Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

This really is a quite thorough history of racist ideas, going back long before the Americas were explored by Europeans, laying down the foundation upon which the institution of slavery was introduced and then perpetuated in the United States. The title of the book is drawn from a speech given in the US Senate in 1860 by Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis, who announced that the “inequality of the white and black races” was “stamped from the beginning”. The first quarter of the book looks at the historical aspects of racism, but them goes on to focus more or less solely on America. He structures his book around five historical guides, who are both usual and unusual suspects: 17th-century Puritan minister Cotton Mather, founding father Thomas Jefferson, 19th-century abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, author and activist WEB Du Bois and 1960s radical Angela Davis. Let's just say no one is spared--there are difficulties found around every corner, and yet there are also solutions offered, alternatives to allow us to use this as a blueprint for moving forward. A very gifted writer who writes clearly about a difficult subject.