What 1619 Means to Me

[guillaumeb]

From the article:

I have mixed feelings about the 400th anniversary of the arrival of African slaves, my ancestors, to Jamestown, Virginia. That’s in part because, earlier this year, while working as a visiting scholar at James Madison University in Virginia, I made my first trip to Jamestown.

From grade school through high school, I barely was taught anything about slavery—how my ancestors had been stolen from Africa, stripped of their names, languages, cultures, and identities.....

The year 1619 means, to me, the mental brainwashing and physical and spiritual devastation of an entire race of people. It undermines the morality of America from the beginning; and we are paying the price for it in this twenty-first century, when so many people are still trafficking in the hatred, violence, and fear-mongering that was levied against my ancestors back then.

What we need in America, what has not happened, is an honest national conversation on race that tells the entire truth about the legacy of slavery. We must acknowledge, per Dr. Ivan Van Sertima’s landmark book, They Came Before Columbus, that this part of the world did not begin with European history, and that black people and other people of color have been in these spaces and places all along.

To read more:

https://progressive.org/dispatches/what-1619-means-to-me-powell-190827/

What many US students learn, and have learned, is a very sanitized version of US history designed to promote the interests of the very rich who actually control the country.

[Garrett78]

1. The 1619 Project should be mandatory reading.

[guillaumeb]

4. "Should be" is the operative part of the sentence.

Instead, the rich prefer a US history that sanitizes the bad parts, like slavery, and genocide, and endless wars of conquest.

[WheelWalker]

2. Kicked and recommended

[Blue_Tires]

3. kick!

[pecosbob]

5. I support the Zinn Education Project

A People's History of the United States should be required reading

https://www.zinnedproject.org/

[guillaumeb]

6. We homeschooled our children.

They all read "A Peoples' History of the United States".

[Docreed2003]

7. +1

[luvs2sing]

8. Yes!

As a white woman, I think back to the 1960s in elementary school and learning about Lincoln freeing this nebulous, not clearly defined group of people called “The Slaves”. I did not know there was a connection between this group and the people marching and rioting, the people my mother told me had been treated very badly by white peoples for a very long time and who were fighting for their right to be treated equally.

I think that not only do we need to teach an honest version of American history, we need to teach African history. We need to teach about the civilizations we gutted. I can go to the library and get as many books as I can read on European, Asian, and American history but, with the exception Egypt, nothing about any civilization on the African continent. I want those books to be written, and I want everyone to read them.

[guillaumeb]

9. An excellent response.

And yes, what is called history is more of a narrative than an honest examination of what actually happened, and what is still happening.

True, chattel slavery has been abolished, but the prison-industrial complex provides much the same benefit by having millions of unpaid prisoners working for capitalists.

[luvs2sing]

10. Very true.

It never ends. And it must end.

[fierywoman]

11. We need to deal with our slavery history the way the Germans after WWII dealt with

their Nazi history.

[guillaumeb]

12. They tried to do so.

But AfD shows that this type of hate rarely goes away.

But at least the Germans did try.

[Hortensis]

13. This date is appropriate for this conversation. We actually have

national conversations on this subject all the time, but discussion of minority rights is important now for much bigger reasons than just a 400-year anniversary.

In this time of great danger to our democracy, we need to realize in our bones that we're all in this together, that we will stand together or fall. ALL the rights minorities enjoy today are completely dependent on the power of their own votes, plus those of the many white people who always fight on one side: the one struggling to make the equal rights guaranteed under our constitution a reality for all.

The Republican leaders and powers backing them are currently weakening, with the intention of eliminating, government of, by, and for the people as we know it. All the clues we need to begin to understand that that would mean are in what the Republicans in power are straining to do, even stealing elections and committing other crimes to do with their very limited power.

It really can happen here, and if it does it will hit minorities hardest, and minority women harder than the men. Women of ALL colors, though, need to realize that authoritarian governments are always male dominated and strongly oppressive of women.

On the plus side, let's remember that our forefathers banned importation of slaves to the U.S. as soon as it was possible, on the 30th anniversary, of the ratification of our constitution. January 1, 1808, 211 years ago. That 30-year delay was required to get the constitution ratified at all, but it happened then. Not 31 years.

Wishing everyone a Poignant Anniversary.

[guillaumeb]

14. Thank you for that excellent reminder of what is at stake.

The GOP, in my view, does not believe in a multi-party form of politics. Their only goal is power.

And part of the GOP agenda is literally re-writing history as it is being made. The frightening meme of fake news is brilliant and evil. Brilliant because it provides a framework for the GOP voter to simply ignore information that contradicts the GOP positions.

Any actual evidence of Trump's criminality, and it is abundant, can be dismissed as fake news.

[Hortensis]

15. +100.

[Karadeniz]

16. Am I wrong here: history is not taught to learn from our mistakes and shortcomings.

To do that, you have to expose the warts. I wasn't taught the trail of tears, Jackson snubbing the supreme court, the civil rights riots...TONS of events just omitted. Those rights lacking in the constitution weren't emphasized, so I didn't realize the progress when it was finally made. High school history should be taught every year so that it's more meaningful than it is. Also, current events.

[guillaumeb]

17. In my view, what is called history is generally an agreed upon narrative

that omits anything that contradicts the narrative.

And this narrative is controlled by the rich.