Why "The 1619 Project" Terrifies Some Whites

In Florida and in Republican controled state legislatures and governors' mansions, including Virginia's executive mansion, an earnest and cynical effort is underway white wash American history to leave only the rode colored view fed to school students in the 1950's and early 1960's. Hence, critical race theory - which is not taught in public schools - and the 1619 Project are under attack for showing "the rest of the story."  America has some inspiring aspects of its history.  It also has others that are horrifying and shameful, slavery and the Jim Crow era being among the latter along with the genocide against indiginous peoples occupying lands the European settlers wanted. Much of the white "Christian" Republican Party base continues to view America as belonging only to them and believe that everyone else - blacks, Hispanics, gays, non-Christians, etc. - must be kept subordinane in order to maintain white privilege and power.  Heaven forbid that students learn about accurate history or the achievements of non-white, non-heterosexual individuals, not evangelical Christian individuals through history.  A column in the Washington Post looks at this motivating fear and desire to pander to white fear that motivates so much of today's Republican Party.  Here are excerpts: 

I am old enough to remember when Alex Haley’s “Roots” was first aired on television 46 years ago — and what happened afterward, at least where I lived.

“Roots” is the story of Haley’s family, its struggles, triumphs and its decades in slavery. The series aired over a week in January 1977. It led to fights in my school district. Black students, having not heard or seen or been taught any specific truths about our origins in America, directed their anger at White students and fights ensued. “Roots” was a shock to the system.

Keep in mind that “Roots” featured a tame version of slavery. It showed whippings. It showed Black children separated from their parents. It didn’t show the rapes by slave owners or the forced “breeding” of African people. It could not show the full scale of the depravity, emotional abuse, torment and murder that drove and sustained American chattel slavery.

Nikole Hannah-Jones’s documentary series, “The 1619 Project,” which premiered last week on Hulu, doesn’t shy away from the full inhumanity of American slavery. It makes clear that Black Americans were treated no better and often worse than livestock. It confronts the fact that Black women were bred as if they were oxen. It reveals the full cruelty of American slavery and shows how Jim Crow by design broke African American psyches for decades. And, once more, people will be angry.

And that’s what some White people are now worried about. In Florida and in other states, efforts are being made to stifle the teaching of Black American history. When Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) says, “No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” I believe he means White children.

These people aren’t interested in racial harmony. And they certainly aren’t interested in Black children. Their continued campaign to discredit Hannah-Jones and the teaching of Black history is about two things: protecting White children — and preventing any initiative to help correct the actions of White ancestors that still afflict Black Americans today.

Many White people watch programs like “The 1619 Project,” and see only a story about White people. That leads to another tragic misunderstanding of why this curriculum is so good for America.

When I watched the first two episodes of “The 1619 Project,” I thought very little about White people. . . . And while I am aware that it was White people who did all these things, I was not thinking about them as I watched. That’s because these stories aren’t about them, which in America is still rare.

Instead, my overwhelming feeling was of deep gratitude. Of awe at what Black Americans before me had to endure and what we are still enduring. I felt pride. And I felt like an American in a way that has eluded me for most of my life. I didn’t dwell on the people who perpetrated these atrocities. I found myself drawn only to the strength, resilience and resolve of the people who overcame them.

Those who focus on the idea that telling these truths is “divisive” are centering White feelings about our real history. Why deny Black students the feeling of gratitude and pride that comes with knowing how your people endured — so that they can overcome and thrive?

I don’t agree with everything presented in “The 1619 Project. ” At one point, Hannah-Jones suggests that the very foundation of America was about slavery. I don’t think that’s true.

But the fact that I don’t believe that doesn’t invalidate the rest of her accounting — any more than I dismiss our broader history just because I don’t buy the myth that “the Indians” welcomed “the Pilgrims” with open arms and they became great friends — or the lie that every Founding Father was a hero and every “savage” needed to be “civilized.”

“The 1619 Project” is not divisive or anti-American. It’s about showing Black Americans what we’ve been through and what we’re capable of and honoring those, Black and White, who sacrificed so much so that we could continue our fight against racism. Teaching Black history is about showing us, after all we’ve been through and are still going through, that we are all truly Americans.

No wonder some are so desperate to stop it.

Disclaimer: having researched my ancestry, I have ancestors from Charleston, South Carolina who were slave owners.  I have seen wills where slaves were devised as if they were chattel property - which they were.   Am I proud of this aspect of my ancestry, no, of course not.  But I cannot change the past and need to know the good, the bad and the ugly.  Only by knowing the full story can we all move forward to make a better society.