Description

American Slavery and Racism: Or Some of the Stuff “They” Don’t Want You to Know. Through the Lenses of Several Contemporary Authors

We hear a great deal about “the 1619 project,” and “Critical Race Theory.” Two very different tools. CRT is geared towards graduate students and, the other at the more general public. Both address the broad, complex range of the history of African Americans, their contributions and the structural, systemic racism they continue to confront. The first goal will be to demystify what’s in them and provide some understanding of why many find them so threatening and are demanding that they be suppressed. The second much broader goal is to examine some of that history to see how it evolved and the monumental societal, cultural and political impact, mostly harmful, this history has had throughout our presence in N. America. We will begin with early colonial settlement and the beginning of slavery and move, somewhat chronologically, up to the present. As the instructor proceeds, he will rely, to a significant extent, on six recent books, each of which examines and discusses a specific aspect of America’s past and present struggles with race, racism and caste. ‘The Half Has Never Been Told,’ by Edward Baptist, ‘Empire of Cotton’ by Sven Beckert, ‘Slavery by Another Name’ by Douglas Blackmon,’ Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents’ by Isabel Wilkerson, ‘The Color of Law’ by Richard Rothstein and ‘How the Word is Passed’ by Clint Smith. Reading is not necessary, however, If participants wish to read some, instructor’s suggestion would be to consider Wilkerson, Rothstein, or Smith.