Stamped from the Beginning

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 factracist 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 Beginningif we have any hope of grappling with this stark realitywe must first understand how racist ideas were developeddisseminatedand enshrined in American society. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrativeKendi 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 antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jeffersonfrom fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela DavisKendi shows how and why some of our leading pro-slavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America. Contrary to popular conceptionsracist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Insteadthey 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 consumedthey can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideasStamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them–and in the processgives us reason to hope.