Stamped from the Beginning

This is perhaps the most powerful and well-built book I've come across on the subject of xenophobia/racism. Not only is Ibram X. Kendi well versed on the subject, but he presents it in a very unbiased and honest manner. Tracing the history back to the first enslavement of Africans by the Portuguese in the 1400s, Kendi works through nearly 600 years with significant care and detail. He separates the historical figures from the legends and analyzes each by the same criteria: segregationist, assimilationist, and anti-racist. He doesn't shy away from pointing out the flaws of those who've been branded heroes, and the positives of the villains. Neither does Kendi fall into the trap of making his theory about race itself. As he illustrates repeatedly, figures from all racial groups and social classes have fallen into each of the three categories. And so, with the facts presented as they are here, the argument should be ended, once and for all. (But we know that will not happen so easily.)

Over and again, I was impressed with the author's very insightful, very thorough, and very rational presentation of the history. I agree strongly with nearly every point he made. Despite what we've been taught, so many of the decisions shaping our every day lives have been decided by racism. I like that Kendi strongly argues a point I've weakly made many times, ie the truest antiracists are not the champions of Civil Rights we celebrate today; the champions were more often assimilationists (sometimes even segregationist, as was the case with Lincoln). Their assimilationists views are the reason these figures are allowed to be celebrated in a society that still reeks of racism.

The one and only point of contention I had with Kendi's overall argument was his notion that people were in no way damaged because of the history of slavery and racism. If Kendi's whole point was that racism does not create a biological inferiority in blacks, by all means, that's without argument. But Kendi argues that to suggest an ailing psychology is racist. Living in fear is traumatic. I myself have suffered many injustices and been the brunt of much racist anger, the majority of which happened nearly twenty years ago, and I still have nightmares. I'm damaged, yet I had the freedom to hide when push came to shove. Others are not so fortunate. It's not merely about “inferior opportunities and bank accounts,” as Kendi suggests; it's also about the terror induced by a flash of red and blue lights in the rear-view mirror. It seems almost ludicrous to suggest there isn't some psychological consequence to centuries of abuse. And yet Kendi argues that very suggestion is wrong and racist. What is the harm in acknowledging the trauma of being treated inferior? Acknowledging that one has been a victim does not mean one is owning a state of inferiority. Any person of any social class or ethnicity or gender who has to struggle and struggle and struggle to get ahead while living in fear is going to be psychologically run-down, not merely “psychologically different” as Kendi suggests.

Stamped from the Beginning is a book I highly recommend for anyone who considers themselves to be an advocate for social justice. Too often, we applaud ideas that are inherently racist without recognizing them as such. Kendi examines all these ideas that have shaped us and gives a new perspective to view them with. And perhaps, having so thoroughly explored the subject, Kendi is right. Perhaps I'm wrong about the psychological impact of racism. No matter, because the discussion is alive and no one can say the history of racist ideas in America has not been thoroughly mapped. This is it. And it should not be ignored.