Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning takes us back to the origin of racism in America;
from 18th century Europe to the Black Lives Matter movement. This book makes a bid to combat
popular history and, the single story that has been told over time to justify slavery.
The author contends the notion that racist ideas inspired racism; rather these ideas were
motivated by racist policies. Historically, these ideas have been used to rationalize slavery,
segregation, and mass incarceration.
Reading this book gave me a different perspective of historical figures that are often
revered and have been taught to me in school; Aristotle, John Locke, St. Paul and Cotton Mather
all supported racism in some shape or form. I have come to realize that racist ideas were about
200 years old and preceded American slavery because the need to justify it dates as far back as
Ancient Greek times.
In Aristotle’s case, Greeks were superior to non-Greeks; he classified Africans as
barbarians. For him, Africans were born to obey and were incapable of reasoning.
Aristotle’s theories were used by Christian theologians to validate the human hierarchy. St. Paul
in his teachings claims there is a three tiered hierarchy slave relations. In another breath, he also
said the souls of slaves and their masters are one in Christ Jesus; which makes no sense! Why
does the soul and body get a different treatment?
Locke, in his book: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding wrote about West
African women having sex and conceiving babies with Apes. This reinforces the idea to
Europeans that Africa American females are super sensual and are unable to control their sexual
urges.
Cotton Mather used his position as a puritan minister to rationalize the enslavement of
Africans without regard for his “religion”. While reading this book, I did a quick google search
of Cotton Mather and I found nothing about his contributions to racism. I can’t help but wonder
why his “dark” side remains buried and how we only learn about his intellectual prowess. Also,
as a philosopher I expected him to have a broad worldview. So, my question is; did he read any
book on race?
Another compelling element in this book is the story of Leo the African, the world’s first
known African racist. How could he describe his people as beastly, destitute of all reasoning, wit
and arts? Why did he believe he was giving an accurate description of Africa? Was he delusional
or suffering from Stockholm syndrome? Is Candace Owens a modern day Leo the African?
Even though just four chapters were posted on elearn, I have read the rest of the book and
I do wish Kendi had included some of the unsung intellectual figures, especially the role African
American women played in history and the policies of mass incarceration. He rarely interprets
the impact of African American women scholars, except for the part where he touched on the
development of black feminist and intersectional feminism in the late 20th century.
Finally, I disagree with Kendi’s argument that “racist ideas have not inspired racism and
racist policy but were spurred on by racist policies themselves.” I do not believe a policy change
can annihilate racism. Neither abolition nor the civil rights movement ended racism in America.
Am of the opinion that our beliefs, outlook, way of thinking, and ideologies are more capable of
shaping our society than any policy.