Scan barcode
meganpbennett's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Started as a special edition in the the New York Times to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the first African captives sold against their will as chattel slaves in Virginia, the 1619 Projects aims to be the framework for critical race theory, which looks at American history and adds back in the truths previously deemed unnecessary and to remove various beliefs about slavery. It's a devastating and necessary read.
Graphic: Body horror, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexism, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Vomit, Misogyny, Police brutality, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Racism, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs
kimveach's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
A book blogger suggested that this is a great audiobook. I'm afraid I have to disagree. The authors read the essays; unfortunately, not all authors are great narrators. The performances of the poems would be the exception. After nearly falling asleep while driving the car, I decided to try reading it another way. Thankfully, Kindle had a sale that included both the written and audio versions of the book.
The essays are enlightening and contain the history I wish I had learned in school.
While there have been criticisms, I feel this New York Times response best describes the purpose of the book. "The very premise of The 1619 Project, in fact, is that many of the inequalities that continue to afflict the nation are a direct result of the unhealed wound created by 250 years of slavery and an additional century of second-class citizenship and white-supremacist terrorism inflicted on black people (together, those two periods account for 88 percent of our history since 1619). These inequalities were the starting point of our project — the facts that, to take just a few examples, black men are nearly six times as likely to wind up in prison as white men, or that black women are three times as likely to die in childbirth as white women, or that the median family wealth for white people is $171,000, compared with just $17,600 for black people. The rampant discrimination that black people continue to face across nearly every aspect of American life suggests that neither the framework of the Constitution nor the strenuous efforts of political leaders in the past and the present, both white and black, has yet been able to achieve the democratic ideals of the founding for all Americans."
The essays are enlightening and contain the history I wish I had learned in school.
While there have been criticisms, I feel this New York Times response best describes the purpose of the book. "The very premise of The 1619 Project, in fact, is that many of the inequalities that continue to afflict the nation are a direct result of the unhealed wound created by 250 years of slavery and an additional century of second-class citizenship and white-supremacist terrorism inflicted on black people (together, those two periods account for 88 percent of our history since 1619). These inequalities were the starting point of our project — the facts that, to take just a few examples, black men are nearly six times as likely to wind up in prison as white men, or that black women are three times as likely to die in childbirth as white women, or that the median family wealth for white people is $171,000, compared with just $17,600 for black people. The rampant discrimination that black people continue to face across nearly every aspect of American life suggests that neither the framework of the Constitution nor the strenuous efforts of political leaders in the past and the present, both white and black, has yet been able to achieve the democratic ideals of the founding for all Americans."
Graphic: Genocide, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Blood, Confinement, Deportation, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Violence, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and War
More...