Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds

A racist idea is any idea that suggests something is wrong or right, superior or inferior, better or worse about a racial group.

An antiracist idea is any idea that suggests that racial groups are equals.

The antiracists try to transform racism. The assimilationists try to transform Black people.

The segregationists try to get away from Black people. These are the three distinct racial positions you will hear throughout Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You—the segregationists, the assimilationists, and the antiracists, and how they each have rationalized racial inequity.

it’s important to remember that racist ideas are ideas. Anyone can produce them or consume them,

Fooled by racist ideas, I did not fully realize that the only thing wrong with Black people is that we think something is wrong with Black people. I did not fully realize that the only thing extraordinary about White people is that they think something is extraordinary about White people. There are lazy, hardworking, wise, unwise, harmless, and harmful individuals of every race, but no racial group is better or worse than another racial group in any way. Committed

Segregationists are haters. Like, real haters. People who hate you for not being like them. Assimilationists are people who like you, but only with quotation marks. Like…“like” you. Meaning, they “like” you because you’re like them. And then there are antiracists. They love you because you’re like you.