Candace Owens Battles Racial Activist Ibram X. Kendi: You’re ‘Fighting’ ‘Non-Racists’
On this week’s episode of “Candace,” host Candace Owens dissected and criticized the racial philosophy of Ibram X. Kendi in a new segment called “counterpoint.”
Owens invited Kendi onto her show, but heard no response from Kendi or his team. So, instead, Owens played a clip of the author reading from his own book, “How to Be an Antiracist,” before giving her own response (video below).
Kendi, whose real name is Ibram Henry Rogers, Owens noted, is focused on so-called “non-racists” because there is such a fringe portion of the population who are actual racists. While Martin Luther King Jr. was fighting actual racists and racism, Owens argued, Kendi is ironically focusing on people who aren’t racist, mostly white people. In Kendi’s view, Owens said, it’s not enough to be not racist, one must be an activist and do Kendi’s “bidding,” lest they be deemed a racist.
Kendi took to Twitter to claim Owens was mischaracterizing his work, though she played a clip of Kendi reading his own work before she added commentary, and a battle between the pair unfolded.
“Restating the title for accuracy: Candace Owens dismantles Candace Owens’s flawed anti-racist rhetoric. Yet again someone is describing my work in a way I reject and attacking their own flawed description,” Kendi started a Twitter thread criticism Owens.
Quoting Owens, he wrote: “What he is alleging is that unless you are anti, which he defines as meaning, you are aggressively, constantly attacking it, then somehow you become it. So if you are not aggressively everyday waking up and looking and seeing racism everywhere, then you’re a racist.”
“That’s actually not what I’m saying or even alleging, and I oppose this rhetoric. This flawed rhetoric defines racist as a fixed category, as who a person is, or becomes,” the author claimed. “If Owens were addressing my book #HowtoBeanAntiracist, then she’d know I wrote that ‘racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be racist one minute and antiracist the next.’ These are descriptive terms, describing what a person is being in any given moment.”
“If Owens were addressing my work, she’d also know I don’t see racism everywhere,” Kendi continued. “There’s sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, Islamophobia. There are many different forms of bigotry, and different structures of oppression. And those structures intersect and reinforce each other to hinder people of all races. And lest we forget there are people building just and antiracist spaces that are not oppressive.”
“I also oppose the idea that racism is everywhere because it’s that type of flawed idea that causes some Black men to defend Black men like Bill Cosby or R. Kelly,” Kendi closed this Twitter thread. “To imagine they aren’t sexual predators. To imagine they are victims of racism. In those cases, they are not.”
“What he is alleging is that unless you are anti, which he defines as meaning, you are aggressively, constantly attacking it, then somehow you become it. So if you are not aggressively everyday waking up and looking and seeing racism everywhere, then you’re a racist.” 2/7
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) July 21, 2021
If Owens were addressing my book #HowtoBeanAntiracist, then she’d know I wrote that “racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be racist one minute and antiracist the next.” These are descriptive terms, describing what a person is being in any given moment. 4/7
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) July 21, 2021
And those structures intersect and reinforce each other to hinder people of all races. And lest we forget there are people building just and antiracist spaces that are not oppressive. 6/7
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) July 21, 2021
I also oppose the idea that racism is everywhere because it’s that type of flawed idea that causes some Black men to defend Black men like Bill Cosby or R. Kelly. To imagine they aren’t sexual predators. To imagine they are victims of racism. In those cases, they are not. 7/7
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) July 21, 2021
Owens responded to Kendi Thursday via Twitter, emphasizing that she asked him on her show numerous times to discuss the issue together.
“I’m confused, Ibram,” Owens posted. “My team contacted you via text, e-mail, phone call and through your team to debate your ‘anti-racist’ philosophy in person. Feels a bit cowardly to ignore all requests, only to grandstand on twitter.”
“Would you like to debate this in person, publicly?” the “Blackout” author asked Kendi.
“If you are a principled academic, and not just another fraud capitalizing on BLM rhetoric, then I am certain you’d open to having this discussion on ‘anti-racism’ with me in a public setting,” Owens added.
If you are a principled academic, and not just another fraud capitalizing on BLM rhetoric, then I am certain you’d open to having this discussion on “anti-racism” with me in a public setting.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) July 22, 2021
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