The Daily Show: Ears Edition - ICYMI - Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi on "Stamped" and the Story of Racism in the U.S.

Episode Date: June 5, 2020

Authors Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi explain why they wanted to bring the history of American racism and anti-racism forward in their book "Stamped." Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it. This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look on Apple podcasts starting September 17th. Welcome gentlemen to the Daily Show. Thank you,

thank you. Great to see you again but let's jump into this book which a lot of people would think would see the cover and go like why would I read this racism, which a lot of people would think, would see the cover and go, like, why would I read this? Racism, anti-racism, and you. The first thing you say is, this is not a history book. What does that mean? Look, I chose to start the book that way because this book is geared toward younger people, and younger people don't like to read history. And so you you you you you th? And the other part of it, the other part of it though is that we talk about history as if it's in a bubble,

but the truth is that history is perennial. It runs through our lives, our lives every single day, and it's more about the history of America, you read books that only focus on racism today or maybe even Jim Crowe. But this book really just takes you through everything in a way that, theate, it seems like it's palatable. Has it been designed in such a way that you can just read it and understand without feeling too much? Is that what what what what what you that what you that that thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi's today is today is today is today is today is today is today is today is today is today is today is today is to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to tode is tode is tode is tode is tode is toda toda toda toda today is today is today is today is today is today is today is only today is only today is only today is only today is only today is only today is only today is only today is it's rooted in the past but you can constantly see it operating in daily life and you can constantly see how it's going to operate tomorrow and that's what we wanted to sort of show for young people that this history book

is in the present, it's operating in the future so they can understand their everyday lives. When you when you wrote their everyday lives. When you wrote the book, you know, the two of you came together, Jason and Abram and you worked on this, telling this story of racism, and you have such short chapters in the book, which is really interesting. It doesn't follow the formats of a normal book. Sometimes a chapter is 10 pages, sometimes it's longer. You know, sometimes the way you write on a page, like the word, the word, thiiii..... the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story, the story.a, the story.a, the story.a, the story.a, the story.a, the story.a, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, tea.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a.a. te.a.a. Were you trying to break the mind and how it's consuming information when you created the book? For sure, but I'm also trying to make sure that we're working with the realities of young folks,

which is an over-stimulated world, right? I can't compete with cell phones, video games, their things, and all these things that they have going theirtheir lives every single day. My job isn't to compete, though. That's a silly and futile argument. My job is to work with those things by creating multiple stimuli within the pages of a book. Why? That's brilliant. I think you, without even realizing it,

you might have hit on another opportunity. You just add like an expansion on to fortnight that just teaches you about racism. Exactly. So you have like skins from the past and then kids can learn. There's like challenges. Don't give too much a way. Don't give it. That's next up. Ibriam, young people are going to read this book. And some of them may feel deflated.

They may go like, man, racism was so bad back then, so bad during slavery, so bad, so bad, so bad, so bad, so bad, so bad, so bad, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so's so bad today. How can I maintain hope in this world, you know, whether as a black kid, or whether as a kid who's not black and going like I'm an ally, I want this world to be a better place. So that's why we didn't just want to write a history about racism. We wanted to write a history about anti-racism. We wanted to to show them how people have been fighting against anti-a racism, their racism, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, whether, whether, whether, whether, whether, whether, whether, thi, whether, thi, whether, whether, thi, whether, thi, thi, whether, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, th. And, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thr. thrown. to, to, to, to, to, whether, to, whether, to thrown, whether, whether, whether, thr-s, whether, whether, whether, thr-s, whether, whether. And people are fighting against it today, and they can be a part of that fight. And here is essentially how people have done it in the past, here how they've been affected, and here's how you can be effective today.

When you look through the stories, when you dig into the history of racism, does it have, the way we understand racism today, does it have a definitive start date? Is there a moment in time or is it just an evolution of people hating each other because they're not the same? So there is a start date, the transatlantic slave trade. You know, that's when you had all these different ethnic groups in Africa that were imagined as one people, one inferior people that was worthy of enslavement and simultaneously the racist policies that undergirded the transatlantic

slave trade. And we talk about these original racist in the text and young people are like, whoa, there was like original first racist I had never knew. And you know, that's one of the fascinating things I think about this text. One thing you do really well in the book, in my opinion opinion is you break it down so that people can see what is oftentimes underlying racism or or Or racism that some people may not even realize that they have been indoctrinated into You know you you talk about the southern strategy you talk about how Nixon and many Republicans Realize that they couldn't just say these things they couldn't call black people the n-word

Outwardly they had to say ghettos and they had to say thugs and those the code words and language that was used. When breaking that down for kids, do you think that will help them understand some of those implications that are still in place today? I do. I do think that breaking it down will help them sort, I'm a, I'm a. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. their, their, thr-a, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their, their their their their their their, their their their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their th. th. th. th. theeat, theat, theat, theat, theat, theat, their code. their code woooo. their their is that this book, the intention of this book is to create new code. Anti-racist is a new code, right, for a person who's really fighting for true equity, for true love, right? And I think that's our real task. People talk about indoctrination all time, this idea that like, oh, this is, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm, thi, I'm, tho, tho, tho, th...... th... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th, th, for, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th.......... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thr. thr. thr. theean, that, that, that, that, that, that, thean, thean, thean, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, for, because it's indoctrination, well, isn't everything. So what if we were able to create new indoctrination for equity and justice?

Wow. I'm powerful. I loved it. I've never read it. I've never read it. I've never read it. I've never read it. I've never read it about the now like this.

And it really breaks the that thi's down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down the racism racism racism racism the racism the racism the racism the racism the racism the racism the racism the racism thi the racism th will enjoy. Thank you so much for being on the show. I hope everybody reads it. It should be in every school. I'll tell you that much. Thank you so much for being on the show. Step is available now. You really want to go and get it. Jason Reynolds and Abram-X-10. The Daily Show with Trevor No. Ears edition. at the Daily Show.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to the Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and more. This has been a Comedy Central podcast. When 60 Minutes premiered in September 1968, there was nothing like it.

This is 60 Minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television. Very few have been given access to the treasures in our archives. But that's all about to change. Like none of this stuff gets looked at. That's what's incredible. I'm Seth Done of CBS News. Listen to 60 Minutes, a second look, starting September 17th, wherever you get your podcasts.