Dr. Kendi Q&A at TRL

A fascinating evening with author Dr. Kendi discussing his latest book “Chain of Ideas” at the Toronto Reference Library last month

Dr. Kendi was invited to speak about his latest book, “Chain of Ideas: The Origins of our Authoritarian Age,” hosted by the Toronto Reference Library.

Interviewer, Justin Ling’s Background

Justin Ling was the person interviewing Dr. Kendi that evening.

I recognized Justin immediately as re-occuring guest speaker on my country’s national news broadcast (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), giving his animated and often biting commentary related to the Convoy blockade that crippled downtown Ottawa for 3 weeks and culminated with a bunch of Convoy yahoos who decided to hold an early morning press conference in our nation’s capital, advocating for a military junta of our seat of government in Ottawa.

I also remember laughing heartily at Justin’s commentary during the Convoy and especially after having listened to the “junta” press conference — I cannot blame him for his incredulous outbursts — it’s hard to keep a straight face when you are required to report news that reads like a byline from the Onion or the Beaverton.

So, to Canadians who are feeling morally superior to their friends to the South of us. Remember the Convoy. That wasn’t our most shining Canadian Heritage Moment.

To drive that point further home, National Post columnist and The Line Editor, Matt Gurney — originally from Toronto, and a heartbroken Leafs fan (like me!)— headed directly to Ottawa during the 2022 convoy blockade to witness and report directly from the ground.

In one of his nightly blog or Twitter posts, he mentioned how he was deeply unsettled when a misguided and earnest kid jumped on his soapbox and appropriated Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech to rally the masses with a message of what, exactly? No clue, but it was not the kid’s best work, apparently. 😂

I remember laughing heartily when I read Matt’s dispatches from the front. Matt is a white cis male and was deeply embarrassed and disturbed by the speech, and at one point, he looked over at another person who just so happened to be a black supporter of the Convoy. This individual, not surprisingly, was not at all impressed by this kid’s tone-deaf “I Have a Dream” speech, LOL.

I finally found the link to the blog post. I love that Matt labelled it dispatches from the Ottawa front. 😂

https://www.readtheline.ca/p/dispatch-from-the-ottawa-front-let

The highlight reels from Matt’s post:

And now, to the absurdity.

As I was watching the singing, I was standing next to a young, masked black man. He seemed at ease, at least during our few moments together. Until the singing stopped. A young boy got up onto the stage. He was nervous, but he was announced as the one who would read a poem he had written to commemorate the protest. The poem, a woman with the microphone informed the crowd, was called “I Have a Dream” and was inspired, she helpfully explained, by the Rev. Martin Luther King.

I couldn’t help it. My eyes just slid over to the black man next to me. He looked back at me, and we shrugged at each other. Not a word was exchanged, but that young man will live on in my memory as the purest distilled essence of exasperated disbelief I have ever seen compressed into human form.

(I won’t dunk on the boy’s poem. Let’s just say it didn’t exceed my expectations, and was surprisingly heavy on U.S. rhetoric.)

I’m chortling over here.

Ok, back to the main story.

Author: Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Dr. Kendi mentioned that when he launched his “How to Be an Anti-Racist” book back in 2010 , he was unaware of the deep resentments and successful smear campaign that was gaining global traction against the anti-racism advocacy movement.

He was completely blindsided by the backlash his book received in 2010.

The anti-racism backlash is certainly not a new phenomenon — history has countless examples of cruel and ignorant-fueled injustices inflicted on marginalized groups.

Great Replacement Theory

In Dr. Kendi’s latest book, “Chain of Ideas,” he discusses how Great Replacement Theory is being wielded as a justification to discredit and malign the anti-racist movement as a threat to “homogeneous national cultures”.

Renaud Camus, a French native and a big proponent of the Great Replacement Theory, is the dude who coined this phrase back in 2010. He’s basically a rich xenophobic and social influencer snob lording it up in some Castle he bought himself in France, lamenting the good old days when black and brown people knew their place, which is out ofsight, out of mind, preferably with mass deportations of black and brown people.

I’d love to see a gaggle of rabble-rousing black and brown people descend on Mr. High-Falutin Renaud Camus’ “humble” abode and play reggaeton music at all hours of the night outside his castle walls. One can dream.

Dr. Kendi further posits that it is the fervent and paranoid-fueled belief in Great Replacement theory that many White garden-variety folks worldwide are willing to subjugate themselves to authoritarian rule, forgoing democracy completely , as a means of “protecting” their way of life from the rest of us non-white garden-variety folks.

Here is an excerpt of Dr. Kendi’s thesis:

This book shows how great replacement theory has spurred many everyday White people into supporting anti-democratic political parties that harm most White people -and the rest of us — in the name of protecting White people from, well, the rest of us. The great protagonists in this story are the great replacement financiers, politicians, theorists and soldiers. They are striving to bring into being the actual great replacement humans should fear in the twenty-first century, the replacement of democracy with dictatorship.

I was shocked to see that, while waiting in line to have my book signed, there were armed security personnel nearby to ensure Dr. Kendi’s safety. Another patron who was standing in line with me, who is white by the way and has been to many of these events hosted by the reference library, mentioned this is the first time she has seen armed guards for an event like this 😐 💔

We live in one helluva “Ball of Confusion” world.

I was struck by how dignified, calm and compassionate Dr. Kendi was throughout the interview.

When members of the audience expressed their fear of continuing with their anti-racist campaigns due to constant threats of harm being aimed at them, Dr. Kendi was sympathetic and understood how challenging it is to keep going.

For Dr. Kendi, though, there is no question in his mind that he will continue with his message of debunking and shedding light on the abuses being inflicted by the privileged few who then turn around and blame their own policies on marginalized people of colour the world over.

Because, honestly, at the end of the day, the alternative, doing nothing, is way more terrifying.

Great Replacement Theory, although only recently coined, is a theory that has been used time and time again throughout our history by our kind because, sadly, it works.

Hey Vogons, do you need to create a hyperspace bypass, but planet Earth is in the way? I wouldn’t blame you for obliterating us — I’m not sure we deserve this Blue Earth we call home. Or perhaps we can enlist you to recite bad poetry at all hours of the night below Mr. Renaud Camus’ castle windows? One can dream.

Namaste

C.