Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi - Book Recommendation
"From their arrival around 1619, African people had illegally resisted legal slavery. They had thus been stamped from the beginning as criminals."
"Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America. And this fact becomes apparent when we examine the causes behind, not the consumption of racist ideas, but the production of racist ideas."
~~~~~~~~
Listen, I never would believe you if you told me I’d listen to a 19-hour NON FICTION audiobook this summer. Never in a million years because 1) I don’t like non-fiction and 2) audiobooks are a still a trial for me, I don’t enjoy many, it has to be truly amazing for me to keep listening. But I downloaded it because it is an extremely important topic and I wanted to learn more, and I kept listening because some of the things I learnt were astounding. There are so many things that have shaped today’s society that is grounded in racist ideas. And this book may be labelled “The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” but Kendi covers the global roots AND impacts of these ideas and how some of them didn’t even start in America but are the things that have shaped American society and why racism is still such a major problem today. I think it’s important as some of us try to learn more and become better allies to know the full history behind WHY it’s happening and this book was a huge resource of knowledge. From start to finish, not one bit of information was irrelevant.
Kendi examines the history of Racism closely from the very start. Covering the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and some of the earliest enslavers. He delves into the history of Cotton Mather, a Puritan Minister, who also believed himself a scientist, and his various theories of the origin of “blackness” (all extremely wrong) that were popular in the 16/1700’s. Kendi then goes into how Mather's teachings spread like a disease into many different teachings and theorizations (leading to human experimentation). He covers the history of well-known slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and their lack of action in claiming that owning slaves was a blight on humanity yet continuing to work and sell Black people and take advantage of Black women in their “ownership" all the while. Kendi covers the hypocrites, the bigoted, and the “good-intentioned” and how each of their actions only further spurred on racism throughout history. He covers the Civil War and President Lincoln’s prejudices as well as the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, it’s demise, it’s revival, and it’s present-day activities. Kendi uses this lesson in history to also explain how popular culture and stories that are well known (Planet of the Apes, Tarzan) were rooted in racist ideas and racist history and how, to this day, these stories and false ideas still portray the idea that “white is better”.
Kendi deeply roots out the history you never learn in schools when you cover these important topics. He flips the coin and shows us the other side of history, the side brushed under the rug. Covering the start of the slave trade all the way through popular moments in history and their relation to spurring on racist ideas, he goes through various US presidents and British Monarchs and reflects how their policies further helped or hindered racial progress, he speaks about important influencers in history like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ida B. Wells and their roles leading up to and during the Civil Rights movement of the ’60s. Kendi also goes over the racist origins in the SAT and IQ testing styles. In this book we are taken on an enlightening journey through the history we never hear of, seeing the darker side of events all the way up until the election of President Barack Obama. It is mind-boggling how much of ancient racist ideas are still present and normalized in today’s age even after all of our “progress”. Kendi states “racist progress has constantly followed racial progress”. He succeeds in this book in showing us that racism has never gone away, has never lulled, has never “gotten better”, it has always been there and has always been a fight through history. I’m ashamed of how much I didn’t know. I think it’s an important read for everyone. It’s important to know the history to understand what needs to change now.
This book was informational and interesting the whole way through. Kendi did not repeat himself unnecessarily nor did he cover any irrelevant topics. He did an amazing job of showing an unbiased and factly proven version of history that is lesser known than what has been widely taught. Fantastic writing style, great narrator, important information. It was a bit of an information dump for me as I listened to 19 hours in one week with no hard copy to bookmark or backtrack so I’d recommend getting a hardcopy as well if you decide to go the audiobook route as I did.