Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

Ibram X. Kendi

Nation Books (2016)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Tags: Americas, Historical Study & Educational Resources, Politics & Social Sciences, Sociology, Race Relations, Discrimination & Racism, Social History, Race & Ethnicity, Social Sciences, History, United States, General, Social Science, Discrimination & Race Relations

Americasttt Historical Study & Educational Resourcesttt Politics & Social Sciencesttt Sociologyttt Race Relationsttt Discrimination & Racismttt Social Historyttt Race & Ethnicityttt Social Sciencesttt Historyttt United Statesttt Generalttt Social Sciencettt Discrimination & Race Relationsttt

**LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

"ENGROSSING AND RELENTLESS"
*
--
****The Washington Post

"AMBITIOUS, MAGISTERIAL" *--
Starred Kirkus Review

"MUST FOR SERIOUS READERS" *--
Library Journal

"HEAVILY RESEARCHED YET READABLE" --*Booklist
*

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 anti racists. 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 proslavery 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.

**

Review

"Ibram Kendi is an important new voice in African American intellectual and social history. This book, an intellectual history of racist ideas, promises to break important new ground for scholarly and general audiences interested in the construction of racism in America."
--Peniel E. Joseph, author of Stokely: A Life and Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour

"Both a penetrating treatise and a wonderfully accessible work of intellectual history, Stamped from the Beginning reveals the heritage of ideas behind the modern dialectic of race-denial and race-obsession. By historicizing our entrenched logic of racial difference, Kendi shows why "I don't see color" and other professions of post-racialism remain inexorable alibis for white supremacy. Stamped from the Beginning has done the cause of anti-racism a great service."
—Russell Rickford, Associate Professor, Cornell University, and author of We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination

"Richly sourced and engaging, Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning is a highly accessible yet provocative study that seeks to complicate our understanding of racist ideas and the forces that produce them."
--Yohuru Williams, Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Fairfield University

"In this tour de force, Kendi explores the history of racist ideas--and their connection with racist practices--across American history. Racism is the enduring scar on the American consciousness. In this ambitious, magisterial book, Kendi reveals just how deep that scar cuts and why it endures, its barely subcutaneous pain still able to flare."
--Kirkus (starred review)

"In his ambitious, illuminating, and engaging book, Ibram X. Kendi seamlessly assembles sources from Cotton Mather to Angela Davis; the Great Awakening to Black Lives Matter; the Birth of a Nation to Hip Hop culture, to show how not only race but racist ideas are at the center of American thought."
--Paula J. Giddings, EA Woodson Professor, Smith College, and author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching

"This heavily researched yet easily readable volume explores the roots and the effects of racism in America. The narrative smoothly weaves throughout history, culminating in the declaration that as much as we'd like it to be, America today is nowhere near the "postracial" country that the media declared following the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The hope here is that by studying and remembering the lessons of history, we may be able to move forward to an equitable society."
--Booklist

"Stamped from the Beginning is a history of how racist ideas are built, and how they are built to last. Understanding this history is essential if we want to have any hope of progress. This book will forever change the way we think about race."
—Touré, MSNBC contributor and author of Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness

"Kendi's provocative egalitarian argument combines prodigious reading and research with keen insights into the manipulative power of racist ideologies that suppress the recognition of diversity. This is a must for serious readers of American history, politics, or social thought."
—Library Journal

About the Author

Ibram X. Kendi is an assistant professor of African American history at the University of Florida. He authored the award-winning book,
The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972
. He has received research fellowships, grants, and visiting appointments from a variety of universities, foundations, professional associations, and libraries, including the American Historical Association, Library of Congress, National Academy of Education, Spencer Foundation, Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, Brown University, Princeton University, Duke University, University of Chicago, and UCLA. Before entering academia, he worked as a journalist. His writings appeared in
The Virginian-Pilot
,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
,
Philadelphia Weekly
, and the
Orlando Sentinel
, among other publications. As a professor, he has contributed pieces to a number of publications, including
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education
,
Salon
,
The Chronicle of Higher Education
, and
The Root
. He lives in Gainesville, Florida.         

Copyright © 2016 by Ibram X. Kendi

Published by Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group

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.

Designed by Jack Lenzo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kendi, Ibram X., author.

Title: Stamped from the beginning: the definitive history of racist ideas in America / Ibram X. Kendi.

Description: New York: Nation Books, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015033671 | ISBN 9781568584645 (ebook: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Racism—United States—History. | United States—Race relations.

Classification: LCC E185.61 .K358 2016 | DDC 305.800973—dc23

LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033671

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the lives they said don’t matter

Contents

Prologue

PART I COTTON MATHER

1.
  
Human Hierarchy

2.
  
Origins of Racist Ideas

3.
  
Coming to America

4.
  
Saving Souls, Not Bodies

5.
  
Black Hunts

6.
  
Great Awakening

PART II THOMAS JEFFERSON

7.
  
Enlightenment

8.
  
Black Exhibits

9.
  
Created
Equal

10.
  
Uplift Suasion

11.
  
Big Bottoms

12.
  
Colonization

PART III WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON