Ibram X. Kendi Books
Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and scholar of race and discrimination.
Known for: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019, How to Be an Antiracist, Malcolm Lives!, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Books by Ibram X. Kendi

Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
Four Hundred Souls es una historia colectiva de los afroamericanos desde 1619 hasta 2019, escrita por noventa escritores que narran cuatro siglos de lucha, resistencia y esperanza. Cada autor cubre un...

How to Be an Antiracist
In this groundbreaking work, Ibram X. Kendi explores the concept of antiracism and offers a transformative approach to understanding and combating racism. Blending history, ethics, and personal narrat...

Malcolm Lives!
An essay by Ibram X. Kendi reflecting on the enduring legacy of Malcolm X and the continuing struggle for racial justice in America. The work explores how Malcolm X’s ideas resonate in contemporary mo...

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
In this groundbreaking work, Ibram X. Kendi traces the entire history of racist ideas in the United States, from their origins in the 15th century to the present day. Through the lives of five major A...
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1619–1624: The Beginning of an American Wound
In these opening years, the arrival of the first enslaved Africans at Point Comfort, Virginia, under British colonial rule, marks a rupture that would redefine the hemisphere. Kendi and Blain remind us that the people who disembarked were not nameless cargo; they were Ndongo Africans, kidnapped thro...
From Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
1625–1675: The Codification of Bondage and the Spark of Rebellion
As slavery spread across the colonies, the laws began to speak its language. Blackness was no longer merely an imposed condition—it became legislated. Statutes defined who could own, who could serve, and who could exist outside servitude. *Four Hundred Souls* details this transformation with piercin...
From Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019
Definitions
The journey toward being an antiracist begins with clarity. We cannot challenge what we do not define. Too often, the term ‘racist’ is cast as a fixed identity—something we either are or are not—when in fact it describes what we are doing or supporting at a given moment. A racist idea suggests that ...
From How to Be an Antiracist
Power
Racism does not begin with ignorance—it begins with power. For too long, the popular narrative has claimed that racist ideas produce racist policies. The truth, however, runs the other way: policies create ideas that justify them. Politicians, economic elites, and cultural authorities design inequit...
From How to Be an Antiracist
Background and Origins
During the 1920s, as Lu Xun moved from *Call to Arms* to *Wandering*, his worldview grew increasingly lucid and tormented. After publishing *The True Story of Ah Q*, he watched with dismay as the public largely misunderstood the tale—treating it as a farce rather than a moral mirror. In letters, he ...
From Malcolm Lives!
Themes and Intellectual Expansion
In the thematic scope of *Ah Q, Part Two*, Lu Xun deepened his diagnosis of China’s spiritual paralysis. In the original, Ah Q’s 'method of spiritual victory' is a personal delusion—turning humiliation into pride, failure into triumph. The sequel, however, would have expanded that pathology into a s...
From Malcolm Lives!
About Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and scholar of race and discrimination. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a National Book Award winner and one of the...
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Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and scholar of race and discrimination. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a National Book Award winner and one of the...
Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and scholar of race and discrimination. He is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University and the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a National Book Award winner and one of the leading voices in contemporary discussions on race and equity.
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Ibram X. Kendi is an American historian, author, and scholar of race and discrimination.
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