A UF professor’s book was named a National Book Awards finalist for nonfiction on Thursday.
“Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” is a 592-page comprehensive history of racist ideas from their origins to the present, said Ibram X. Kendi, the book’s author and a UF history professor. The book explores how racist ideas are spread and embedded in society.
Despite the book’s length, Kendi said he made the book’s language simple so the average person could read it. During a book tour that started this month, Kendi went to Greene Correctional Facility in New York to discuss it with inmates.
Kendi started researching the book three years ago before publishing it this year, he said. He researched the book using publications from historical figures including Thomas Jefferson, W. E. B. Du Bois and Angela Davis.
This is the second year in a row the National Book Foundation named a UF-affiliated author a finalist, UF President Kent Fuchs wrote on Twitter.
“One of the reasons why I’m so excited about this award is that it’s not only an award for me, not only did I get the book on the shortlist for the National Book Award, but the University of Florida did as well,” Kendi said.
Gigi Bermudez, a 23-year-old UF alumna, said seeing minority professors like Kendi succeed makes her proud to have attended UF. She said it also reinforces how essential a diverse teaching staff is.
Bermudez, who is Puerto Rican, took Kendi’s History of Hip Hop class last Spring. She said Kendi always made his class a safe environment for discussing current events, some about race relations.
“It is a constant reminder that UF needs to start recruiting more faculty of color at the University of Florida, because the representation of black faculty really matters,” Bermudez said.
For Kendi, the nomination came as a pleasant surprise. The final winner for the award will be announced in the middle of November at a ceremony in New York City.
“I knew it was a possibility, but you never think something like that is going to happen to you until it does, unless you have a huge ego,” Kendi said, “and I don’t.”
