Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Assimilationism is the other racist ideology discussed in the book. Several historical figures either transition from assimilationism to antiracism—like William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King—or oscillate between the two like Barack Obama. Assimilationists aspire to racial equality but understand racial inequality as the result of inherent factors, rather can constructed factors. Historical figures, including influential Black leaders, expressed assimilationism in calls to action for Black communities to appeal to white society and to police their own behaviors that might intimidate or upset white people. By contrast, antiracists encouraged Black people to be comfortable existing without prioritizing white reception or reaction. Reynolds ultimately calls assimilationists “cowards” (247), because they don’t embrace Blackness as a category worthy of celebration and pride. They instead aim to erase markers of Blackness in favor of noncontroversial standards of whiteness.

Antiracists believe in full racial equality. Reynolds calls them the ones “who truly [love]” (247). Antiracism rejects the premise of inherent or innate difference between races. The authors present this view as both admirable and factual, given that race is a societal construct without a scientific basis. To achieve antiracism in American society, one must acknowledge and understand the racism of American history and institutions and reject the racist assumptions therein. Antiracism goes beyond the mere absence of racism—someone who is “not racist” is not necessarily “antiracist”—because antiracism requires effort and action. The book reveals how society perpetuates racist stereotypes. An antiracist will recognize and resist those stereotypes whether they are delivered in policy, propaganda, or casual conversation.

Early racist justifications for slavery aimed to establish Black inferiority as fact. Dating all the way back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in its basic form, climate theory suggested that Black people had been “damaged” both physically and mentally by the heat of the African continent. Climate theorists surmised that if Black people spent time in cooler climates, they could literally whiten and therefore improve. Climate theory fell out of favor when European explorers encountered dark-skinned Inuit people in the Arctic.

Curse theory was another early racist idea that persisted for centuries. The Biblical story of Genesis includes the character Ham, a white son of Noah. God punishes Ham for hypersexuality and curses his offspring forevermore. Curse theory held that Africans were these cursed descendants. The theory equated Blackness with evilness, a pattern that solidified and remained visible in racist ideology and imagery throughout time. Enslavement allegedly offered the best means of improvement and civilization for Ham’s cursed children. This thinking set the foundations of paternalism and mythical benevolence in American slavery.

“Polygenesis” means “many creations” in Latin. Some racist commentators attributed African differentness from Europeans to different historical origins. This theory emerged in the Age of Enlightenment from Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini. It required assumptions based in Christian faith. In stressing a separate creation of Africans, one not dating back to Adam and Eve), the theory inferred that Africans were an entirely different species than white people and therefore inhuman. According to Reynolds, this was a very popular theory that “revved up the necessity for Christian conversion and civilizing” (23) and justified treating Africans like animals. It supported and amplified the idea of natural African savagery.

Uplift suasion was an assimilationist effort that aimed to promote Black equality through conventional (read: white) understandings of merit and properness. It kicked in as soon as slavery ended. Those promoting uplift suasion urged Black people “to go to church regularly, learn to speak ‘proper’ English, learn math, adopt trades, get married, stay away from vices” (66) and altogether present themselves “respectably.” This insistence on prescribed behaviors denied that Black people should be entitled to respect, inclusion, and equality just by virtue of being human. Acceptance was conditional on behaviors determined by white people with no room for Black input. W. E. B. Du Bois was initially a proponent of uplift suasion, viewing himself as a respectable Black man who could persuade away racism. He articulated a desire to advertise the “Talented Tenth” in Black society—those that could embody the ideals of white society and uplift Black people through their example.

The Black Power mantra and movement was largely the opposite of uplift suasion. It was antiracist rather than assimilationist, for it empowered and celebrated Blackness. Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, coined the term at the March Against Fear in 1966. Black Power embodied many of the ideals that Malcolm X discussed before his assassination, namely Black self-sufficiency.

A preference for the Black Power approach came as impatience with the nonviolent and political approach of Martin Luther King increased in communities continuing to suffer. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense emerged as a vehicle for community empowerment through surveillance of neighborhood police, free meals for children, and education in self-defense and politics. The media and frightened white people understood Black Power to mean Black Supremacy and feared the implications of such a social reorganization. White commentators demonized figures and organizations like the Black Panthers that called for Black Power.