Reviews with content warning for Death - Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

9 reviews

stephmcoakley's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

3.75

Content Warnings

asainspace's review

Go to review page

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Comprehensive, useful, readable history of anti-Black racism in America.

Content Warnings

brookey8888's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

3.5

This was a lot. Was it a very important read and worth it yes. Did I sometimes feel dumb reading this yes. Most of the topics discussed are horrible so trigger warning. This book made me mad and sad. I do think people should read this, but it is basically a history book so I don’t know how assessable this would be for everyone. I do understand why it went through the whole history of slavery, but I don’t know as much about that so it was harder to I guess understand, but when we got more in the current day I was able to understand and like connect the dots more.

Content Warnings

meganpbennett's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Stamped from the Beginning is one of those books that you need to read, but you don't necessarily want to read. It's a slow, hard read, and it encourages (White) readers to look at their own thoughts, their own biases, to see what racist ideas they might fall into, whether or not they realize that the ideas or thoughts are racist. It makes people think about being antiracist, as opposed to simply being not racist, and yes, there is a difference. The book also looks at intersectionality and how multiple types and levels of oppression can 'intersect' and cause problems, and how the intersection of oppression can lead to more oppression of various groups.

My only complaint about Stamped is how Kendi introduces the reader to people. He will describe the person, saying where they were from, maybe what job they held, and why they are important in the moment they are mentioned. Only then will he name the person. Most of those paragraphs would have been much more powerful had the person in question been identified in the first sentence, instead of in the second or third sentence.

Content Warnings

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Stamped From the Beginning is a hard-hitting account of racist ideas in America, starting with colonization and working forward through the Obama administration. Kendi discusses the different approaches to racial equality – segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists. He also picks apart famous historical figures and shows the complexity of them – that the good ones had racist thoughts too.

I thought Stamped From the Beginning was an enlightening account of our history in this country. It’s not the story we’re told in high school history courses, but it should be. This three-dimensional painting of America’s racist ideas reveals a country that is deeply flawed and toxic, but still has the opportunity to change. America is an extremely patriotic country and most people have difficulty seeing its flaws. However, the only way we are going to be able to grow is to see those flaws and address them appropriately.

Kendi takes the reader chronologically through the years. I particularly enjoyed the parts on Abraham Lincoln (the white savior if you ever saw one, and not quite as pure-hearted as he is typically represented) and Angela Davis. Stamped From the Beginning addresses both male and female experiences, and even digs a little into the corrupt prison system.

While there is some intersectionality in this conversation, there is very little. Kendi discusses the male and female experience, but there was no conversation about the experiences of the Black LGBTQIAP+ community or the Black disabled community. There’s room to expand Stamped From the Beginning to be inclusive of these experiences as well.

As a professor and a historian, the things Kendi does present are extremely well-written and approachable to the average reader. Stamped From the Beginning should be taught in AP History classes in high schools at the very least, because it’s important for our education system to be more inclusive if we as a country are going to affect change in any venue. His cadence in the book is steady, the narrative is direct, and the pacing is good. I was never bored, and I learned things every time I listened to the audiobook.

I picked up Stamped From the Beginning because I read Jason Reynold’s remix of the book, Stamped, earlier this year, and I’m glad I did. While Stamped makes these facts more accessible to younger readers, you really don’t get the full picture unless you read the original text. I recommend both depending the reader, but Stamped From the Beginning truly paints a broader picture of the unpleasant truth of American history.

Content Warnings

tabitha_isabelle's review

Go to review page

4.25

Content Warnings

anigoose's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative slow-paced

5.0

I have both the audiobook and ebook, and I just wanted to share that I struggled a little with the audiobook. It was edited a little patchily and there would be audible (lol) differences between sound quality for sometimes just a word inserted into a sentence, or for a sentence in a paragraph. There are also occasional mouth sounds in the recording. If you are ND and have sensory issues this might be a problem for you. I could only listen with binaural beats in the background and whilst doing something like knitting.

It's not a knock on those who made it, or even a complaint, just a head's up for other folks with sensory processing issues!

Content Warnings

rubybooks's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

I've been wanting to read this book for a while, so I placed a hold from my library for the audiobook. It finally came through this month, and I loved this so much. I've really been loving listening to non-fiction audiobooks, especially because for me it feels like someone is explaining the topic directly to me. In my opinion this worked really well for Stamped from the Beginning - it kept me engaged the whole time, and it's a long book, but I found all the information interesting and also easy to understand.

I made quite a few notes while I was reading, mainly because I was listening to the audiobook. I definitely also want to buy a physical copy so I can tab and annotate. I think this is the type of book that you should read multiple times because even though I write down some thoughts, there are probably details that I missed. And this is a long book that covers SO much! It's really hard to summarise all my thoughts into this review, but I'll talk about a few notable topics that stood out for me. I might update this review if I get a physical copy and reread it.

Stamped from the Beginning covers a huge length of time, from the colonisation of America to the present day and Obama's presidency. This is probably what I appreciated most about this book - it covered a huge amount of time, but didn't compromise on depth. I sometimes struggle with non-fiction "survey" books because they lack detail, but that was not the case with this book. Kendi discusses so many events, topics, and themes, some of which were already known to me and some weren't. Early on there is a discussion of the American civil war, the middle passage, independence, the great migration, and the history of lynching, as well as so many more things, such as an examination of famous figures like Thomas Jefferson.

I was happy that I did know a lot of what Kendi was referencing, such as the works of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Patrisse Khan-Cullors. Kendi also talks about Black lesbians (and Black queer people in general), and he talks a lot about gender racism and I loved this attention on topics that have often been overlooked. After reading a few anti-racist non-fiction books I'm also getting better at remembering details about early colonial American history, as well as later events such as Ronald Reagan's war on drugs. Even then, there is so much for me to learn more about, especially as I'm not American so I didn't learn American history in school.

I really valued the discussion of multiculturalism vs assimilation vs anti-racism, which I briefly learned about in a politics class a few years ago. I hadn't properly considered how the desegregation of schools was assimilationist, as Black children were bussed to white schools and not the other way around. I also learned much more about W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X through Kendi's analysis. And even though I have read some of Angela Davis's work, I really want to read Are Prisons Obsolete? and I also have The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander borrowed because I definitely want to educate myself more on mass incarceration.

There is so much from this book that I didn't even mention here, so I would highly recommend just reading this for yourself. It's a must-read for everyone, especially if you're looking to read more non-fiction and anti-racist literature. I also own a physical copy of How to be an Antiracist, so I'm looking forward to reading more of Kendi's work. This book discusses the horrors of racism over the centuries, so be aware of content warnings for discussion of racism, slurs, lynching, rape, murder, war, mass incarceration, and drugs.

Content Warnings

readandfindout's review

Go to review page

informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

2017 first read: 4.5 stars.

A tabbed this book up so much. Everyone needs to read this, as it examines how every side of our history here in the United States helped racist ideas to develop into what they are today. This is a must read.

2022 reread:

Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 5 stars
Perspective: 5 stars

Content Warnings

More...