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

“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.”

➽ Stamped is a comprehensible history about race and racism in America! I read the version retold by Jason Reynolds and wasn’t satisfied with how it modernized and left out important aspects of history. Therefore I was planning on reading the original version by Ibram X. Kendi, as it dives much deeper into the historical background and important key figures of the different eras! I enjoyed listening to the audiobook and learning more about the topic, though there was a lot of information and things I’d have to reread in the future to fully take them in!

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brookey8888's review

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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.

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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

This book takes us from our nation’s inception through the presidency of Barack Obama. It highlights three main race ideologies and explicates about each one over the decades. Segregationists, those who believe Black folx are genetically inferior and don’t believe in equality; assimilationists, who believe that Black people need to try harder to become better people (aka more white); and antiracists, who believe that systems of inequality and discrimination have always been the culprit of inequity in American society. This book points out that both segregationists and assimilationists are racist, even if the latter would try to have you believe otherwise. I learned a lot about our country’s history, policies, and leaders that will help inform my continued efforts to be antiracist moving forward and will help me focus on Black freedom in this country and beyond.

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meganpbennett's review

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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.

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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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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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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.

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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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