Summary

In Chapter 16, “Failure” (201), Kendi recalls conducting a meeting of the Black Student Union (BSU) at Temple, and planning a protest intended to free the “Jena 6” (209) – six Black teenagers from Jena, Louisiana who were being charged with attempted murder for beating up a White teenager in retaliation for an onslaught of racist antagonism. Kendi had conceived of an elaborate protest involving blocking off Constitution Avenue in Washington D.C. With a caravan of cars. The other BSU members were rightly worried about being arrested, and Kendi was frustrated with their unwillingness to commit. In retrospect, he sees this situation as a personal failure because he did not listen to their concerns. He uses this experience as a springboard to discuss how antiracists must learn from the failures of history. In particular, “respectability” or what Kendi calls “suasion” (204), the idea that Black people can change...