Stamped from the Beginning

The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

By: Ibram X. Kendi

Narrated by: Avery Kidd Waddell

Some Americans insist that we're living in a post-racial society. But racist thought is not just alive and well in America—it is more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues, racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.

In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. He uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to drive this history: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis.

As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial inequities.

In shedding light on this history, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose racist thinking. In the process, he gives us reason to hope.

©2016 Ibram X. Kendi (P)2023 Tantor

That time is now

For those looking for knowledge, FACTS, a new way of thinking, and inspiration in regards to all the ways racist ideas have contributed to our current state of affairs, this book is for you. PLEASE don't stop with the reading, but your new knowledge and feelings to ACTION and elect people in powerful positions who will truly one day make us be a more perfect nation, because we're definitely not that now.

The only con to this audio version of the book was some of the uneven reading pace and tune, but it wasn't too bad.

From the beginning to the present

This book presents a is very knowledgeable account of our history and it lays out the foundation of America in reference to racism and systemic racism from the beginning. It explains how deeply ingrained racist behavior and ideology are within our society. It connects the dots in a way that's irrefutable. This book is worth the read especially if you can try and remain open-minded to the idea that how you believe and think about the world is probably not truly rooted in reality.

Stamped outstanding

I’ll never forget this text. The very last chapter taught me something that I had never learned in all of my 62 years on this earth. White people believe that they are extraordinary and black people believe they are less than ordinary. Black been “Stamped” from the beginning…

My review can’t do this justice

You just have to hear it. Specifically as a white person hearing this, I appreciated that certain things were said by the narrator in a way I may not have picked up had I been sight reading. I think as a white person it’s particularly important to hear this from a Black voice as the author intended. I will likely also buy the physical book as a reference and go through it again. And again… and again.

Thoroughness of topic coverage

I liked the vocal presentation of the reader and how the conclusion matched the historical evidence presented.