Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi

It wasn't intentional that it took me so long to finish this. I got caught up in House of Earth and Blood and then His Dark Materials and I am ashamed that I didn't get back to this until today, and I was so close to done, like 50 pages away...but it is an important book and a must read.

Jason Reynolds is my favorite YA author (and young reader too). If he writes it I will at some point read it. I took my son, who also loves Jason, to see him read from a work in progress (which is now out, Look Both Ways: A Tale Told In Ten Blocks) and it was a memory that will stay with us both forever.

When this YA friendly remix of Ibram's Stamped From The Beginning was announced I immediately preordered it at work. It really is something you must read, and you should have your kids read too.

It is described by Jason as:

"This is NOT a history book.

This is a book about the here and now. 

A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.

A book about race. "

And it is that and more. And honestly it is a little bit of a history book. He goes on to call it a not history history book. 

It covers the construct of race and the way racism has taken hold and never left (no matter what anyone tries to tell you we don't live in a post-racial society) from 1415 to the current day. It introduces important people both on the right and wrong side of history. 

But what I found extremely important was the language used. There are three words it is important to know and understand:

Segregationists

Assimilationists

Antiracists

This is how Jason defines these words:

Segregationists: HATERS. "People who hate you for not being like them" (RACISTS!!)

Assimilationists: People who "like you." But "they "like" you because you're like them." (racists!)

Antiracists: "They love you because you're like you." (GOALS!!!)

He explains these terms in the introduction and explains that over a lifetime a person can act out thoughts and ideas that fall into more than one of these groups. Evolution is possible. Change is possible. But someone can also not realize that they are still acting upon racist ideas because they don't have outright, clearly racist ideas....I know it sounds like and either/or but it can be both/and. 

That all being said we all, regardless of the pigmentation of our outer shell, our skin, should have the goal of being an ANTIRACIST. 

This book may make you feel uncomfortable, it may challenge your ideas, it may challenge your idea of what you thought of your own attitudes, and that's ok. That is kind of the point, to be aware of your thoughts and ideas and make sure you understand them and how to move into the antiracist way of thinking. 

Jason has a way of writing that makes you feel and think without feeling like you are being lectured at or talked down to and it gets in, it hits the mark....

(Finished April 19, 2020)