Stamped From The Beginning Chapter 10: Uplift Suasion Summary ...

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Stamped from the Beginning Introduction + Context Plot Summary Detailed Summary & Analysis Prologue Chapter 1: Human Hierarchy Chapter 2: Origins of Racist Ideas Chapter 3: Coming to America Chapter 4: Saving Souls, Not Bodies Chapter 5: Black Hunts Chapter 6: Great Awakening Chapter 7: Enlightenment Chapter 8: Black Exhibits Chapter 9: Created Equal Chapter 10: Uplift Suasion Chapter 11: Big Bottoms Chapter 12: Colonization Chapter 13: Gradual Equality Chapter 14: Imbruted or Civilized Chapter 15: Soul Chapter 16: The Impending Crisis Chapter 17: History’s Emancipator Chapter 18: Ready for Freedom? Chapter 19: Reconstructing Slavery Chapter 20: Reconstructing Blame Chapter 21: Renewing the South Chapter 22: Southern Horrors Chapter 23: Black Judases Chapter 24: Great White Hopes Chapter 25: The Birth of a Nation Chapter 26: Media Suasion Chapter 27: Old Deal Chapter 28: Freedom Brand Chapter 29: Massive Resistance Chapter 30: The Act of Civil Rights Chapter 31: Black Power Chapter 32: Law and Order Chapter 33: Reagan’s Drugs Chapter 34: New Democrats Chapter 35: New Republicans Chapter 36: 99.9 Percent the Same Chapter 37: The Extraordinary Negro Epilogue Themes All Themes Discrimination, Racist Ideas, and Ignorance Segregationists and Assimilationists vs. Antiracists Media, Institutions, and the Transmission of Knowledge The Invention of Blackness and Whiteness The Illogic of Racism Quotes Characters All Characters Ibram X. Kendi Cotton Mather Thomas Jefferson William Lloyd Garrison W. E. B. Du Bois Angela Davis Abraham Lincoln Phillis Wheatley Frederick Douglass Zora Neale Hurston Malcolm X Martin Luther King, Jr. Ronald Reagan Bartholomé de Las Casas Al-Hasan Ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi/Leo Africanus Sally Hemings Harriet Beecher Stowe Ulysses S. Grant Barack Obama John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson Terms All Terms Assimilationist Monogenesis Polygenesis Segregationist Symbols All Symbols Declaration of Independence Talented Tenth Download PDF Download Teacher Edition

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Stamped from the Beginning: Chapter 10: Uplift Suasion Summary & Analysis

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Discrimination, Racist Ideas, and Ignorance

Segregationists and Assimilationists vs. Antiracists

Media, Institutions, and the Transmission of Knowledge

The Invention of Blackness and Whiteness

The Illogic of Racism Summary Analysis Benjamin Banneker is a free Black man born to a free biracial woman (who was herself the daughter of multiple generations of free interracial marriage) and an enslaved Black man. A talented tobacco farmer, his inherited farm provides him enough free time to devote himself to reading and writing. In 1790, Benjamin Franklin, now 84, gives a speech to Congress demanding the end of slavery, which he characterizes as an “inconsistency” in “the land of liberty.” He dies shortly after, but the ensuing debate rages on. Proslavery advocates argue that Black people’s supposedly inferior characteristics mean that they will not be able to properly cope with freedom. In 1790, the first law defining American citizenship is passed; it states that only “free white persons” can be citizens. Although some influential political leaders like Benjamin Franklin are starting to come around to the idea of abolition, this passage highlights the wider problem underlying the entire situation: because they do not count as citizens (or even as full people) under American law, enslaved people themselves get no say in whether slavery continues to exist. Active Themes Assimilationists fervently argue that if Black people are granted freedom, they will be capable of using it properly (which they understand to mean acting like white people). Of course, the whole debate is beside the point, as enslavers are not actually concerned about anything other than losing the profit and power they gain from slavery. In 1791, in the midst of these discussions, Banneker writes a letter to Jefferson. He invites Jefferson to offer real assistance to Black people and help stop the “train of absurd and false ideas and opinions” about them. Banneker’s letter is clearly and resolutely antiracist. In his response, Jefferson assures Banneker that no one wants slavery to end more than he does and notes that he is impressed by Banneker’s intellect. Kendi emphasizes that the whole debate over Black people using freedom responsibly is entirely beside the point. As Kendi shows throughout the book, when it comes to the issue of race time is often wasted over arguments that do not need to happen. This is because racist ideas only exist to justify racist policies, so there is little point in getting caught in the trap of arguing about racist ideas if the ultimate goal isn’t changing racist policies. Active Themes The ongoing Haitian Revolution, meanwhile, is a manifestation of every enslaver’s worst fear. In 1793, Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which allows enslavers to pursue Africans who’ve fled and criminalizes those who assist the escapees. To Jefferson, the Haitian Revolution is a “tragedy.” During the 1790s, the number of free Black people in the North increases while the enslaved population declines. Abolitionists pressure those who are free to live respectable lives—attend church, become educated, marry, behave soberly—in order to “prove” that Black people should be allowed freedom. This comes to be known as “uplift suasion”; it places the responsibility for eradicating racist ideas on Black people themselves. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium e Active Themes

Uplift suasion is grounded in the racist idea that Black people have to disprove the negative stereotypes with which they are associated. It also misses the point that racist ideas are not logical and thus cannot be disproved anyway. However, this did not stop both white and Black activists from being optimistic about what uplift suasion could accomplish in the 1790s. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste Unlock Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes

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In 1793, Benjamin Rush falsely informs Black people that they are immune from yellow fever, an untruth that results in thousands of avoidable deaths. Jefferson, meanwhile, is days away from retiring as secretary of state when he receives a patent application from Eli Whitney. Whitney’s hope that his invention, a cotton gin, will drastically speed up production of fabric comes true. Uplift suasion, never a reliable strategy to begin with, has no chance against the tsunami of profit generated by “King Cotton.” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Pr Unlock Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes

In 1796, Thomas Jefferson is running for president against John Adams. Benjamin Rush makes what he believes to be the extraordinary discovery of Henry Moss, a Black man with vitiligo, a condition that lightens skin. Moss has been exhibited across the country, perceived by some as a “freak” while heralded by others as an assimilationist miracle. Jefferson, who never sees Moss himself, knows a number of “white Negroes”—who likely have albinism—because they are enslaved on his own plantation. However, Jefferson does not share the excitement of “physical assimilationists,” believing that whitened skin or features does not stop a Black people from being Black. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque o Unlock Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes

In 1797, Rush tells Jefferson that he is writing a scientific paper in which he proposes that Black people’s dark skin is “the effect of a disease.” Rush, an abolitionist who considers himself a champion of racial equality, claims that this fictional skin disease causes Black people’s supposed laziness, hypersexuality, and insensitivity to pain. He argues that Moss is evidence that “Nature had begun to cure Black people.” The Northern assimilationists who support Rush’s views come to hate Jefferson, whom they view as proslavery and anti-Black. Nevertheless, Jefferson wins the presidential election when he runs for a second time in 1800. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut Unlock Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes

Shortly after he is elected, it is revealed that Jefferson is the father of several children with Sally Hemings. However, the rape of Black women by white men is so common at the time that this doesn’t trigger much of a scandal, and in 1804 Jefferson is successfully reelected for a second term. To many, the rape of enslaved women—and the corresponding hypersexualization of Black women in the public imagination—are permanent parts of American society. Among those who are troubled by slavery, many accept it as a “necessary evil.” Others are sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved but terrified of a vengeful race war. As the national territory expands westwards and cotton profits soar, the question of abolition is further marginalized. In this economically booming, increasingly secular environment, the polygenesis theory gains new life. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia e Unlock Unlock with LitCharts A+ Active Themes

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