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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stamped, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism vs. Antiracism
History and the Present
Power, Profit, and Privilege
How Racist Ideas Spread
Summary
Analysis
Jason Reynolds recaps all the racist ideas that have come up so far. White people said that Black people are savages because Africa is too hot, because Ham was Cursed in the Bible, or because they’re a different species. They said that Black people are savages because of a natural hierarchy, because dark is evil and white is good, or because of slavery. These ideas repeated throughout history.
All these racist ideas are really just different excuses for inequality. White racists start with the conclusion—that Black people are inferior to white people—and then go searching for a justification to support it. This process continues today: politicians who say Black people are naturally criminals and academics who claim Black people have lower IQs are just looking for a new justification for the same conclusion that racists have supported for centuries. But no justification will ever be good enough, because the conclusion is simply false.
Themes
