During quarantine, I read the New York Times best seller and winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction: Stamped by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds I thoroughly enjoyed this read and highly recommend it, as it sheds light on an important and often overlooked issue in America.

The prologue addresses Kendi’s beliefs which differs from the common outlook in today’s society. He states that racists and anti-racists have evolved together throughout history, along with other groups including segregationists, assimilationists and anti-racists, as well as how their ideologies differ. Finally, Kendi defines racist ideology as any thought process which presents one group, as a whole, to be inferior to others. Additionally, the rest of the novel is divided into five parts, in which Kendi and Reynolds discuss different events in American history and relate them to racial issues and topics. For example, they often mention the many forms of intersectional racism, such as the connection between race and sex/sexuality and how this lead to many stereotypes of people of color. They further demonstrate how these stereotypes were used to justify certain action towards Black people and often creates internal bias. Overall, Kendi and Reynolds use this information to discover the root of racism and explain its evolution over time.

In my opinion, both authors did an incredible job demonstrating the points they highlighted in the prologue. The novel was incredibly well written, organized beautifully and is easy for the reader to comprehend. My favorite aspect was the way Kendi and Reynolds shined a light on a topic that a lot of people may not be educated on and isn’t often discussed. By informing the younger generations, we can work towards building a better tomorrow with a fully inclusive society. 

Overall, I would highly recommend reading Stamped. It is incredibly informative and it would be extremely beneficial if more individuals were educated on this issue. Due to the way in which it is written, I feel as though many young people would also benefit from this read.

This is perfect considering one of the authors, Jason Reynolds, will be holding a virtual event for the Glenbard Parent Series on September 29 to explain his thoughts behind writing the novel and answer any additional questions.