Stamped from the Beginning
The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
-
-
3.6 • 402 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America -- it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.
As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities.
In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
From the Puritans to the present, historian Ibram X. Kendi surveys centuries of racist ideas and policies in the United States. Kendi frames his narrative around five American intellectuals: slavery-endorsing preacher Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. DuBois, and activist Angela Davis. The author uses these public figures’ words and actions to illuminate how racist thought contributes to hot-button issues like standardized tests and mass incarceration. A fascinating and urgent read, Stamped from the Beginning won the National Book Award for nonfiction the year after Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me took home the prize—and it’s just as essential for understanding racism’s impact on American life.
Customer Reviews
Ignore the bad reviews
All the 1 stars are from angry White people
The One Star Reviews…
The brief and nonsensical one-star reviews demonstrate pretty effectively that their writers did not actually read this work.
If they had, it would have become very apparent that the author has no problem whatsoever with “white people,” but with racism and racist complacency. And if those reviewers can’t separate an entire race from those negative concepts, then perhaps their time would be better spent in self-reflection than in writing uninspired and factually inaccurate reviews based on fear-mongering nonsense.
“Stamped From the Beginning” does an excellent job at taking a historical look at the progression of racist and anti-racist ideas throughout the history of the United States. While certain sections might lean a little too far into their density and a metaphor or two (personally( fell flat, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to someone who would like to better understand the role of race and racist ideas throughout US history.
Logical & Comprehensive
There are many misconceptions about antiracism: that it means looking at everything through a racial lens, that it means blaming and shaming White people for their privilege, that society is post-racial, that colorblindness is better, etc. etc. etc. This book completely breaks down those misconceptions. It does not look at history through a racial lens, it does not shame anyone for holding racist ideas, and it points out that most White people do not benefit from racism.
Ibram X. Kendi defines and differentiates between antiracism, assimilationist racism, and segregationist racism. He explores the history of these three ideas, with each part of the book centering around a public figure (Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Angela Davis). He is as critical of racist ideas within the Black community as he is of ideas from White people.
This is so important because it keeps the focus of racism on ideas, rather than people. One of the biggest obstacles for the antiracism movement is the extreme defensiveness of White people. If an idea they have ever had or an action they have ever taken is labeled as racist, then they are being identified as "a racist." In reality, racist ideas and racist actions exist everywhere and in everyone. SPOILER: No one in this book, from DuBoise to Martin Luther King to Malcolm X to Angela Davis is an exception. Everyone is capable of promoting both racism and antiracism.
Stamped from the Beginning discusses racism in the most logical and comprehensive way imaginable, empowering the reader to have a real understanding of what racism actually is, who hurts from it and who benefits it, and how to fight it. Anyone who wants to participate in the debate about racism and antiracism needs to read this book. If they don't, then they are bringing a squirt gun to the Battle of the Somme.