Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

read for psychology and the african american experience class

i loved how this book went through a lot of the history and things we learned in school and reframed them to be correct and how it also fits the history into the present. it's a great way to talk about racism and introduce people to the topic of being anti-racism. 

The best book I've read in a long time. This is the (not) History book that should be in classrooms, not the white-washed bullshit we have currently. Also unlike the history books in classrooms, i was engrossed and it held my attention, i didn't want to put it down. Highly recommend

The author says this is not a ‘history' book, which is true. I learned some things but it took alot of words to tell it.

I read Stamped from the Beginning when it first came out some years ago and loved it. I've been a fan of Kendi's ever since. While Stamped is still an important book, the simplified style and voice just weren't for me. Reynolds glossed over most of the details to present a much more digestible tale. But what about racism should be digestible? Someone may argue, “But Stamped is for the teens!” I guess. I wouldn't have liked this style when I was a teen either–I'd have thought I was being talked down to. But maybe that's just me.

This “review” is part of a series in which I quickly scribble a few of the thoughts I had regarding a book I read in the first half of 2021 during a time when I let my reviews get very behind.

The way this book is organized is wonderful. It doesn't look at anything in a vacuum, but examines the throughlines as well.

More history needs to be taught like this.

And Jason Reynolds did a great job at making sure the material is easy to understand and easy to know why it is important.

I knew this book would be great but it took me a little while to get around to reading it–I wanted to make sure I was in the right mindset to focus on it. Anyway: it's great. Great for teens, great for adults. Written very conversationally but with such a clear through line through history.

Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi take a look at the history of racism. It's a difficult book to read; it's a terrible story. But's an important story, and it's a story I'm glad I read.

And now...how do we go forward? What can we do in our lives and in institutions to make things good for everyone? What steps can we take to try to do better, much better, than we have done in the past?

Growing up in white suburbia, I didn't think of racism as institutional until I was in college. Privilege can blind those with it to its existence and impact. I was interested to read this adaptation of [b:Stamped from the Beginning 25898216 Stamped from the Beginning The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Ibram X. Kendi https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440457523l/25898216.SY75.jpg 45781103] for younger readers to see how Reynolds conveys ideas I didn't wrestle with until adulthood to school-age kids. As always, he knocked it out of the park. His writing is gorgeous. Accessible while recognizing the intelligence of his young audience. Honest with touches of levity. He prevents it from getting too dense with shorter chapters and occasional reminders about how different figures and ideas connect.Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is how we teach US history in the US. How some say removing Confederate monuments is “erasing history.” How some might consider this book too “biased” to be assigned in a classroom. As if Confederate monuments are unbiased, as if they don't promote a specific understanding of figures and events for a specific reason. History is not something to absolve ourselves of. It is something to reckon with. Honesty and accountability are prerequisites to growth. By being uncritical of our past, or even acting like it has no relation to the present, we do ourselves a grave disservice—some of us more than others. We should talk about how Thomas Jefferson was racist. We should talk about how racist dog whistles like “law and order” and “superpredators” have been weaponized by both Democratic and Republican administrations. The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is one, and reading (not to mention teaching) books like these from a young age will help us do just that.

Get this on audiobook! Fucking get this on audiobook! The narrator has an incredible voice - Listen to this smooth deep voice break down and call out racism.

This is a history, not history, book. You know the history, but here is the background you never got and sometimes never even heard of. I usually speed up my audiobooks a bit, not this one. I wanted to hear and absorb everything I could. This is a re-read for sure.

I recommend this to everyone. It's about 4 hours on audio and the tone will grab you immediately. This is suitable for pretty much everyone. I would say older Juv thru Adult, so I hope to see this book in classes. (whenever those happen). I've seen Jason Reynold's books go out frequently so i'm confident that these will get into the hands of young readers.

GET THIS BOOK! READ IT! LISTEN TO IT!

Summary: Jason Reynolds has taken the ideas of Ibram Kendi and written a young adult book about the history of racism.

I have read a couple of Jason Reynold's book and I like his young adult writing, even if I am not reading much young adult literature lately. And I have appreciated the two of Kendi's books I have read (Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist).

Stamped is clearly Kendi's ideas and Reynold's words and style. It is framed in Kendi's structure of there being three approaches to race, segregation, assimilation, and antiracism.

The antiracists say there is nothing wrong or right about Black people and everything wrong with racism. The antiracists say racism is the problem in need of changing, not Black people. The antiracists try to transform racism. The assimilationists try to transform Black people. The segregationists try to get away from Black people.

But what is really helpful with Kendi's approach is that he does not understand these three positions as fixed identities, but as he says in How to be an Antiracist, these are more like a “sticky name tag” that you can put on and take off, sometimes in the course of a single day. Here Reynolds says:

...it's important to note, life can rarely be wrapped into single-word descriptions. It isn't neat and perfectly shaped. So sometimes, over the course of a lifetime (and even over the course of a day), people can take on and act out ideas represented by more than one of these three identities. Can be both, and. Just keep that in mind as we explore these folks.

From these basics, the rough content is similar to Stamped from the Beginning starting with early slavery in Portugal and then Spain, the colonialism of the New World and the use of both Indigenous American and African slaves there. Reynolds then focuses on the ideas that justified slavery through Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson and others.

Eventually, the story proceeds to assimilationists and then slowly toward actual antiracism. I read this in part to see if this was a better recommendation for adults than the fairly long and academic Stamped from the Beginning. And while I think this is a good book for young adults and the content is good, I mostly would recommend Stamped from the Beginning.

Incredible! Kendi's adult book was revelatory for me and I think this will be for tweens and teens as well. Reynolds does such a great job distilling Kendi's points for this age group, but also it's great reading for adults. The idea that racism doesn't come from ignorance but rather that it has been engineered by powerful white people for economic and cultural gain is such an important truth. Side note, I listened to this and Reynolds is a great narrator, which will come to no surprise to most people who have heard him speak.

Such a powerful book and so accessible for any reader. Honestly, it should be required reading for literally every person in America. This is just one step in my own continuing education, and I am very grateful to Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi for their work.

This is a MUST read or listen. I just finished the audiobook and am reading it in print, too — it is that good and important. Full review to come!

3.5

This. Audiobook. THIS. AUDIOBOOK! His work here is stellar. His writing is always phenomonal and humane and funny and current and real, but as a poet by trade he performs this book like a prose poem and it is a treat. I'm planning to re-read it as a physical copy as well, because some of his asides must look really interesting on the page. I very much appreciated that this was a remix, not just a straight YA retelling, of Dr. Kendi's work, with Jason's voice all over it. Because of this, he really focused on his own idol, Angela Davis, and highlighted her journey in each chapter. I definitely need to read more of her work, so I appreciate a lens on her. This would make an excellent lit circle book, and parts of the audio would be great integrated into Social Studies lessons. A must read for all ages. Thanks to Libro.FM for giving free audiobooks to librarians/educators - if you haven't signed up for their program, do it!

Reynolds needs to write more non-fiction. It would improve the world immeasurably.