“Stamped from the Beginning” (2016) by Ibram X. Kendi is a history of anti-Black racist ideas from 1453 to 2015, centring on the US and hanging the narrative on five thinkers:
- Cotton Mather (1663-1728)
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
- William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79)
- W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
- Angela Davis (1944- )
Be warned, though: it is thin on Angela Davis.
Anyone who likes this blog will probably like this book: it covers many of the same Racist Exhibits – drapetomania, Madison Grant, Birtherism, and so on, becoming the plums in his pie. He has some plums I do not, but will probably do posts on sooner or later, like Exodusters, polygenesis and the Kerner Commission. But, oddly, some plums are missing, like the Tulsa race riot and Cointelpro.
It is written for anti-racists: Kendi’s own study of racism has shown him that the vast majority of racists are beyond the powers of rational persuasion. Racism is not based on facts and logic. It is not even based on hate and ignorance. It is sadder than that:
“In fact, self-interest leads to racist policies, which lead to racist ideas leading to all the ignorance and hate.”
And he does not mean the self-interest of most White people but of straight, rich White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men. The US was founded by and for them. All of the country’s interlocking bigotries, by some not-so-amazing coincidence, intersectionally benefit them and only them.
Racism is not just meant to keep Black people down, but the whole bottom 99%. It has been divide and conquer ever since Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676.
Three schools of thought: Kendi sees the history of anti-Black racist ideas as an interplay between three schools of thought, two racist, one not:
- anti-racists: racial inequality is rooted in racist policies. Duh!
- segregationists: racial inequality is rooted in inferior Black biology.
- assimilationists: racial inequality is rooted in inferior Black culture.
Du Bois moved from assimilationism to anti-racism. Obama is a mix of the two. Kendi is anti-racist.
Three failed ways to end racism: Please avoid the following. They have a long history of repeated failure:
- Moral appeals – to racist Whites to sacrifice their own material self-interest for the good of the nation.
- Uplift suasion – prove to racist Whites that Blacks can be just as good as Whites by being just as good (or twice as good, according to some parents).
- Education – tell racist Whites the facts about racism!
Moral appeals are completely unnecessary – only 1% of Whites truly benefit from racism.
Uplift suasion should have been soundly disproved to anyone who was not in a coma during the Obama presidency. The hideous Trump backlash would not have surprised Kendi’s readers.
As to education:
“Trying to educate these powerful producers or defenders or ignorers of American racism about its harmful effects is like trying to educate a group of business executives about how harmful their products are. They already know, and they don’t care enough to end the harm.”
Protest and gaining political power to change the laws are the only way to make lasting, deep change.
– Abagond, 2021.
See also:
- books – books I read in 2021
- If you like this blog you might also like … – other book recommendations for those who like this blog
- thinkers:
- Cotton Mather
- Thomas Jefferson
- William Lloyd Garrison – an American abolitionist
- W.E.B. Du Bois
- Angela Davis
- Racist Exhibits mentioned:
- drapetomania
- Madison Grant
- Birthers
- Exodusters
- polygenesis
- Kerner Commission
- Tulsa race riot
- Cointelpro
- Bacon’s Rebellion
- My own thoughts on uplift suasion and educating White people (I pretty much agree with Kendi)
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Abagond 
I have this book in my personal book library. It’s chocked full of information. There is also a version for young teens. I also listen to chapters of this book on audio. This book along with Nicole
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Nicole Hannah-Jones 1619 Project is also good to read with Stamped From The Beginning.
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Since American was in a pandemic and sheltering in place. Many saw the lynching of George Floyd. Many white Americans expressing how horrible what they saw was awful, many with BLM in their headers on social media. To me this is performative. If whites want to dismantle systemic racism, then they need to do a John Brown at Harper’s Ferry activism. White people are the ones that need to stop tweeting about how bad they feel, and calling themselves allies. If they want to be allies then they need to stop wearing their safety pins, and get out and do the work of anti racism.
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Curious coincidence…
I just read a CNN article commenting a recent interview given by former USA President George W. Bush where he said that “if GOP stands for ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, then it’s not going to win anything”.
It´s interesting that a heavy figure like this thinks this way.
Racism is not an option for a major party in the USA today! The ones who follow it, do it at their own peril.
See, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/03/politics/bush-gop-white-anglo-saxon-protestantism/index.html
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Even though I like this book. It may be a bit pedantic for some.
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I was honestly shocked that ‘dubya’ popped his head out of the hole he’s been in for a couple quick sound bites on immigration.
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“… the self-interest of most White people but of straight, rich White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men. The US was founded by and for them. All of the country’s interlocking bigotries, by some not-so-amazing coincidence, intersectionally benefit them and only them.”
And a major snow job for the rest of us.
Anti-Black racism was conjured up as a distraction in the colonial Virginia Legislature during the 1670s. It has been carefully fed and watered over the centuries lest it lose its toxic potency. Sometimes I think of the White people who have been murdered for daring to uproot this poison plant.
Keri Leigh Merritt, writing in Black Perspectives, described the web of vigilante violence Southern planters used against low and moderate income White people. She notes:
https://www.aaihs.org/private-public-and-vigilante-violence-in-slave-societies-part-3/
Mind you her series on public, private and vigilante violence covers the period before the Civil War. Merritt further points out in the decade before the Civil War “There were at least 300 reported lynchings each year in what would become the Confederacy.” Those are just the reported lynchings!
Many of those murdered and terrorized by Southern vigilante committees prior to Civil War were White.
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