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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Jason Reynolds,

Ibram X. Kendi

Start date: August 1, 2021

Finish date: August 28, 2021

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Diversity topic/theme for August - free-for-all

Stamped by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi
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Stamped by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

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What Members Thought

Feb 26, 2021 Rose rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical, favorites, audiobooks, non-fiction, young-adult, history

Initial reaction: A very quick read relatively speaking, but I have so many thoughts about this book. It's a great summation of racism as it's existed in the United States. Full review to come. Solid 4.5 stars.

Full review:

I don't know if I can do a review of this book justice, especially in the measure of how well it takes a long, quite infuriating history of oppression and compacts into a narrative that's different than your usual history books. "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" is a conde Initial reaction: A very quick read relatively speaking, but I have so many thoughts about this book. It's a great summation of racism as it's existed in the United States. Full review to come. Solid 4.5 stars.

Full review:

I don't know if I can do a review of this book justice, especially in the measure of how well it takes a long, quite infuriating history of oppression and compacts into a narrative that's different than your usual history books. "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" is a condensed version of Ibram X. Kendi's "Stamped from the Beginning" - notably directed towards a teen audience and takes an examination of over 600 years of oppression, divides it into sections for both the historical context and noting the differences between segregationists, antiracists, and assimilationists, with a distinction of fluidity of what ideas and actions separate these notations. The illustrations of each come up quite a bit in the narrative, and it's an important distinction throughout the book when coupled with the history.

The history of oppression of Black people in America is a long and complicated one, and many of the lessons that are taught about it across the United States are often those that favor the privileged and not what actually happened. At times, even with the conversational tone "Stamped" takes, the reveals are anger inducing when pulling back the curtain of them. (Trust me when I say I needed the breathing breaks this book provided for what they reminded me of. Well timed, too.) Other times, it reveals the lie in the common place narratives that are presented in what seem to be interesting soundbites that are not even close to the truth and aptly debunks them. Jason Reynolds writes and - in the audiobook - narrates this "remix", taking "Stamped from the Beginning" and delivering it in bite-sized bits that aim to start a much larger conversation and exploration for those it reaches. I knew that coming into the book, and I think this is perfectly presented in a way that will hold teens' attention and engage them. I didn't expect it to be comprehensive, but it's a foot in the door and a nice one to stand with.

I listened to the audio narration of "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You", so the first thing I'll talk about is that. Jason Reynolds narrates to his respective audience in a compelling way through his natural, alluring cadence of style and sentiment, something I've appreciated in all the works I've read from him thus far. Though humored in some parts, "Stamped" is also informative and gives each period and figure highlighted a beat-by-beat summation of how they played a part in the history of segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists in the world which led to the formation of the United States and into the present day. In telling the story of these figures and their impact, it's easy to see where the applied terms overlap, clash, and intersect. I appreciated that the narrative took on a conversational tone, like a story you're turning the pages of and watching the overarching conflicts from a macroview, a lens on the outside looking in and commenting as it unfolds. The contextualization isn't as deep of a dive as you would expect from a historical textbook, but again, it's not meant to be. But it digs into the heart of where it needs to be.

If you're looking for a book that caters to absolving White Guilt, shying away from the notations of White Supremacy, or mending the emotions of White people that generationally engaged in the harms here against BIPOC people (which is...an issue in and of itself and a longer, deeper conversation beyond the scope of this review), this book is not it. It pulls no punches in depicting the very distinct theories, motives, and harms that were put against marginalized groups of various dimensions, starting with "the world's first racist" in Europe and carrying forward to the present day. It even shows the hard sides of those who were thought (and believed themselves) to be allies, whose words, ideals and actions actually ended up working against the pursuit of antiracism. I appreciated the honesty, to be blunt about it. It reveals the mechanizations of thought and "stories" - in narratives, projections/distortions of religion, among other vehicles of perpetuating racism and justifications for human enslavement and oppression. (Which, ugh.)

And one should consider it in that vein here - the history is ugly and stirs up a lot of emotions even in the brief bits it presents. (Again, those breathing breaks are well timed.) But it's a necessary picture, and so I definitely think it should be read by everyone, particularly teens to get that picture.
I ended up revisiting much of what I've had to learn (and unlearn) with respect to the history of racism in my country, but I also learned many new points that I didn't realize in the overarching journey as well.

I'm glad to have this as a part of my personal collection and would recommend it as food for thought to begin with, and a stepping point to explore. I definitely plan on diving into Kendi's full expansion in "Stamped from the Beginning", and I may have more to compare once I do. But the experience of this was well worth the journey.

Overall score. 4.5/5 stars. ...more

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Mar 04, 2021 Chris Blocker rated it really liked 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 ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 07, 2020 Nikki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: racial-ethnic-diversity, so-good-i-read-the-acknowledgements, audio, diversity-ftw, auto-buy-authors, non-fic, fla-the-real-america

Finally got off the hold list for this audio from my library. I waited to read it because I heard Jason Reynolds narrates it. And MY GAWD, can we say PAST amazing? I can't wait to read the actual real version now. (I'm still on hold for that one.) Real review to come.

**Edit 3/25/2021**

Re-Read for Tournament of Books 2021 ...more

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Nov 12, 2020 Lindsay rated it really liked it

This was delivered in an easily digestible format. I really liked this.

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Aug 11, 2020 Em rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult-books, teen-book-club

Audio. I learned so many things from this short book. How have I been on this earth 50 years and just not be aware of so many things? I can honestly say that we received very little education on black history-but I took pride in all the reading I have done on the subject over the years-still-there are clearly things that I have missed. I would like to read the hard copy to better take it all in.

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