can have a major downside. I’m not sure what connection these both have with each other, but if I were to guess Kendi’s point here, he believes President Trump pretends to stand up for non-whites in the US while shaming non-whites coming to America. I added the “non-white” context because I imagine that is Kendi’s only contribution to this discussion. It’s ironic that the person who claims to be an antiracist injects racism into all things. President Trump’s first statement clearly illuminated the poor and terrifying conditions many people live in due to crime caused by others in the community, not a black verse white position. President Trump’s second statement referring to people bringing in the bad ideas that made their [expletive] countries the [expletive] they are fleeing from. Both statements didn’t imply skin color was a cause but only the ideas and behavior.

Kendi rambles on the rest of the chapter citing past instances of racism and discrimination to say we are just as racist today. Nothing really outside the norm for someone who injects racism into everything. He even cites the great Thomas Sowell at one point to back his “black spaces” narrative. In summation, it’s all about the resources. This would be true if we assumed all cultures and the behaviors incentivized by those cultures are equal, but we know this is not true and it is not racist to say that since we also recognize race and culture are not explicitly tied together. This is at the center of this conflict of visions. Are we blank slates who can change our behavior if given the resources, or are we constrained by human behavior and must create incentives to better our behavior? If we allow government to use resources as a tool to fix what it sees as inequities, what does that do to our incentive structure? Combine these questions with Kendi’s attempts to dismantle cultural and societal standards, and what will we get? We already know what we will get. The freedom to be enslaved by a new ruling class. The wealth of absolute poverty. The safety of the government gun. A free education in a gulag. The justice of the mob. The right to replace our individual dreams with a collective nightmare.

Thanks for reading my rant style review of the thirteenth chapter of How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Please let me know if you find this useful. My goal here is to explain each chapter enough and in a somewhat objective way so others don’t waste their time and money on investigating this material themselves. I know this kind of goes against the logic of investigation where you want to read the source material yourself and build your own conclusions, but this is a very shallow read that does not strain the mind, in any positive way at least, like any proper academic book should. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

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