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Ibram X. Kendi with Angela Rye
The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age
EVENT NOTES
Doors for this event will open at 6:30 PM. Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning historian of Stamped from the Beginning charts how “great replacement theory” has moved from the margins to become the most dominant political theory of our time — and what we can do to safeguard democracy from this insidious threat.
What is great replacement theory? Variations on the theory have existed for centuries, but it was given this name by a French novelist in 2011 who believed Black and Brown immigrants were “invading” Europe, brought by shadowy elites to “replace” Europe’s White population. From there, politicians and theorists — whether in the United States or the United Kingdom, Germany or Chile, Hungary or Australia — repackaged the conspiracy as a story of “globalists” welcoming “migrant criminals” and diversity initiatives to take away the jobs, cultures, electoral power, and the very lives of White people. Over time, great replacement theory has expanded the threat to include citizens, men, Jews, Christians, heterosexuals, and ethnic majorities in countries as distinct as Russia, El Salvador, Brazil, Italy, and India. All are targeted with the message that they are under an existential attack that only a strongman can prevent.
Recall the words chanted in Charlottesville, Virginia, but heard around the world: “You will not replace us!” Recall the string of mass shooters around the world—in Oslo and Christchurch, Buffalo, El Paso, and Pittsburgh—who claimed their crimes were a defense against “White genocide.” Recall business and media figures cultivating anxiety and furor over demographic change. These incidents only scratch the surface of this ascendant idea: Popular and ruling politicians in every region of the world have been expressing some version of great replacement theory, eroding democratic norms in the name of preventing demographic change and restoring national greatness.
In our fast-shifting political landscape, most people are unfamiliar with this theory’s origins and its spread, which isn’t a coincidence. In Chain of Ideas, international bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi uses exacting and clear prose to uncover the roots of great replacement theory and its various mutations around the world. It is an unsettling but indispensable global history of how great replacement theory brought humanity into this authoritarian age — and how we can free ourselves from it.
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Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. His books have been translated into multiple languages and republished throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Kendi is the inaugural Carter G. Woodson Endowed Chair in History and the founding director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, an interdisciplinary research enterprise examining global racism. He is the author of many highly acclaimed bestsellers, including Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of the international bestseller How to Be an Antiracist. Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the Genius Grant.
Angela Rye is an award-winning host, lawyer, social justice advocate, and Principal/CEO of IMPACT Strategies. Rye is also the co-creator of State of the People, a coalition of 200 local and national organizations providing resources, education, empowerment, and relief to thousands of citizens. She is co-host of the award–winning podcast Native Land Pod and co-founder of Reasoned Choice Media. With more than two decades of experience in political strategy, coalition building, and advocacy, Rye previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and as Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel for the House Homeland Security Committee.
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