Dr. Ibram X Kendi

Dr. Ibram Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, spoke to the Davidson community as this year’s Reynolds Lecture speaker. He answered questions posed by the community about how both individuals and those in power can make changes to combat institutional racism. He emphasized the need for internal reflection and questioning already existing policies. For individuals, recognizing privilege is an important first step because one can use their voice to speak out for the unheard voices. As he spoke, I thought about my own privilege and where it comes from. Part of it comes from my family’s social status, but part of it inherently comes from my body, as a white woman in an upper-middle class neighborhood, I am extremely privileged compared to the minority women who live in my own neighborhood. Later in his lecture, Dr. Kendi answered a question about writing traumatic stories: he explained that vulnerability is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate humanity. This reminded me of our first discussion about defining the humanities and why they are important– to learn empathy. And in order to empathize with past lives and stories, we need to recognize their humanity. I connected this to “The Dangers of the Single Story” by Adichie because if history is only told by the victors, then we face the threat of losing the humanity of the loser and losing their voices. History will become singularly dictated by those with power and privilege. That is why we must have these difficult conversations about race and trauma, and we cannot be afraid to show vulnerability because vulnerability makes us human. It connects us with other human beings who have shared experiences, or at least shared emotions.