‘Stamped From The Beginning’ Review – Black History: Past, Present & Future

Immediately, Stamped From The Beginning opens with a pressing question. One that has been on the minds of people for decades – what is wrong with Black people?

There are so many implications in this one sentence. First, it assumes there is something wrong with Black people. Second, it assumes Black people are different from everyone else. Third, it makes it seem as if Black people have nothing to feel wronged for. And each of these implications gets further explored, broken down, and answered in 92 minutes in Roger Ross Williams’ all-encompassing and captivating documentary.

Stamped, based on the book of the same name, written by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, is getting to the root causes for how and why Black Americans are viewed the way they are in today’s society. The film is smart to cover the obvious stuff right away – slavery and segregation – but it touches on a fundamental aspect of those issues that is rarely discussed – class. The film tells us about Bacon’s Rebellion, the one time white indentured servants and Black enslaved people unified together to revolt against their captures. This terrified the white elite to such a degree that they released their indentured servants, and gave them land, and the ability to own businesses and make money. Putting them on the same level as their elite counterparts and quelching any hope that these two sides would align again in their common interest. You can see this very same tactic still playing out to this day as there are still some people so far removed from any diversity, that even a small bit of it makes them deeply uncomfortable.

That uncomfortableness is where this film excels. It doesn’t shy away from any of the harsh realities of the past or of the connections to today’s society. One of the major themes of this film is media messaging. What kind of images and stories are being told in the media about Black people, and what is the effect that it’s having on the perception of Black people? The film uses clips from old television shows, news clippings, radio and television interviews, and even Black-owned entertainment as well to explicitly show how powerful media messaging is, and how often it is used to distort reality.

The film features a lot of sit-down interviews with some prominent Black people. Authors, activists, historians, professors, and political figures such as Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, Congresswoman Cori Bush, and Dr. Kendi himself. The film is also broken up into chapters. Dissecting each aspect of race, history, culture, and messaging to truly understand when it happened, how it happened, who did it, how it looks today, and what are we doing to change it.  

What makes the documentary so compelling is how it handles its subject matter. It is presented in a way that is thorough while also being engrossing and informative. It asks the right questions and uncovers truths in history that have often gone ignored or under-reported. Even going so far as tearing down the idea behind perceived progressive historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Oftentimes, when it comes to these venerated heroes of years past, their true beliefs are whitewashed and all that is known about them is the good. It’s what keeps reconciliation from happening because so few people are aware of the systemic problems that have plagued an entire race of people for so long. 

The film also pays its respects to many Black women throughout history who are significant in changing racial perceptions. One is Phyllis Wheatley whose writings had to be approved by an all-white board who didn’t believe a Black person could be capable of writing prose. And Ida B. Wells, whose journalistic integrity caused her to report the true numbers of lynchings in the United States and expose the practice to the masses. Each one reshaped our understanding of humanity and Black people as a whole, but the film assures us the work is not over. 

For every step forward Black people make in society, there are forces at work, even some by Black people themselves, to continually pull us back under the boot of power. But Stamped from the Beginning examines race as a social construct, a systemic power structure, and a cultural circumstance and asks, what could possibly be wrong with Black people? 

The answer is…do you really want to know?

Stamped From The Beginning is currently playing in select theaters and is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMYLFQbyIu4]