Ibram X. Kendi to Release Documentary on Netflix

Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America has been adapted into a movie, which will be released this month in select theaters and on Netflix. 

Kendi’s book Stamped From The Beginning was released in 2016. It was a New York Times bestseller and given a National Book Award for Nonfiction.  

“In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history,” reads a description of the book on Kendi’s personal website. “As Kendi shows, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched racist policies and the nation’s racial inequities.”

“When we think of the history of racism in this country, we’re really thinking of the history of power,” Kendi says in a promotional excerpt of the movie. 

Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams has adapted the book into a hybrid documentary and scripted movie featuring “leading Black women academics and activists” like Angela Davis, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Brittany Packnett Cunningham, and Jennifer L. Morgan. 

Other academics featured in the film include Princeton University professor Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University professor Autumn Womack, University of Pennsylvania professor Dorothy Roberts, and Harvard professor Imani Perry. 

“When we started looking at historians and scholars, we came up with a long list. I noticed the pattern that most of the people doing the work around racism in America were Black women,” Williams told Netflix. “I asked them in pre-interviews, ‘Why do you do this work?’ And many of them said the same thing — that they had no choice. This was their experience and their life.”

“And if they’re going to dedicate their life to something, it’s going to be about changing and understanding racism in America because they can’t escape racism in America. I said to everyone, ‘We’re going to have only Black women in this film.’ It was an important statement to make,” Williams continued. 

The movie was nominated for “Best Historical Documentary” and “Best Documentary Feature” of 2023 by the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards; the winners will be revealed on November 12.

The film is Rated R for some violence, language, drug content, and nude images “all involving racism,” according to the promotional material. 

The movie will premier in select theaters on November 10 and on Netflix on November 20. 

The movie’s release comes on the heels of the news that Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, which Kendi leads, was forced to lay off nearly half of its employees despite raising over $43 million over the last three years. Former staffers have publicly complained about the center’s work environment, with one describing it as “exploitative.”

Boston University announced an inquiry in September into the center’s “management culture” and “management of grant funds.” Kendi remains the director of the embattled center, according to the center’s website.