Reviews tagging 'Confinement'
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds
1 review
alisazhup's review
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
This was a short but incredibly informative not history history book! 95% of what I read was new to me.
The chapters were fast paced but some of them ended up making for dense reading. There were some parts where I wish the authors had gone into more depth. For example, I was a little disappointed by the chapter on W. E. B. Du Bois. I loved Du Bois' writing on double consciousness and the authors of Stamped overgeneralized the concept by implying that it's assimilationist thought and that it's simply about "a self that is Black and a self that is American." It's fair to have that opinion, but since I believe it's an unpopular one (double consciousness is a topic discussed frequently to this day), it deserved more than a paragraph.
Also, there were times when the authors' tone clashed with the book's content. I understand that Jason Reynolds wanted to make this book more readable for younger audiences, but at times it was a little too much. This is a quote from chapter one: "Uh-oh. The R-word. Which for many of us still feels rated R. Or can be matched only with another R word-run. But don't. Let's all just take a deep breath. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale and breathe out: RACE." It almost feels like I'm being talked down to.
The authors tried to make an effort to include LGBT+ people and women. I would say they succeeded in being inclusive of women, but not LGBT+ people. I can count maybe two times that they were mentioned.
Regardless of those three factors-the tone, the pacing, and inclusivity-I would replace this with current school history textbooks any day. THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER than history told through a white perspective.
The chapters were fast paced but some of them ended up making for dense reading. There were some parts where I wish the authors had gone into more depth. For example, I was a little disappointed by the chapter on W. E. B. Du Bois. I loved Du Bois' writing on double consciousness and the authors of Stamped overgeneralized the concept by implying that it's assimilationist thought and that it's simply about "a self that is Black and a self that is American." It's fair to have that opinion, but since I believe it's an unpopular one (double consciousness is a topic discussed frequently to this day), it deserved more than a paragraph.
Also, there were times when the authors' tone clashed with the book's content. I understand that Jason Reynolds wanted to make this book more readable for younger audiences, but at times it was a little too much. This is a quote from chapter one: "Uh-oh. The R-word. Which for many of us still feels rated R. Or can be matched only with another R word-run. But don't. Let's all just take a deep breath. Inhale. Hold it. Exhale and breathe out: RACE." It almost feels like I'm being talked down to.
The authors tried to make an effort to include LGBT+ people and women. I would say they succeeded in being inclusive of women, but not LGBT+ people. I can count maybe two times that they were mentioned.
Regardless of those three factors-the tone, the pacing, and inclusivity-I would replace this with current school history textbooks any day. THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER than history told through a white perspective.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Sexism, Slavery, and Violence
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