Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones

12 reviews

kurtwombat's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

 

This staggering work seeks to reset our understanding of slavery and its lingering aftermath—to take our limited view of history and expand it dramatically—like an empty balloon suddenly filled. It does so with a collection of essays that approach our American history and our American present from many different angles—political, economic, geographic, psychological, sociological etc. The essays are bridged by recollections and poetry and short fiction that act as palate cleansers before the plunge into the next demanding chapter.  I listened to the 18+ hour audiobook and enjoyed the different voices—especially when the bridges were performed. The spoken narration drew me out of myself and I believe I was more receptive to the information. The bridges reaffirmed what the chapters had to say or prefaced what was to come.  The essays themselves vary in quality and impact but as a collection 1619 packs quite a wallop—alternately inspiring outrage and sadness but always inspiring. I understand the desire to add this to school curriculums—and even to create entire courses around it (I think in some form or another it should be in every school until our educational system improves enough to grow beyond it)—but I would encourage close monitoring for younger readers. Some of this material, making up the fabric of our nation, covers the worst of what humanity is capable—horrific  brutality the thread of which still runs through today.  Indeed much of the impact comes from blending the intimate with the big picture—looking into the eyes of history. I see this book as kind of a solution guide. I knew there was a puzzle and I could see some of the pieces and suspected there were others but I had no idea how many or how they all fit together. If you doubt the need for such a book, take a look at a few of the one star reviews—filled with the kind of negative passion born of ignorance and fear. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Deportation, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Violence, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Rape, Child abuse, Confinement, Police brutality, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

A fantastic must read by all Americans. Suggest pre-high schoolers read with parental supervision.

lmfry's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, Genocide, Police brutality, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Cultural appropriation, Trafficking, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Islamophobia, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Addiction, Child abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

tlaynejones's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Medical trauma, Medical content, Murder, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Classism, Police brutality, Rape, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Gaslighting, Deportation, Cultural appropriation, Death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, Sexual violence, and Torture

3littlewordz's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

This work was a necessary undertaking, and I am glad that the New York Times backed Nikole Hannah Jones in bringing this work to fruition. I read this with a book club, and the discussions we had on each chapter were enlightening, even when we had to calm ourselves from getting angry because of the subject matter. The essays provide a comprehensive introduction to race and racism in the United States and how it is baked into nearly every institution in the country (it’s also been exported worldwide, but that’s another topic entirely.). I will say that I don’t think readers should stop at this work, but explore the references provided at the end of the book. Also, I think near the end, several of the chapters were waaaaay too short for their subject matter (Traffic and Healthcare, for example). The poems and short stories could have also been a separate book entirely. They were amazing pieces that deserve shine! Highly recommend.  

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Police brutality, Slavery, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Classism, Gun violence, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, and Gaslighting

lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.25

This is a collection of essays that are well worth reading, and cover the many contributions made by enslaved people and later by the freed Black people to America, whether economic, medical, religious, and the arts.  It is really unfortunate that a lot of this will be new information to people due to the white washing of history that is taught in a lot of schools.  Some of the essays are very hard to read due to the content, but it is important to know what really happened with the horrible ways Black people were enslaved, punished, or killed just for "succeeding" in life, because without understanding and acknowledging that, we cannot begin to move forward in reconciliation and reparations.  The ramifications of what happened in 1619 are still echoing down through the centuries today and influencing vast aspects of American life.  Some of the early history essays covered familiar ground for me (Government BA with a lot of History classes), so I personally enjoyed more the topics on Medicine, religion, art, etc, but there are some excellent essays there for people less familiar with that early history.  And even so, I still learned from those early essays.  The only reason I don't give this a full 5 stars is that a few of the essays did feel a bit repetitive, covering essentially the same ground.  A few essays felt a bit too short and I wished they had been expanded. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Genocide, Slavery, Trafficking, Cultural appropriation, Classism, Grief, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

afreeby's review

challenging informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Police brutality, Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Slavery, Murder, Sexism, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Death

amandasbookreview's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced

5.0

“Until Americans replace mythology with history, until Americans unveil and halt the progression of racism, an arc of the American universe will keep bending toward injustice.”

THE 1619 PROJECT

I started The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones a couple months ago. Normally when I pick up a book I don’t pause. I don’t read other books in between. This book is a massive piece of journalism with more than one author. It is filled with primary sources and analyses the social, political, and economic injustices against Black Americans. So I read a section at a time, looked into the sources provided, and looked up the other contributing authors. The beginning introduces the arrival of enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619. The publication date of this piece? –2019, 400 years after the first enslaved peoples arrived. The Pilgrims arrived in 1620. Just with the evidence of this date, The 1619 Project encourages the United States to review and acknowledge our history, not beginning with The Pilgrims but acknowledging the injustice laid on Black Americans and their contribution to our society in the face of slavery and racism that still exists today.

While Nikole Hannah-Jones developed this piece, it also has the contributions of several other authors, many of whose works I have read, and many of whose works that I need to read. The co-authors and contributors are Dorothy Roberts, Kahil Gibran Muhammad, Leslie Alexander, Michelle Alexander, Tiya Miles, Matthew Desmond, Jamelle Bouie, Martha S. Jones, Carol Anderson, Bryan Stevenson, Trymaine Lee, Linda Villarosa, Anthea Butler, Wesley Morris, Jeneen Interlandi, Kevin M. Kruse, Ibram K. Kendi, Jason Reynolds, Clint Smith, Sonia Sanchez, Gregory Pardlo, Kiese Laymon, Patricia Smith, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Joshua Bennet, Natasha Tretheway, Camille T. Dungy, Rita Dove, Terry McMillan, Danez Smith, A. Van Jordan, Jasmine Mans, Yaa Gyasi, Forrest Hamer, Evie Shockley, Tracey K. Smith, ZZ Packer, Darryl Pickney, Lynn Nottage, Cornelius Eady, Tim Siebles, Tyehimba Jess, Jesmyn Ward, Barry Jenkins, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Robert Jones Jr., Eve L. Ewing, Yusef Komunyakaa, Terrance Hayes, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Nikkey Finney, Vievee Francis, and Claudia Rankine.

This is not an opinion piece. This is history, the true history, that many would like to see ignored. There is fear in accepting the truth. So many have criticized this book without even reading it, without looking at the evidence, despite the fact that the evidence has always been there. This piece also draws parallels from the dawn of the revolution to today’s politics. It discusses racism, and the policies that freed the enslaved but made sure that they could not rise were kept down by segregation and were not given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They discuss how law enforcement policies were actually inspired by Slave Patrols-units that were formed to hunt down runaway slaves. They discuss how the Black body is automatically seen as criminal and therefore more subject to imprisonment and execution. This piece discusses everything from traffic laws and how white people opposed the MARTA in Georgia. Systematic racism has been embedded in every aspect of our society.

But there is hope.

“If we are truly a great nation, the truth cannot destroy us.”

THE 1619 PROJECT

The book concludes with what needs to be done in order to become the great nation that we claim to be. A great nation would acknowledge our history and make reparations and laws to atone for the injustice and make sure it never happens again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Trafficking, Violence, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

purplepenning's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is definitely not the anti-American screed I was told to expect, and you should certainly read it. Maybe more than once. The audiobook is also excellent if you want to pump it directly into your ears.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Murder, Death, Torture, Racism, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Slavery, Violence, Hate crime, Trafficking, Medical trauma, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Terminal illness, Colonisation, Religious bigotry, Cultural appropriation, War, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Deadnaming, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

kshertz's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

This book gets 5 stars for the research alone. The sheer volume of contributors is amazing. I learned so very much from this book. I am eternally grateful for everyone who put this book together to teach me the history I should have gotten in school but did not. I hope to pay it forward, teaching others and changing hearts and minds that also don’t know or have this information. It’s fantastic. Highly recommend. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Classism, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Racism, Racial slurs, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

franklola's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Police brutality, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, and War