Netflix adapts Ibram X Kendi books

Global streamer Netflix is to adapt three books from author and anti-racist scholar Dr Ibram X Kendi, with director and producer Roger Ross Williams (Life Animated) attached to two of the projects.

Dr Ibram X Kendi (photo: Larry D Moore via CC)

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism & You and Antiracist Baby will be developed by the streamer across different formats and genres, with Kendi exec producing all three.

Directed and produced by Williams and exec produced by Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, The Game), Stamped from the Beginning will be a hybrid documentary/scripted feature that aims to challenge the notion that we are living in a post-racial society.

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism & You, aimed at younger viewers, will be also directed and produced by Williams. The doc will reveal the history of racist ideas while giving hope for an antiracist future.

Antiracist Baby, a series of animated vignettes set to music for preschoolers, will be exec produced by Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins, Vampirina). The aim of the show is to empower children and give their caregivers the tools to uproot racism.

Williams said: “Dr Ibram X Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism & You are powerful and essential pieces of literature that clearly outline how deeply rooted racist ideas are in the United States.

“I hope these films crystallise Dr Kendi’s message that ‘the only thing wrong with black people is that they think something is wrong with black people’ and encourage everyone to fight for a more equitable society.”