Clever 'remix' of book on history of racism is essential reading for teens

Editor's note: As of June 1, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You is out of stock or on backorder from multiple sellers, including Amazon. Some third-party sellers are listing it for well above regular price. The book can be found for the list price from Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, and IndieBound.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You opens with a declaration that countless young readers will love.

"Before we begin, let's get something straight," writes author Jason Reynolds. "This is not a history book. I repeat, this is not a history book."

Those young readers can't be blamed for believing otherwise. Stamped is based on the award-winning book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.

That academic account, written by professor and historian Ibram X. Kendi, spans more than 500 pages. It traces how the emergence of racist ideas — namely that Africans were inferior to white Europeans — was tied to justifying slavery. Kendi meticulously tracks how those concepts arrived in America and evolved over time to rationalize racist policies like segregation and Jim Crow laws.

Stamped received wide acclaim, but Kendi wanted to reach readers who might feel too intimidated to pick up his book. So he asked Reynolds, a prolific young adult author, to pen a "remix" for that audience.

"I knew that this book had to be written on a completely different register for young people," says Kendi, who served as Reynold's co-author.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You plows through centuries of history in a snappy 246 pages. Chapters are typically no longer than 10 pages. Sometimes the font is bolded and enlarged to drive home a point, and numbered lists frequently break down complex ideas. The book is full of Reynolds' rhetorical flourishes and asides, which are at turns entertaining and devastating.

"We might as well jump in and begin with the world's first racist," Reynolds writes. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, How could anyone know who the world's first racist was? Or you're thinking, Yeah, tell us, so we can find out where he lives. Well, he's dead. Been dead for six hundred years. Thankfully."

It's a tricky combination of putting the reader at ease while explaining complex moments in history. Few authors could consistently it pull off, but Reynolds succeeds.

Reynolds wrote two failed drafts that sounded academic before settling into his authentic voice, which he describes as "informed irreverence." His goal was to write for teenagers instead of students. "Those two things aren't the same," he says.

Reynolds hopes that readers delight in how different the remixed Stamped is from any other book about history they've encountered. He wants them to feel more astute about the origins of racism after reading it and ready to hold themselves accountable upon learning how racist ideas spread.

The initial chapters lay out how, in colonial America, slaveholders instituted racist codes that forbade interracial relationships, categorized Blacks and Natives as livestock in the tax code, and prohibited Blacks from holding office. Those and other policies were designed to keep slaves from revolting.

Both versions of Stamped make the case that racism isn't caused solely by evil people but instead laws and policies that justify political, social, and economic inequality. A chapter on the War on Drugs illustrates how harsh penalties for using and selling drugs disproportionately sent far more black people to prison, for longer sentences, than white users and dealers. A passage on voting and the 15th Amendment, which ostensibly guaranteed all men the right to cast a ballot, points out that Black people were regularly disenfranchised.

"Turned out, freedom in America was like quicksand," writes Reynolds. "It looked solid until a Black person tried to stand on it. Then it became clear, it was a sinkhole."

The book highlights thinkers and activists who espoused antiracist ideas that championed full equality for Black people. Both Reynolds and Kendi want young readers to let those examples guide their own intellectual development.

"I hope that they don’t run from the discomfort of it, because the discomfort is inevitable," says Reynolds, who notes he felt deeply uncomfortable at times while reading the original Stamped.

"Many books could talk about racism but don't give the young person an alternative," says Kendi. "And young people demand, they want to know, 'OK, what should I do? What is the point? We're constantly sharing with the reader the ways they can integrate this knowledge with the here-and-now."

The remix that Reynolds and Kendi produced solves that problem in a way that will keep young readers engaged for a powerful not-history lesson.