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>> Hey everybody.
My name is Jason Reynolds.
I am the current
National Ambassador
for Young People's
Literature, coming to you
from my home in Washington, DC.
I'm currently in my office where
I do all my work as you can see,
all the books behind me.
I'm also the author of Stamped:
Racism, Antiracism, and You.
And actually I should say I'm
the co-author of the book.
It came about because there is a
wonderful race scholar named Dr.
Ibram X. Kendi.
He's America's foremost
race scholar in this moment.
And he published a book
in 2016 called Stamped
from the Beginning,
which is a history
of racist ideas and policies.
And he won the National
Book Award.
We met at the National
Book Award and it was there
that he -- or shortly after
that rather, that he asked me
to somehow translate all this.
In the end, it was 600 pages of
scholarship about the history
of racism in America from
the 1400s all the way
up to current day.
And he wanted to figure
out a way for that book
to be translated into
something for younger people,
or for people who
may not be scholars,
or who don't have the capacity
to read a 600-page tome.
A brilliant tome, but
a tome none the less.
And so, after some prodding
I eventually said yes
and decided to tackle it.
And the purpose behind
it is to make sure
that this information is
as accessible as possible
so that we can sort of arm
ourselves with information,
create new vocabulary,
and hopefully begin
to actually push the line and
move the needle as it pertains
to the conversation
around race in America.
Nothing creativity comes
into play when it comes
to the retelling of a thing, or
the telling of it in general,
because I think we
live in a world
where young people
are hyper-stimulated.
And that's not necessarily
a new thing any more.
There's the internet.
There's social media.
There's video games and YouTube.
There's all sorts of things
to -- I won't say distract,
but to engage young people.
And so as a writer, we have
to figure out not how to fight
against those things, because
we're going to lose that fight.
Our job is to work with those
things, and to meet them
where they are, and to
create hyper-stimulation even
within the pages of a book.
So in order to do so, the first
thing you have to do is you have
to figure out how to tap into
the psyche of young people.
And the best way to tap
into their psyche is
to tap into their language.
I think it's the way
that we say things
that determine how we engage
with the kids around us.
The way that we say things will
create the tether that brings
about the trust that they have
for the person who's speaking,
especially if that
person is an adult.
And most especially if that
person's talking about something
that they normally would
not be interested in.
I was not a child who was
interested in history,
especially reading
a history book.
Especially if that book
reminded me of school,
or textbooks, or class.
And so my job was to subvert
all of those expectations
to let them know that
this, not only can be cool,
but it can be written in
a way that feels familiar
and conversational, and still
also have an extraordinary
bearing upon your life, in terms
of just making sure you have
the information necessary
to make this world
a better place
like so many people
actually want to do anyway.
History has to be spoken
about as conversation,
because ultimately
that's what it is, right?
Conversation is the volleying of
back and forth of ideas, right?
We pose an idea, and then
you and I go back and forth,
sort of fleshing out
what that idea is.
Talking about whether or
not we agree or disagree,
or adding onto that idea, right?
And I think history should
be looked at the same way,
because it's an ever-evolving
thing.
Now the things that have
happened, have happened, right?
But the danger in thinking
of history as only the things
that have happened
is to put it --
is to put history and the
things of the past in a vacuum
which then connotes that they
have absolutely no connection
to the lives that we live
today, and the truth is,
our present time is in
conversation with the past.
Our present time is also in
conversation with the future.
As a matter of fact, the
past is in conversation
with the future, right?
And so there's this
constant sort of interplay
between where we are today,
where we're going,
and where we've been.
And the volleying of
ideas, and the evolution
of those ideas back and forth,
that's basically our
lives in a nutshell.
If we're doing it right.
If we're living examined
lives, which is what I'm also,
and what we're also encouraging.
I think history living
in a bubble is dangerous,
because what it allows
us to believe is
that there's no more
work to be done.
It allows us to believe
that what has happened
in the past has stayed
in the past,
but we all know that
that's not true.
Especially those of us
who are living any sort
of marginalized lives
in this country.
And so I think for me, I
want to bust the bubble.
Bust the bubble that history
apparently lives in and say no,
it's not that history
lives in this bubble.
History is perennial.
Right? Think of history
as an ongoing train,
and at any given time we are on
that train in different cars.
But instead of it being you
know, we're on different trains,
and history is one train and
the present is a separate train,
and the future's another train.
Instead we're all
on the same train,
just in different cars, right?
History might be
in a car behind us.
And we might be in this car,
and maybe there's something
in the car ahead of us.
But it's still one singular
train, and if any part
of that train goes down,
all the train goes down.
So it's best we examine every
single part of the train
to make sure the train
keeps moving forward,
so that we can then determine
what's the best way to get
to whatever destination that
we're trying to get to .
But to pretend like the back
of the train doesn't
exist is dangerous.
If we actually want the
train to function, right?
So we have to acknowledge
that the engine,
we have to acknowledge
the caboose.
We have to acknowledge
every part of that train,
even if there are parts of the
train that get a little mucky
and a little clunky and a
little ugly and a little oily.
It's still the train
that we are on.
And that's the way that I
look at this conversation.
In the very beginning of the
book, I was really fascinated
by Gomes Eanes de Zurara.
Now this is a man whose
name we do not hear,
that I had never heard before.
Started to work on this book,
and he was a Portuguese scribe.
He was the man who was,
who was responsible
for telling the story of
how the Portuguese went
into North Africa,
enslaved the North Africans,
and told the story of how --
what made them different than
the other European countries
that were enslaving people.
What made them different
was that they were doing it
for [inaudible] reasons.
They were doing it to give the
Moorish people Christianity
and to save their souls, and to
civilize them, and all this sort
of narrative that ended up
becoming the main narrative
for the enslavement of
Africans that came to America.
Or to the Americas rather.
And I was fascinated by this
person not because he was a part
of the actual slave trading,
because he technically wasn't.
He technically wasn't the --
he wasn't like boots
on the ground, right?
But what he was, was the
man who wrote the story
and spun the story and
proliferated that narrative
to other parts of Europe,
which then eventually
would become the narrative
that would you know, justify
enslavement of millions
of African people
in North America.
And the reason why I
find it fascinating is
because I work in literature.
I work in media.
I tell stories.
And so I recognized the power of
media, the power of literature,
the power of language, the power
of story, and how that story
that he told set forth
one of the most --
one of the most tragic
and complicated systems
that the world has ever seen.
And so what exactly is
my role as a storyteller?
And furthermore, what
exactly is the power
of the storyteller
going forward?
So he was definitely
one of them.
I also was fascinated
by Thomas Jefferson.
I mean, we all know the
story of Thomas Jefferson,
or at least we know bits of it,
but to look at Thomas Jefferson
as a man who was full
of contradiction,
a man who went back and
forth between being --
between knowing that slavery was
wrong, but not being willing to,
to stand on his ethic,
because of his need for money
and understanding that
slavery was capitalist
and an economic advantage.
Right? It's a complicated thing.
And to see him sort of teeter
back and forth his entire life
between doing the right thing
and living the wrong thing.
Between knowing slavery was
wrong, but owning slaves.
Between like -- he represents
what I think a lot of us feel.
Right? A lot of people,
a lot of human beings.
Not necessarily in the sense of
the ownership of humans, right?
Of course, not that.
But in the sense of
grappling with one's morality
up against the realities
of a country's sort
of economic system.
All of us have been in a
situation where it's like,
do I do the thing that is right?
Or do I do the thing
that is prosperous?
And can there be
prosperity without ethics?
And if so, how dangerous
is that?
And to see him sort
of do this dance just
to me was a fascinating thing.
And then lastly, what I'll
say is all the Black women
in the book, whether
it be Ida B. Wells,
whether it be Zora Neale
Hurston, whether it be
of course the great
Angela Davis.
I think there's something about
the history of Black women
in America that has gone
unsung, that has been the victim
of an extraordinary erasure.
But I don't know if there's
a more antiracist group
historically in this
country than Black women.
And I think it's time
that they get their due.
You know, to be quite frank,
there is -- if there's no hope,
what exactly is the point
of doing any of this work?
The reason that we're
all working so hard is
because we believe that
just maybe there is a chance
that things can change.
You know, I spoke to the great
writer James McBride recently,
and he was quoting a writer,
and a famous journalist,
Pete Hamill.
Brooklyn journalist Pete Hamill.
And he said, you know Hamill
always said skepticism is
healthy, but cynicism
is a dangerous thing.
And I -- you know, when he
said that to me, it struck me.
I think he's right, right?
I'm skeptical.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm skeptical, and for
good reason, right?
My life, my family's lives,
the lives of my friends.
I've earned the right
to be a bit skeptical,
but I'm not cynical.
I'm not a cynic.
I do believe that
we can do better
and that we will do
better, that we can change.
Furthermore, I'm around children
all the time and when you're
around young people like me,
it sort of eliminates the
possibility of cynicism,
because young people
remind you every single day,
that they actually
want the world
to be a better place, right?
Like in the midst of them
being adolescent, in the midst
of all their teenage
shenanigans,
at the core of who they
are is a generation
of people fighting for equity.
They want the world to be
fair right, almost to a fault.
But it's that naïveté, up
against the irreverence of youth
that might actually make
something happen, right?
They don't have the same scars
that I have, or that a lot
of us have when you
get past a certain age.
They still believe that
the world can be good.
They still believe that
human beings can change.
And that we can see each
other as each other,
and not as separate things.
And there's something about
them, the young people,
this new generation,
this new crop coming
up that energizes me.
That sort of swells
me with a certain kind
of pride and excitement.
And I will do everything I can
to fight on their behalf to shut
down all the naysayers who
talk terribly about them,
and to stand beside them,
not in front of them.
To stand beside them, to help
to guide them along their way,
and maybe even stand behind
them to give a little nudge
when they feel a
bit discouraged.
And that's it.
I talked to my mother the other
day, and she's 75 years old.
My mother was at the March on
Washington all those years ago,
and was a part of that movement.
And to hear my 75-year-old
mother say you know,
I won't say a bad word about
these kids, I'm proud of them
for being in the street.
I'm proud of them for
raising their voices.
I'm proud of them for
screaming and shouting,
and making a mess of things.
Get in the way, young people.
Right? That is the only
way to change is for you
to get in the way, right?
And I think -- I think if
you want to look at history,
it's always the young people.
This is in tradition for all
human revolutions, right?
And when I say "revolution"
everybody gets all scared
and worried, and
things of that nature.
But it just means
drastic change.
It means that it's time
to take a hard left.
And I think all change
comes from,
has always come from,
young people.
Young people who don't have to
worry about the hangups of jobs
and families and mortgages,
and this, that, and the third.
They're like, look I'm
young, I'm irreverent,
I'm ready to shake the table.
And I have the stamina
that a 40-year-old just
doesn't have any more.
And there's just something
about that that is wonderful.
Now, here's the thing
that I think about more
than anything is that we
have to make sure that --
and they have to make sure,
and we have to make sure
that we help to guide and
mold them a certain way,
because the internet, as
powerful of a tool as it is,
and it is a powerful tool,
they have used it expertly.
But the internet will convince
you, and I always say this,
the internet will convince you
that half-love is whole love.
And what I mean is,
it will convince you
that action is pushing
a few buttons,
or making an interesting
statement,
taking a few pictures.
And I'm not saying that
those things are inaction.
I'm just saying that's
not whole action.
And I think what I want
young people to continue --
because they're doing it.
I want them to continue to do is
to make their presence
known physically, right?
Make it clear.
Show up and put their
bodies in the street.
Put their bodies -- and now,
now this is a dangerous
thing to say, right?
Because the issue with this is,
well how do we do this safely?
You know, how do we make sure?
Well, I think there are
those of us like myself
who have to show up with them.
Who have to make sure that
they have the necessary tools,
and the history of protest.
Make sure they pack
the necessary things.
This is very real,
practical things.
It isn't all just
led by emotion.
I'm talking about practical
things that I want young people
who want to make
their voices heard.
Like never go alone, be safe.
These are all the
complicated conversations,
and the various sort
of you know,
banal sort of conversations
we need to be having
with young people who are
in the midst of protests,
and necessary protests.
I want to make sure that
they're not just led off of --
just led by adolescent emotion.
And innocent and honest and
raw emotion, but also being led
from a place of logic,
and a place of thought,
critical thought and analysis.
And they are not too young
to have all those things.
They contain multitudes.
And I believe that.
So we just have to make
sure that we're filling them
up with the information, and the
tools, so that they go out there
and know how to handle
themselves.
The most creative thing,
the most brilliant thing
that America ever
made was America.
That was sort of the fever pitch
of creativity was the
making of the country.
And what I'm hoping now is
that we're on the precipice
of another brilliant innovation.
And that innovation is going
to basically be the reformation
of a lot of our systems.
The acknowledgement of a
lot of our harms and wounds.
Right? This is a very
different kind of ingenuity.
It's an ingenuity that takes
the same kind of courage
and fortitude, and moxie that
it took for America to be made
in the first place, despite
how complicated the making
of the country was.
Now we're at a place
where it's like well,
how do we remake the country?
Right? How do we
improve on the model?
And I think people are a
little nervous about it,
but I think a lot of
us are like it's time
for the 400-year
experiment to be edited.
To be updated.
Right? The first
draft got us here.
And now it's time for a rewrite.
It's time for a recast.
And that's going to be painful.
Like anybody who writes novels
for a living, you know to cut
out something is a painful
thing when you loved
that part of the story.
You loved the language you
were able to come up with.
You loved the moment of
genius you thought you had
at that moment.
But then you look
at it years later,
and you realize it
doesn't hold up.
And now it's got to be
stricken from the text.
And it's complicated and
painful, but it's necessary
to make the story the best
version of itself, right?
And I think -- when I think
of American ingenuity,
I'm thinking now it's
time for an edit.
A bold, red-marked edit.
And I think that the babies,
the kids are more than ready
to insert their parts of this
narrative, and to you know,
put some edit marks on the page.
History's an interesting thing
because the way that we talk
about history, learn history,
and engage with history
is outside of ourselves,
outside of our bodies, right?
It's -- we intellectualize it.
Memory is something that exists
on the inside of our bodies.
It exists -- it literally
is attached to our psyche.
It affects the way that
we move around the world
on a day-to-day,
minute-by-minute,
hour-by-hour basis.
Right? I can recall my
childhood, the teachings
of my mother, things of that
nature, and those teachings,
my mother scolding
me at 14 years old,
keeps me from doing things
that I know are wrong at 36.
Because it's embedded
in my body.
It lives in my coding, right?
And so we talk about memory,
and we talk about sort of --
a prime example now, especially
with Stamped is even thinking
about language, right?
How do we change the
conversation around language
when it comes to race, because
that language attaches itself
to our memories, and our
psyches, and our coding, right?
So if we stop thinking about
something being "not racist"
and start thinking about how
we can be more antiracist,
the simple shift in
language changes the way
that we move around the world.
It changes the way that we
engage with people around us.
It gives us new lexicon,
new language.
And with new language
comes culture,
because language is the
cornerstone of culture.
We change language;
we change culture.
That's the way it works, right?
If we're being honest about it.
Now we can change
language and use
that language to cheat, right?
Language is either going to
exclude or include, right?
That's the way it works.
So we can sort of manipulate
language negatively,
but what we're asking is that
we use this new vocabulary,
this new lexicon, to basically
build upon the culture,
and shift it with the
shifting of the language.
So instead of saying like,
you know I'm not racist,
or I don't want to be racist,
we -- you work to be antiracist,
so that you have to be active.
And antiracism, and the
actions that you make
as a person striving for
antiracism, then attaches itself
to your memory, then
you know moving forward,
every time you see something
that doesn't feel right,
or that goes against what
you know to be racist,
or you know to be -- excuse me.
Or that goes against what
you know to be antiracist,
your memory and your
psyche will kick itself on,
and you will know that this
requires an antiracist action.
Action, right?
It's no different than
thinking about antibodies
when it comes to viruses.
I talk about this all the time.
The reason that we inject
antibodies into the body,
which is basically dulled
version of the active virus,
is because we need your
cells, your protective cells
in your body, to recognize
when the virus has come,
to activate themselves
and attack the virus before
it attacks you, right?
So what we're saying is --
which means by the way,
the body has memory.
Your cells will memorize
what that --
the "antibody," the dulled
version of the virus,
it will memorize what that virus
is, so that when a live version
of the virus comes into you,
it will say, I recognize that.
Let me turn myself on
and kill the virus.
What we're saying is,
what if we were to take
in information in the same way?
What if we were to change our
language and our dialogues
and our conversations and even
our actions in the same way
so that the moment that
racism enters the body --
by the way, it's
almost always vaporous.
You can't always see it.
But the moment that
racism enters your space,
enters your body, the antibodies
of antiracism attack it,
because they -- it
remembers what it looks like,
what it sounds like, what it
feels like, what it smells like.
It remembers it.
It attacks it before it
turns you into something
that you do not want to be.
Something to think about.
So memory is very, very,
very, very, very important.
It's a different way
to think about history.
It's a way to think about
history as something intrinsic.
Not just as something
that exists sort
of outside of ourselves.
The racism of America is woven
into the fibers of the country.
And I know we don't
like to talk about it.
Some of us [inaudible]
talk about it,
but racism is woven
into the fibers.
It's in the genetic
code of America.
It's woven into our systems,
our policies, our laws.
It is much bigger than
a you and me thing,
than a person-to-person thing.
It exists on a macro
level, and a systemic level.
That being said, you and me,
you and I still have
responsibilities
to treat each other as human
beings, and in order to do that,
one must be -- one must
strive toward antiracism.
Antiracism is not a
place you can get to.
It is not a destination.
No one will ever
actually make it there.
The point is to fight for
it, to work toward it.
Racism will continue to evolve,
therefore the way that we look
at it, and study it, and fight
against it has to
evolve with it.
The language will
continue to change.
We will continue to learn.
If we're on this process,
if we're on this journey
to learn forever, then the world
will be a better place, right?
It literally comes down to that.
If I can wake up every
day and say I want
to be more antiracist.
I want to look at human beings
as they are because they are
who they are, and that's it.
Right? And love them for that.
Nothing extra.
No tags. No -- but
they come from here,
but they speak this
language, but they're Black,
but they're brown, but
they're -- all the things.
No, no, no.
I'm going to give everyone
the benefit of the doubt
for no other reason
than the fact
that they are on this plane.
They exist.
And that means they deserve the
right to life, and to freedom,
and to liberty, and to equity.
Right? All those things.
I think if we can do
that every single day,
then we'll be alright.
But we got to make sure we focus
on the micro and
the macro, right?
The micro is you and I
every day interaction,
but the macro is making sure
that we change our governmental
systems, and we fight for that.
Fight to shift the systems,
and the laws, and the policies
that have been written
as racist from the onset.
And the history is what gives
us the power to even know that.
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