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4.3 ★★★★★
Based on 2461 reviews
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★★★★★ 5
A very painful but highly illuminating must-read on how racism took root and persists in the US
Format: Kindle
About halfway through reading this book, I realized I was highlighting almost every single page and had to start color-coding my highlights so as to make a little more sense of why certain passages struck me—a visual testimony of how illuminating Stamped from the Beginning is. With a primary focus on racism toward African-Americans and people identified as Black, this book is a thoroughly researched, sweepingly comprehensive survey of racism from its first traceable roots in ancient Greece when Aristotle said Africans had “burnt faces” to the start of the African slave trade in 15th century Europe, to the first recorded slave ship arriving in colonial America in 1619, all the way through the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws, the 1960s Civil Rights movement, and up to the present day. In order to help readers navigate this extensive timeline, author Ibram X. Kendi divides the book into five parts, featuring one historical figure as a sort of tour guide or anchor for each part.
Very few individuals or institutions mentioned in this book come off as completely free of racist thinking; even many abolitionists and civil rights activists are revealed to have held racist ideas that contradicted their cause. This made me realize the extent to which racism has ensnared the United States in its pernicious roots. In Stamped from the Beginning, Kendi presents two main ideas about racism that helped me understand its influence and progress over the centuries. First, he explains that “Hate and ignorance have not driven the history of racist ideas in America. Racist policies have driven the history of racist ideas in America.” The author admits, “I was taught the popular folktale of racism: that ignorant and hateful people had produced racist ideas, and that these racist people had instituted racist policies. But when I learned the motives behind the production of many of America’s most influentially racist ideas, it became quite obvious that this folktale, though sensible, was not based on a firm footing of historical evidence.” As Kendi explains further, “Racially discriminatory policies have usually sprung from economic, political, and cultural self-interests, self-interests that are constantly changing.” Now that I understand self-interest—not hate or ignorance—has been the driving factor behind racist policies, I can better understand why racism hasn’t died out with the Emancipation Proclamation or desegregation or any of the Civil Rights Acts passed in this country. Tragically, racism persists and continues to evolve according to the current self-interests of people and institutions in power. It’s why, after slavery was abolished, segregation and the Jim Crow laws rushed in to replace it, and long after segregation has been outlawed, African-Americans continue to be oppressed by disproportionate mass incarceration as well as disadvantaged by fewer, inferior housing and employment opportunities.
Second, Kendi points out that racism is not simply a debate between those who support racist ideas and those who oppose racist ideas. Throughout history, three–not two–viewpoints on racism have persisted: “A group we can call segregationists has blamed Black people themselves for the racial disparities. A group we can call antiracists has pointed to racial discrimination. A group we can call assimilationists has tried to argue for both, saying that Black people and racial discrimination were to blame for racial disparities.” As much as I would like to believe I am firmly in the antiracist camp, reading this book made me realize I have held a lot of racist ideas from an assimilationist viewpoint that I need to correct. Kendi gives many examples of well-meaning civil rights activists, including some African-Americans, who upheld assimilationist ideas. Some persisted with these ideas their entire lives, others realized their error and later self-corrected to an antiracist viewpoint, and still others upheld both antiracist and assimilationist ideas, often not realizing the contradiction. Thus, a tragic pattern that has repeated itself throughout American history is the persistence of many assimilationists in seeking to abolish racist policies and ideas with the same flawed strategies that never work.
Indeed, the African-American author admits, “Even though I am an African studies historian and have been tutored all my life in egalitarian spaces, I held racist notions of Black inferiority before researching and writing this book.” I think it’s crucially important that Kendi tells readers about his mistaken notions of race—not to make readers feel better about their own ignorance, but to demonstrate how deeply racist ideas have taken root in American culture. Hopefully this admission on the author’s part will ease readers out of their defensive mode and open their minds to the disturbing truth that racism is a lot more pervasive among us Americans than we would like to believe.
If you want to understand exactly how racism took root in the United States and why it has persisted through the present day, if you are prepared for a very sobering, very painful, and often highly disturbing look at the many flaws, hypocrisies, and atrocities in the American notions of democracy, exceptionalism, and “liberty and justice for all,” then Stamped from the Beginning is a must-read. Ultimately, what the author conveys with copious examples is that “Black Americans’ history of oppression has made Black opportunities—not Black people—inferior.” An absolutely necessary emendation to the traditionally accepted canon of American history.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2017
★★★★★ 5
Painful but excellent exploration of racist ideas in American history
Format: Kindle
Professor Kendi's fine study, which deservedly won a National Book Award, illuminates in a new way the history of racism in the US. Focusing on ideas rather than government policy, he documents the tenacity of an outlook that has stained the 400 year history of the American people. He begins with a simple, and I think unimpeachable, definition of racism: any argument or idea that attributes to an entire ethnic group intellectual or moral superiority or inferiority. Racists invariably explain these differences between ethnic groups as a product of biology, in an effort to shelter behind a scientific patina ideas that cannot survive rigorous scientific investigation.
He organizes the book around five American thinkers, Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, and Angela Davis. In each section, he also discusses the ideas of contemporaries of these individuals, dividing people into one of three groups: segregationists (racists who blamed blacks for their own plight); assimilationists (whites and even some blacks who attributed inequality partially to environment but still accepted the racist idea that all blacks shared some responsibility for discrimination); antiracists, who rejected the notion that any type of inferiority could be associated with all African Americans.
Kendi has written an angry book, as would any author sensitive to the devastating impact of America's original sin. He shows how racist ideas, like the villain in contemporary horror movies, never suffer a final defeat. As soon as one explanation for alleged racial differences falls out of favor, a different one emerges from the (so far) undrainable swamp of prejudice to take its place. This resiliency demonstrates that racism does not stem from ignorance, but reflects the self-interest of those who benefit from the privileges conferred by supression of ethnic equality.
The author's anger does not target any specific group. Few of his subjects (including himself) escape unscathed from his sharp analysis. Probably the most surprising revelation of this book is the extent to which even fierce defenders of black equality sometimes accepted some of the insidious ideas of racism and blamed African Americans for the discrimination they experienced. Thus the real target of Professor Kendi's anger is racism itself, the pervasiveness of which does not exempt even black Americans from its influence.
Even this fine work of scholarship is not, in my opinion, free of flaws. In his evaluation of historical figures, he seems to judge them by their conformity to our values and standards. To judge Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass for their failure to measure up to this generation's views of racism may accurately pinpoint some of the shortcomings especially in Lincoln's attitudes. But to criticize a 19th century president, caught in the impossible pressures of a savage civil war for having mixed motives in his emancipation policy displays a willful refusal to evaluate his behavior according to the context of the times in which he lived. (Absurd comments to the effect that Lincoln was "scared to death" when Lee threatened Washington during his invasion of the north in 1862 reveal more about Kendi than they do about the president.)
But even if I have correctly identified flaws in the book, this is an important and exceptionally fine work of scholarship, which anyone concerned about the future of race relations in the US should read.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2017
★★★★★ 5
Essential reading
Format: Audiobook
I wish I’d learnt this history decades ago.
This book illuminates how the world has, for many of us, come to be seen through a white supremacist lens.
It provides religious, political, technological, sociological context over centuries and Millenia.
It explains the justifications used to treat our fellow humans as ‘less than’ - the sort of thinking that we in the ‘western’, white, colonial world have inherited, that persists through literature, philosophy and mythology, and that continues to fuel bigotry and oppression today.
Eye opening. Can’t recommend more highly (book, kindle, audiobook).
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Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Perhaps too ambitious for its own good
Having just finished Dr. Kendi's magnum opus on the history of American racism, I can confidently say that this is a very ambitious work. It attempts to describe the political, social, economic, philosophical, and cultural development of racist ideas throughout American history while at the same time, offering biographical sketches of 5 Americans who were/are representative of their time and place (Cotton Matther/Colonial America, Jefferson/Revolutionary era, William Garrison/Civil War and Reconstruction Era, W.E.B. DuBois/Jim Crow era, and Angela Davis/Civil Rights and Black Power era).
Perhaps it's a bit too ambitious, though. The amount of ground the book tries to cover prevents it from being able to cover anything in great detail. Thus, the biographies of the 5 individuals are incomplete, and the racist or assimilationist ideas in each time period are discussed superficially. Dr. Kendi's book also jumps around a lot from one subject to another, which can be a bit jarring or disrupt the flow of the narrative. Don't get me wrong. The book does a very good job explaining how a lot of what has passed for antiracism in US history was really assimilationist thinking, and it also convincingly argues that racism and racist policies flow from the political, economic, or social advantages that one group gains by the persecution of the other. However, I am left with the distinct impression that Dr. Kendi should've narrowed his focus to something that could've been more manageable. Perhaps he should've focused exclusively on the difference between antiracism vs assimilation. Perhaps instead of attempting biographies of 5 individuals, he should've devoted each chapter (or section) of the book to discussing the racist or assimilationist ideas of that time period, and how they developed or changed over time.
Overall, my best advice would be to get this book and read it, because it's very timely with what's going on right now in America, but for those areas that aren't covered in a lot of detail, I would try to supplement it with other literature.
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Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2020
★★★★★ 4
Interesting and important read, but less objective than I expected.
Format: Hardcover
I feel this book has received higher review ratings than it probably deserves. Yet, it's still an overall good read and it discusses an important societal issue of U.S. history. This review will include both positive and negative feedback of this book.
The author, Ibram Kendi, has done a great job at making this book accessible to readers. It's not overly infused with academic jargon. The chapters are also quite short, which makes it easier to read. The substance of the book is pretty informative too. Kendi's frequent usage of quotes really exposes the racist attitudes and ideas that were (and still are) present in American society.
Although this book contains an abundance historical quotes, many of them lack sufficient explanation and context. As a student of history, I appreciate deeper, rounded discussions of historical figures. I felt that Kendi mostly includes short bits of statements from historical figures, then hastily shows how those statements equal racism in the person being discussed. I guess Kendi's style is OK. It just doesn't quite feel dedicated to historians craft. Another, less important critique is about the book title's usage of the term "Definitive." I'm surprised that this work was labeled as definitive. To be definitive, it would need to include racial histories of ALL ethnic/racial groups throughout both the American colonial and U.S. eras. Alternatively, this book's title may have been more appropriate as "The Definitive History of Racist Ideas Towards Peoples of sub-Sarahan African Descent in America."
Overall, I'm glad I purchased and read this book. It boldly explains certain sides of history that much of our society has missed. I did not grow up in a "racist" household. Yet, this book helped me reflect on my own attitudes, which have been influenced by racist ideas to some degree. I hope others (especially other Americans) can read this book with an open heart and mind.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2018
