Major Works
Ibram X. Kendi began publishing books for non-academic audiences in 2016, and five of those books have been #1 New York Times Bestsellers. Interestingly, all five of those books have also been the subject of censorship in some way. This section of the website explores two books in particular that have been under scrutiny in recent years due to its use in school and educational settings. Be sure to scroll to the end to see Kendi's other notable works too!
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020)
Co-authored with Jason Reynolds
Awards and Accolades
#1 New York Times bestseller
Best Teen Book of the Year, Kids’ Book Choice Awards
TIME Magazine's Ten Best Children’s & YA Books of the Year
An SLJ Best Book of the Year 2020
Kirkus Prize finalist
A 2020 New York Public Library Best Teen Book
A 2020 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Teen Book
"Stamped discusses why we feel how we feel, why the poison of racism lingers, and inspires hope for an antiracist future."
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You is a "remix" of Kendi's National Book Award winning title Stamped from the Beginning. According to an interview with CBS News, Kendi approached best-selling author Jason Reynolds multiple times with request to work on an adaption, but Reynolds turned him down. He has said that he didn't feel scholarly enough to tackle the book. But it was the realization that the book was "bigger than both of us" that finally sealed the deal.
Stamped is a "sweeping overview of racism in the United States throughout the nation's 500+ years of existence." Readers journey through time and across the world, tracing the roots of modern racism from the Age of Discovery to the Enlightenment era, to the post-Civil War South and through today. The book focuses its narrative on five "main characters": Puritan minister Cotton Mather, President Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, and activist Angela Davis. Throughout all of it, the authors tell stories and events from history that are usually overlooked -- ones that reveal the true origins of racism and racist policy in our country.
Due to its educational value, Stamped has been added to many reading lists and school libraries across the country. It has also been challenged in many school districts across the country, including the Round Rock School District in Texas and the Berlin Borough School District in New Jersey. Reasons cited for the challenge were that the subject(s) of the book might "make children feel discomfort," claims of “selective storytelling incidents” and "does not encompass racism against all people." Check out Broward County Library's video to learn the details and results of those challenges:
"The fact that Stamped is being challenged proves how necessary and effective it is for young people." - Ibram X. Kendi
How to Be an Anti-Racist (2019)
Awards and Accolades
#1 New York Times bestseller
Starred Reviews:
Kirkus Reviews
Libarary Journal
Publisher's Weekly
2019 Best Books of the Year Lists:
Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal
Publisher's Weekly
Washington Post
Time Magazine
NPR
How to Be an Antiracist is part memoir, part social commentary, and part guidebook for a reader's journey from racism to antiracism. Kendi uses his own personal history to illustrate not only the racism he has experienced and observed but also the racism that he has enacted and enabled. In chapters exploring strong, one-word, minimal themes (i.e. "Power," "Body," "Behavior," "Gender," "Culture," and "Biology"), Kendi dissects the infinite ways that racism works its way into our patterns of thinking and behavior, and the ways that it informs media, institutions, policy-making, and lawmaking.
"The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what — not who — we are." - How to Be an Antiracist
How to Be an Antiracist contains modern and culturally relevant ideas about race that will ring true to young people today. The book is a call to action that is sure to energize youth to make changes in their lives and communities. But the book's modern and progressive point of view can be interpreted as radical to some. In 2021, a school district in York, Pennsylvania came under fire when parents discovered a list of teacher resources that included How to Be Racist. The School Board voted for the books to be removed from middle school and high school libraries. Criticisms included that the curriculum was "too divisive, and that teachers were "trying to shape and mold students’ identities based on critical race theory or ... other type of indoctrination." Due to student activism, the resource list was upheld and the books were not removed from libraries. Check out the video below to see the inspiring students who fought for their freedom to read:
More Works
Antiracist Baby
(ill. Ashley Lukashevsky)
Antiracist Baby is Kendi's first children's book. After Senator Ted Cruz mentioned the book in the hearing of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, some stores including Safeway began removing it from their shelves.
Four Hundred Souls (Editor)
Four Hundred Souls is narrative of African American history collectively written by 90 different Black Authors. It was a finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal in 2021. Like How to be an Antiracist, there has been pressure from parents to have Four Hundred Souls removed from school libraries across the U.S.
1619 Project: A New Origin Story (Contributor)
Kendi is a contributor to The 1619 Project, an expansion of the Pulitzer-Prize winning NYT report. Individuals who seek to ban what they believe is "critical race theory" in schools have targeted The 1619 Project, which argues that slavery is fundamental to the founding of the U.S.