You're listening to Comedy Central, So how to be a young anti racist? That means you're already banned in Florida. So it's funny when we talk about race because we live in a country that, um, the Congress's in it voted for June tenth bill. But with the same nations that don't want to talk about slavery, they will have Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee Day on the
same days. So I think when it comes to racism, I think that a lot of people believe that if they're not actively saying the N word or doing their same bigger than things, that means they're not racist. So how can we start a conversation about being anti race when you're not quite sure how to quantify racism? We are,
but I don't think a lot of people are. And I think that's that's the very point, because if you're not doing anything to challenge all of the injustice and all of the inequity in our society, then what happens, It persists, So therefore you're reinforcing it, So therefore you're being racist, And so we're encouraging people to actively try to dismantle us the structure, including young people. But what what is their incentive? Like, what would they being nick?
What is there if this system is working for you or not, It doesn't cause you anywhere when you can sleep at night, why would you want to change the system? It doesn't. It seems to be going just as you intended. But is it actually working for you? Right? It seems like yes. I think for me, it's all about children, right, Like, even though this is a system that might seem like
it's working for you, the world is actively changing. If your children are not prepared to live in a world and move to a world that have people that are different from them in positions of power, it's gonna be in trouble. Yeah, But then they try to remake the world. You see that literally where a nation that is run by the flintstones and the in the in the jet sinness and the stones are winning. You have to understand it.
I don't believe a lot of people, For instance, I don't believe white people a lot of white people are actively racist. But I do believe that the notions of white supremacists. They don't agree with their methods, but they agree with their goal, which is to keep white people in charge. And so if that is the premise, then then what incentive, seriously would there be to make these changes that only destabilize what you know works for you.
I think one of the things we've been showing and studying racism is that it's actually harming white people too. It's not harming them at the level it's harming people of color. But there are actually white people who are dying of police violence. They're not dying at the level of black and brown people. But more white people are dying of police violence in this country than other countries.
More white people are incarcerated in this country than other countries, More white people are struggling to vote in this country compared to other countries. There were five million about poor whites in eighteen sixties whose poverty was directly connected to the enslavement of black But I think a lot of white people don't get this. When you pour you are, you are what you are like that. I don't think people understand that generally what hurts me hurts you. What
is good for me is good for you. And I think that. But there is that thing and uh where where you know people will give their last time to keep things a certain way, as long as it hurts you, Like, look at what happened with the Obamacare Act. A lot of those people in those poor states are being hurt by that, but they don't care as long as you are. Yeah. But the sense of optimism is in what you said earlier, children, because in children you have not minds there the whole
different thing. But um, but in our children we can see the potential of things that we hope to never that we hope we can realize probably never will. So that is an angle. I think that it's probably substitut Yeah. I think when it comes to children, I have two of my own, and it's important for me that they enter a world that they feel empowered to change, which
is why we wrote this book. Right. So, Dr Kendy wrote his memoir years ago and I latched onto it, slid into his deers, and asked if I could do a young reader's version, because it's important that young people have the tools. I get so many kids who are asking, well, what do I do? How do I help? What do I change? How can I get into this fight and
do something about it? And so creating a text like how to be a young Anti Racist we're giving them information where they're learning these definitions or learning what racism actually what racism actually is. So racism is a system of ideas. So you have racist ideas and they are basically they're made to keep inequities going right, So the whole purpose of a book like How to Be a Young Anti Racist is to give young people terms that we can all agree on. That way we know what
we're standing against, like racism. Having a term at definition for racism helps them see, Okay, this is what we're trying to fight. Because one of the things that happens is people who have historically been racist refused to define that term, of course, because it watches them to exonerate themselves consistently and constantly, and even young people therefore don't know what it is, so they can't even assess themselves
and guide themselves. How would they know. We have a lot of people who are raised by people who moved out of places that black people are moving into. Right that was that was predicate that we're gonna move out of places that black people are moving into. But those are the people who have the conversation with the people who are now having the conversation with the team, so they don't think the thing that they did was racist.
That's that's that's a level of obliviousness that you can't you can't quite quantify it is and and indeed are you know, the heartbeat of being racist is denial. And
this denial is consistent and constant and in sitious. You know, it does give me hope when when I see people like your book beat my book in the New York Times best sellingness get say no, I'm just going And and it's interesting because then they came along at a time and you had written a good while back, but it resurfaced when the George Floyd protest was coming on. They really seemed a moment, uh, And they seems these inflection points where we can generally people are really open
to listen. But the problem is it's so fast. You can only get attention so fast, and then we're onto the next thing. And I think that's that's not even a purposeful I think it's just the function of how we live. But if you could say a substitutive thing that people could do every day, like in practice, every day, where they could be an example, because every time somebody says something, if somebody deems hurtful, they automatically stop. I don't want to hear anymore. I'm tired of this already.
We're a slaver for one of the years. But Jim crowing around you like trying to not be a slave as not we haven't had to put as much elbow greeps into that. But books like this and having conversations where people don't turn off are really the crux of what we need to be doing. And for young people, it's so much easier to, like it is to learn a language. It's got to be even easier to learn the love language. Right, it's gotta be easier to learn.
And um, what do I because because I get angry, Like when black people do, it's called anger, when white people are doing it's called right this indignation. But it's really hard to come from a place of anger and try to be trying to cheat somebody something. So I think at least a media owners has to be lowering the temperature and listening, right, Yeah, And I mean, look, the book is really all about first turning inward. I think part of the issue is that we don't do
a good job of humanizing ourselves. We don't give ourselves the space to be angry angry, we don't give ourselves a space to be sad. We don't give ourselves the space to have unpopular opinions right like we do. We're all usual. But even that, you know the fact that you're like, I'm angry, and I don't you know, I don't know how I feel about being angry, Like it makes sense that we're angry. So taking the time to look inward and figure out the beauty of how to
be an anti racist. The adult book was that you get Abraham's whole story where he is very open about the racist ideas that he was holding. So taking that and distilling it down for young people so that they can see, oh dang, this thing that I'm thinking is probably a little racist. We had an event last night in Atlanta and our team moderator that was the first question she asked us. She was like, I read the book and it pointed out to me all of the ways that I have racist ideas, and it made me
feel away about myself. What am I supposed to do? So then having that self compassion where you can see, Okay, yes I am a product of a racist environment. I probably have some racist ideas. Taking the time to give yourself some grace, you'll give other people some grace too, And that's how we kind of like get to a point where we're working together. The thing that's so frustrating for me is our our stories tend to start in the middle, Like we were something before this, and our
stories seemed to start in the middle. So and it's just like, even what's going on in Florida, you don't even want us to learn our history, Like there was a time when enslave people couldn't learn and now it's illegal for us to learn about enslaved people. Yeah, so it's just like that. And you would have heard that had you not beat me in the New York Times
best Sellers. And I think, I think that we have a lot to learn about how things work and to really half constructive conversations because it's so much more fulfilling to me to shout at somebody, but it doesn't really accomplish anything. And I'm really very proud that you write books like this. And I think the younger you start, I mean, you gotta not be an anti racist baby. You have the baby, ste you have the baby, What is the baby gonna do like, look you learning somewhere.
You either learn to love people you learn to hate them, like I don't want chocolate milk I wanted. I'll be a a young Antasis and the young anti racers won't look Available now. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcast. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Fair Amount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast