Ideas worth spreading

3 myths about racism that keep the US from progress

2,207,943 views |

Candis Watts Smith |

TEDxPSU

• February 2020

Racism morphs, spreading and hiding behind numerous half-truths and full-blown falsities about where it lives and who embodies it. In this actionable talk, political scientist Candis Watts Smith debunks three widely accepted myths about racism in the US and calls for a nuanced, more expansive definition to support this new era of anti-racist action.

Racism morphs, spreading and hiding behind numerous half-truths and full-blown falsities about where it lives and who embodies it. In this actionable talk, political scientist Candis Watts Smith debunks three widely accepted myths about racism in the US and calls for a nuanced, more expansive definition to support this new era of anti-racist action.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Elect leaders that share your ambition and vision for a multiracial democracy.

Start early — children are experts at fairness, and it’s our job as adults to help them graduate to become experts of equity.

About the speaker

Candis Watts Smith

Candis Watts Smith

Political scientist

See speaker profile

Candis Smith is on a mission to eliminate outdated, inaccurate commonsense ideas about inequality.

Christopher D. DeSante and Candis Watts Smith | University of Chicago Press, 2020 | Book

Racial Stasis: The Millennial Generation and the Stagnation of Racial Attitudes in American Politics

This is one of the two books mentioned in the talk. It focuses on the shape and expression of racial attitudes among white American millennials. It reveals that for almost every factor that makes this generation eager to push for racial egalitarianism, there is another countervailing force that puts us back at square one.

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith | NYU Press, 2019 | Book

Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter

Stay Woke introduces the complexities of racism and racial inequality in the United States. It offers a vision of a racially just country and provides steps that people can take in their everyday lives to bring that vision into fruition.

PBS, 2003 | Watch

The Power of an Illusion

This is a three-part documentary about the history, science and politics of race in the US. It touches on topics ranging from genetics to the “founding fathers” to the racial dynamics of home ownership.

NPR | Listen

Podcast: "Codeswitch"

A weekly podcast that discusses all things related to race, ethnicity, identity, culture and inequality in the United States.

Mariame Kaba | Haymarket Books, 2021 | Book

We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Kaba is a thinker before her time. This series of essays and interviews not only highlight the injustices of the US’s criminal legal system and prevalence of sexual violence (and how these two are often intertwined), but it also provides a vision for possible futures where violence of all types is simply unthinkable.

Jamila Michener | Cambridge University Press, 2018 | Book

Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics

This book is focused on the matter of healthcare, but it homes in on a bigger idea: the United States can be characterized as a patchwork of inequality. Whether and how policy problems are dealt with is not dictated by people’s needs but instead by where you live because so many important decisions are within your state legislator’s hands.

Learn more

About TEDx

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED's mission, "ideas worth spreading." It supports independent organizers who want to create a TED-like event in their own community.

Find a TEDx event near you

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxPSU, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.

Elect leaders that share your ambition and vision for a multiracial democracy.

Start early — children are experts at fairness, and it’s our job as adults to help them graduate to become experts of equity.