Book Review: Stamped From the Beginning

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Kendi chronicles racist ideas and practices from Puritan times to the present. Using minister Cotton Mather, Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and activist Angela Davis as guides, Kendi weaves his way through history to connect the dots of racism and white supremacy in America. The broad concepts of segregation, assimilation, and anti-racism provide the framework to follow and understand how the changing facets of these ideas have played out across history. The manipulative powers of racism can be traced throughout our history and it has created wounds and scars that exist today. This is an important book and it certainly caused self-reflection on my part. How to be an Antiracist is Kendi’s new book. Reviews suggest it is an important book, as Kendi turns the lens on himself. It is on my bedside table in a stack of must reads. I’ll keep you posted. Carol Lloyd is the Director of the Churchill County Library. She started reading this book two months ago and it became her summer read. Not light reading, but it contained ideas that she will think about for a long time.   Never miss a meeting or community event – keep an eye on the community calendar at https://www.thefallonpost.org/events/ If you like what we’re doing, please support our effort to provide local, independent news and contribute to The Fallon Post, your online news source for all things Fallon.