6 Comments

I"m glad you wrote this Melissa and I wish you'd written more. What a ripely ridiculous book. God help us.

Expand full comment

I wasn't sure how much of the book I could quote from without copyright issues--but the rhymes, all the way through, are both inane and abstract. One of the first rules of first-grade primers (Dick and Jane! Remember them?) was to match the illustration with the text. "See Spot run" went with a picture of Spot the dog running. By the late sixties, Dick and Jane had black neighbors: https://images.penguinrandomhouse.com/cover/9780448436166

This image of black and white children playing together is much more "antiracist" than anything Kendi's come up up with.

Expand full comment

Maybe he should stick to writing for adults.

Expand full comment

That's the thing--the kid book seems to me to reveal the flaws in the writing for adults.

Expand full comment

Yeah- I don't think there's much in "Stamped From The Beginning" that a history M.A. like me doesn't already know.

Expand full comment

Someone posted K's term papers from his BA. Not promising.

Expand full comment