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

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.

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ashleyreads88's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America needs to be read. I learned so many things from this book that I never learned in school. What I learned in school was unfortunately horribly whitewashed. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America IS American history. I am so glad that I read this challenging (in the best way possible) book. I feel that this is a book that I will come back to.

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therainbowshelf's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Ibram Kendi covers an extensive chunk of the history of racism and racist ideas in the United States in this book.

For readers looking for 💕: history, racism, American history, social issues

My thoughts 💭: the author ties things together well throughout, and really shines a light on how racism evolved to stay ahead of laws against racism over time. It was a bit dry, but I'm also not a big history reader. It was also a thick book! The audiobook is 18 hours long.

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rupl's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

Dense, detailed look at US history from a lens completely overlooked in the US school system. You'll brush with basic facts you learned long ago, but their rich stories might be completely new. This book calmly yet passionately tells another US history, using five major characters to guide us through various eras.

I learned new parts of history and re-learned many others, all the while learning not to characterize individuals, but each of their actions. The book compiles countless examples of segregation, assimilation, and finally antiracism, from fleeting moments to entire legacies of individuals. By methodically reading from start to finish, and looking at example after example of each ideology I formed a better, more accurate view of history as it relates to power, racist policy erected to protect the powerful, and the racist ideas that get created in order to defend racist policies.

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decklededgess's review

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challenging dark informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Most non fiction books give me the vocabulary to communicate ideas I was already familiar with this is an invaluable asset. This one though... I have come across a LOT of new information and innumerable ways of seeing through the societal structures we protect that continue to uphold racism and white supremacy.
Perhaps the most depressing yet enlightening tidbit was in the epilogue where the author says something along the lines of: you can't expect people to be altruistic but they certainly can function with "intelligent self interest" to see that the systems they protect actually do not help them at all.
Which....yeah dude that's exactly it.

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tabitha_isabelle's review

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4.25

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