A Book Review: "Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You"

This semester, alongside social media strategies and campaigns, I am taking another public relations course: issues in pr. This class has been far different from any class I’ve ever had, but certainly not in a bad way. On the first day of class the professor said it would be a lot like book club and by now, I can’t imagine she’s wrong. So far we’ve read all the way through one book- Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism and You- and mostly through a second. 

While part of our grade in this class is to lead discussions and contribute to them, we also have a few writing assignments, one of which is a book review, which, for the first book, I think is worth sharing:

Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You written by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi, is a critical analysis of America’s history through the lens of racist ideals. Reynolds and Kendi’s arguments throughout the book were continuous and often directly stated: (1) this was not your ordinary history book, (2) America was built on racism whether you knew it already or not and (3) racism is engraved in everyone’s head. 

The authors’ first argument was one that was directly stated, but it was proven clearly through the readability of the book. The book was written in a roughly chronological order of events, with each person involved in America’s history not only described as their key actions, but analyzed on the spectrum of racism. Characters whom our history books during K-12 made out to be heroes were not as heroic as we thought. Many were directly racist without an effort to help Black people. Many pretended to be anti-racist for the popular vote making promises that would stab the backs of Black America worse than the whips of their slave owners. No history book I ever read used the critical lens of racism to tell a historical figure’s story in making America. Certainly not in a way that lets you draw an opinion on that person other than “Wow they really started to push for progress, that explains why they’re an American hero!” Brainwash. Which leads to the next argument of the book.

America, as made coherently clear by this book, is not what you were told as an American going through school and it was certainly not built by White people alone. America was specifically built on racism and stabbing the hopes of Black people in the back time after time again, just for the upper hand. The book lists a few key examples of this through the election of some of America’s earliest presidents such as Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. 

Finally the authors did a great job of engraving to the reader that everyone is racist until they start to work on it. That is how deep racism flows in our country, in our leaders and in our minds. This point was brought about most directly through the adjective “assimilationist.” Which the book defined as a person who “isn’t racist,” but only if you act like me (usually a white person). The shock behind the adjective is that racism is so deep, even Black people are racist toward other Black people. One example of this was W.E.B. Du Bois who came up with this concept of the elite 10- meaning that one in 10 Black people could be respected and well integrated into society, if they (he) only applied himself. 

As someone who has made an active effort to look into racism and learning to be a better anti-racist. This book is not only much easier to read but creates an environment that promotes understanding. I think in the future I would definitely read more from Reynolds who played a key role in making this so digestible.