These themes include "dueling consciousness", "power", "biology", "ethnicity", "body", "culture", "behavior", "color", "white", "black", "class", "space", "gender", and "sexuality".

[6] Kendi argues that the opposite of racist is anti-racist rather than simply non-racist,[6] and that there is no middle ground in the struggle against racism; one is either actively confronting racial inequality or allowing it to exist through action or inaction.

[1] A review in Journal of Communication Inquiry said the book "succeeds at fitting into many genres including autobiography, memoir, and even how-to guide" and that it was "commendable" how Kendi presents cultural concepts through stories from his own life.

[3] Professor of civil rights law Randall Kennedy said the book displays candor, independence, and self-criticality, but that it has major flaws, especially being internally contradictory and poorly reasoned.

[8] A review in The Christian Science Monitor called the book "thought-provoking and insightful" and an "important and necessary contribution" toward understanding racism in the United States.

[18] Commentator Andrew Sullivan wrote that the book has the character of a religious tract with overly simplistic distinctions between good and evil that cannot be falsified, and is sparse on practical suggestions.

Harden points to this as an example of "moral commitments to racial equality" being "on shaky ground if they depend on exact genetic sameness across human populations".

[20][21] Geneticist Joseph L. Graves Jr. calls this a straw man, writing in The Lancet that Harden misses "a central point: human populations do not differ substantially in the frequencies of genetic variants that determine their complex behaviour, including intelligence and personality.