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Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
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11 Nov, 5 tweets, 3 min read
“We the people of the United States do not have a single national soul, but rather two souls, warring with each other. The battle for the soul of America is actually the battle between the souls of America.”

My latest @TheAtlantic. 1/5

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
“Humans lie about themselves, like they lie about their nations. Humans and nations hide behind the cloak of ideals and intentions. But the outcome of what humans do and what nations do is never a lie.” 2/5
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
“Nations—like institutions and individuals—are not inherently anything. They are what they do. What they do is what they breathe. And what they breathe is their soul.” 3/5
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
“Opposing forces can dwell in a mind, in a nation. But can opposing forces dwell in a soul—if soul is elemental like breath? It is hard to imagine the enslaver and the enslaved being together in any elemental sense.” 4/5
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
“There is a divide in America between the souls of injustice and justice: souls in opposition like fire and ice, like voters and voter subtraction, like Trump and truth.”

My latest @TheAtlantic. 5/5
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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More from @DrIbram

Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
7 Nov
The term “legal vote” is as fictionally fraught and functionally racist as the terms “illegal alien” and “race neutral” and “welfare queen” and “handouts” and “super predator” and “crackbaby” and “personal responsibility” and “post racial.”
There are so many more terms like this. What did I leave out?
The misinformation of widespread voter fraud—or “illegal voting”—in Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Phoenix where Black and Brown voters predominate is baked into the term "legal vote.” No matter what GOP propaganda says, there’s nothing wrong with those voters and votes.
Read 4 tweets
Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
3 Nov
On this #ElectionDay, it is important to stress that politics is another word for power. To not do politics is to not do power. And what happens when we don’t do power? Fascism happens. Bigotry happens. Injustice happens. To engage in politics is to engage our power. 1/6
Voting is one form of political engagement. Unlike the Trump campaign of voter subtraction, voter manipulation, and voter depression—all to divide and conquer people, all to snatch power from the people, all to convince people they have no power—we must recognize our power. 2/6
We have the power on #ElectionDay—on every day—to hold elected officials accountable. These elected officials are the visible vessels to the invisible core of power—the policies that make better or worse our lives. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
27 Sep
It really is. And the White savior is the oldest racist idea. It emanates from the first book of racist ideas finished in 1453, a bio of Prince Henry's pioneering transatlantic slave trading of African people. Henry enslaved to save souls (and not make money), G. Zurara wrote.
The White savior idea is literally 567 years old, at least. It is so deeply held, so widespread, no wonder there was such a visceral and angry reaction to my challenging that racist idea; my challenging the fallacy that the White savior is "not racist."
And the White savior idea informs what I call "savior theology." That the job of the Christian is to save all those backward, savage, lowly humans. Thank God I learned liberation theology. That the job of the Christian is to liberate oppressed peoples from their oppression.
Read 5 tweets
Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
27 Sep
Let’s talk about persecution, and why it animates the tyranny of Trumpism. The historic defense of violent American bigotry is a projection of persecution rooted in a violent denial of reality. 1/13
Slaveholders imagined they were being persecuted by immoral and illegal abolitionists. Read the statements of secession. White male slaveholders imagined they were being persecuted for being seduced by enslaved Black women they raped. Read their fiction. 2/13
Ku Klux Klansmen imagined White people were being persecuted by tyrannical Black politicians and voters and landowners and activists. Read the statements justifying their lynchings and massacres and whitecapping. 3/13
Read 14 tweets
Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
14 Sep
I’m pleased to unveil the astonishing cover of FOUR HUNDRED SOULS: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, which I edited alongside the award-winning historian @KeishaBlain. This historic volume is coming out @OneWorldLit on Feb. 2, 2021. 1/9
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624334/f…
Histories of Black America have almost always been written by individuals, usually men. But why not a community of writers chronicling the history of a community? 2/9
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624334/f…
@KeishaBlain and I assembled a community of 80 writers and 10 poets who represented some of the best Black recorders of Black America at its four-hundred-year mark. Though the project was conceived in 2018, most of the pieces were written in 2019. 3/9
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/624334/f…
Read 9 tweets
Ibram X. Kendi Profile picture
7 Sep
They say it’s divisive to point to bad policies as the racial problem and not people. Meaning they think it’s unifying to go after certain racial groups as the problem. 1/11
They say it’s divisive to say the racial groups are equals. Meaning they think it’s unifying to claim certain racial groups are superior or inferior. 2/11
They say it’s divisive to recognize and respect different cultures. Meaning they think it’s unifying to tell proud cultural groups to assimilate into a supposedly superior White American culture. 3/11
Read 11 tweets

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