In Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram Kendi asserts that a decent portion of Americas think that they live in a post-racial society, one in which race doesn't matter and racism doesn't exist. Wrong, he says: racism still exists, but is more sophisticated and evil than ever. And nearly every major great American thinker, he says, is complicit promulgating racism, which has a long and incredibly painful and evil history replete with countless injustices.
Using the words of Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, Angela Davis, Kendi traces the history anti-black racist ideas throughout American history - from its inception in the 1700s to the present day. From that, Kendi concludes that racism wasn't instilled in people from ignorance or simply, hatred; instead, they were created to justify racist and discriminatory policies created by governments and their laws.
