Ibram Kendi

The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Stamped from the Beginning

Emily McMeans

When you truly believe that the racial groups are equal, then you also believe that racial disparities must be the result of racial discrimination.

Ibram X. Kendi

Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America--more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society. 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. Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading pro-slavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America. Contrary to popular conceptions, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them--and in the process, gives us reason to hope.

Gelaine Trinidad

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X

Abhimat Gautam

This was an eye-opening book, laying out the deep roots of racism throughout American history. I built up a huge collection of highlights and notes while reading through this book. I was particularly surprised to learn how the origins of nearly every American policy towards antiracism (such as the end of slavery and the civil rights movement in the 1960s) were almost always rooted in very self-preserving political motivations.

Personally, It was simultaneously a slightly comforting feeling and also a deeply unsettling feeling to realize how non-unique current American policies and American societies are in their racism. Slightly comforting in that all of this has happened before, and often to much worse extremes. But unsettling, distressing, and disheartening in that these trends are not fresh. They have deeply engrained historical roots, and what we see today are ringing echoes of disturbing pasts. And while a lot has improved and much progress has been made, these roots *are* American. The history of America and racism, and particularly racism against African-Americans, are deeply entwined.

It’s a long and dense book, but very revelatory. It gave me a fresh, important perspective on much of American history.

Stamped from the Beginning is a redefining history of anti-Black racist ideas that dramatically changes our understanding of the causes and extent of racist thinking itself. ** Winner of the US National Book Award** Its deeply researched and fast-moving narrative chronicles the journey of racist ideas from fifteenth-century Europe to present-day America through the lives of five major intellectuals – Puritan minister Cotton Mather, President Thomas Jefferson, fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis – showing how these ideas were developed, disseminated and eventually enshrined in American society. Contrary to popular conception, it reveals that racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era, including anti-slavery and pro-civil rights advocates, who used their gifts and intelligence wittingly or otherwise to rationalize and justify existing racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. Seen in this piercing new light, racist ideas are shown to be the result, not the cause, of inequalities that stretch back over centuries, brought about ultimately through economic, political and cultural self-interest. Stamped from the Beginning offers compelling new answers to some of the most troubling questions of our time. In forcing us to reconsider our most basic assumptions about racism and also about ourselves, it leads us to a true understanding on which to build a real foundation for change.

Lara Engle

Eye-opening, comprehensive, and incredibly articulate, Stamped from the Beginning reveals America's racist past and present and offers inspiration for all who strive to be anti-racist. It takes some time to digest, and it is worth every moment.

Elaine Wherry

Read this book!

The most important book I’ve read in ages. If you live in the United States, pick this up and at least read through the first few chapters — can’t recommend this enough.

Sarah Schumacher

A definitive history indeed. This book is DENSE; while reading I kept thinking every American needs to read this, but most people would never pick up a book of this size. While definitely a history book, thorough and academic, it wasn’t unapproachable. What Yuval Noah Harari did in Sapiens to illustrate the expanse of humanity, Kendi has done with the history of racism in America. The subtitle is not an exaggeration. This isn’t something one can read while distracted - it’s an investment, but it’s worth it.

I kept thinking he needed a shorter summary version of this book, so I was happy to see there’s a newer book (Stamped) with another author that sounds like it’s meant for an audience with a shorter attention span. I’ll try to read that version at some point, but I’m preemptively adding it to my Every Human reading list.

Jamieson

I have lost count of how many times I recommended this while reading. Informative and easy to follow whilst not being overly simplified, Stamped from the Beginning is an absolute must-read.

Midori Kobayashi

5/5stars

Continuing to stick to my tbr for my Black History Month reads, here is another one of the 
  must reads
. The insight and understanding shared here of the history of racism: globally and in the US def makes up for the huge size of this book.


The principal function of racist ideas in American history has been the suppression of resistance to racial discrimination and its resulting racial disparities. The beneficiaries of slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration have produced racist ideas of Black people being best suited for or deserving of the confines of slavery, segregation, or the jail cell. Consumers of these racist ideas have been led to believe there is something wrong with Black people, and not the policies that have enslaved, oppressed, and confined so many Black people.


In this book Ibram X. Kendi traces the evolution of America’s history of racist ideas, from the pre-revolutionary settlers and the sermons of Cotton Mather right through Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. DuBois, and Angela Davis. 


There are so many things which are wrong with how black people were (and still are) treated in the US but what's the bizarre is the fact that how every time a racist idea was born, there was always a scientific theory to "undeniably prove" that point. 


Time and again, racist ideas have not been cooked up from the boiling pot of ignorance and hate. Time and again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era, in order to redirect the blame for their era’s racial disparities away from those policies and onto Black people.


It's also important to talk about the fact that anyone who decides to disagree/stay silent to racist ideologies is also complacent and thus being a racist. This is very rightly explained and discussed in this book. It's not enough to be not explicitly racist, we need to voice out against all sorts of racist ideas, to not only discredit them but also spread the word. 



  the only thing wrong with Black people is that we think something is wrong with Black people.



More and more people need to read this, Reread this. And grasp the vast knowledge this book has in store in each and every sentence, every quote of this book.


That is what it truly means to think as an antiracist: to think there is nothing wrong with Black people, to think that racial groups are equal. There are lazy and unwise and harmful individuals of African ancestry. There are lazy and unwise and harmful individuals of European ancestry. There are industrious and wise and harmless individuals of European ancestry. There are industrious and wise and harmless individuals of African ancestry. But no racial group has ever had a monopoly on any type of human trait or gene—not now, not ever.

aisha

there are hundreds of years of crucial history within these pages, the history that shaped a country that claims to be the land of the free. not american but i’m studying in an american institution, i’m surrounded by american people and Stamped from the Beginning has found its place as a clearly essential read. not only does Stamped from the Beginning detail the history of racist idea in america in the grander scopes of law, it gets into linguistics, film and music. with all the seminal works in antiracism referenced by Kendi, my reading list’s only gotten longer. the language in the book felt accessible to me, but the length of it can be intimidating so i’m really glad that Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds released a “remixed,” even more accessible version of the book: Stamped, Racism, Antiracism and You. it’s only half the length of this book and it’s intended for young readers so!!!

Phenomenal book that guides the reader through our hard history. By virtue of it being a book it affords the reader the time to digest and investigate for themselves the horrific and inspiring stories which are a part of our shared history. It is lengthy and at times jumps non-chronologically, but that is to be expected when someone takes upon themselves the task of writing a summative history of race relations within a country.

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

La verdad es sumamente esclarecedor sobre siglos de historia, rompiendo con mitos y dando luz a cuestiones que tienen un trasfondo racista, en el que ni siquiera me había detenido a pensar. relevante y para volver a leer, recomendar, prestar, difundir por todos lados.

Dillon Diatlo

It literally took me 3 months to read this book (July 28-Oct 28), but it was definitely worth it.

Flavia Louise

This is an incredibly interesting and well written history of racism, especially in the United States and I really liked the audiobook.

Kathleen Mullins

This book taught me a lot about the history of our country and the ways in which racism morphs and hides itself throughout history. I found the various expressions of racism especially valuable to think about (assimilationists vs segregationists) and how both of these schools of thought masquerade as non-racist beliefs, and how a person can have both anti-racist beliefs and these beliefs and how to grapple with that.
I also found it really helpful to hear about the reflections of racist society in pop culture--in movies like Tarzan, Gone with the Wind & Planet of the Apes. I don't normally think about how our culture is reflected in media, even though it is something that should be obvious.
As the book got closer and closer to the present, It became more and more enraging to see how these same racist principles layer and morph from generation to generation and how they are used to keep Black people down. I was really motivated by the epilogue as well, it was such a succinct way to think about how to turn this understanding of the racist history of america into action & something I will come back to again and again.

Caroline Lewicki

A thorough, nearly comprehensive history of racism in the United States. There was so much I didn't know and was hungry to learn. If you're interested in the history of racism in this country, Ibram X. Kendi is the voice for our generation and those to come and this book is the tome of history. If you're not aware that racism still exists (no, the end of slavery and the end of segregation did not end racism) or you think it only exists on one side of the political spectrum, I urge you to read this book.

Melody Izard

No way you can still believe that racism is a thing of the past. Hush up you people who say, I never owned slaves, don't blame me. Slavery keeps being reinvented.

Sahi K

I’ve been listening to bits and pieces of this book for a long time. It’s a great resource and definitely a must read for anyone wanting to know more about the history of racism and slavery till the civil rights movements and present day issues, from a different perspective. 

It might have felt a little repetitive for me because I had already read and loved the YA remixed version of this book, but it’s still a spectacular and eye opening read. Highly recommend. Hoping to dive into The 1619 project as soon as I get my library copy.

And do checkout my review for Stamped if you want to read in more detail what I felt about this book.

Nicholas Hanemann

Incredibly well researched - A masterwork on the topic.

Kerry Gibbons

Thoughtful and thought-provoking, this book chronicles the ins and outs of the timeline of racist and anti-racist thought. But more than that, it helps define (or redefine!) and solidify for the reader the meaning of the terms racist, anti-racist, segregationist, assimilationist, post-racist, and more. I came at this book from the lens of intersectionality and I am very pleased that this was touched on multiple times, discussing feminist thought, the Women’s Movement, Gay Liberation, BLM, and trans women of color. This is surely a bit of a heavy book but it also moves quickly.

Jade Flynn

Judicious, written with clarity and ridiculously researched Stamped from the Beginning chronicles how anti-black thinking has anchored itself in American society. An important read for not only Americans but for everyone.

Jeni Enjaian

I took my time with this book, reading four pages at a time to slowly digest and reflect upon what I read. As someone steeped in history, I superficially knew most of the events Kendi discusses in this book. Through reading this book, I saw them in a different light. This book helped me reform my paradigms, the lenses through which I see history and interactions around me. While I will not say that Kendi wrote the perfect book, he certainly hit this nail on the head.

Stamped from the Beginning The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

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