It’s authoritarianism 101.
When you’re unpopular and the economy begins to slump, revert to expansionism to boost your numbers. Putin with Georgia and Crimea. Erdogan with Cyprus and Kurdistan. Modi and Kashmir. Even Trump thought he could do it with Greenland.
And, round and round we go. (Read the rest on my website!)
On the domestic front, we have Incels putting on fascist pageants in Portland and white people losing their minds over historical facts (the very ones I’ve shared below, as a matter fact)! NIMBYs in San Francisco are vilifying the homeless in press conferences as the only denizens of violence, meanwhile my partner and I witnessed – on the same day as the aforementioned presser – a driver TURNING AROUND to mow down a homeless woman. (The woman is thankfully alive and fine.)
Something seems to be off with Americans’ collective psyche. We’re quicker to violence than usual (that’s saying something for the United States), and there seems to be no solutions in sight. From our anxiety-inducing president to the instability of most Americans’ day-to-day lives, it’s not hard to understand where the tension is created.
Will we choose a shallow liberty for a select few or will we pursue true equality for all?
To achieve the latter, we’ve at least got to get on the same page about our history. Personally, I don’t believe the majority of Americans align with the triggered white men online, but it will take time for a new narrative to settle in the American mind.
The 1619 Project is an amazing start. It pivots our nation’s beginning to August 1619, rather than July 1776, when the first ship of African slaves arrived on the shores of Virginia. It was on that day a distinctly American culture was born. A people that would be like none before and who would do things – some extraordinary, some tragic – that would change the world forever.
For me, extending the timeline of our history is exciting. It’s thrilling to learn of our 400 years of history as a culture, a people. We can’t change our past but, by embracing all of it, we can hope to stop repeating it.
Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true. – @nhannahjones
In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation. – @just_shelter
Myths about physical racial differences were used to justify slavery — and are still believed by doctors today. – @lindavillarosa
America holds onto an undemocratic assumption from its founding: that some people deserve more power than others. – @jbouie
For centuries, black music, forged in bondage, has been the sound of complete artistic freedom. o wonder everybody is always stealing it. – @Wesley_Morris
What does ATL traffic have to do w/ segregation? Quite a lot. – @KevinMKruse
Why doesn’t the United States have universal health care? he answer has everything to do with race. – @JInterlandi
Slavery gave America a fear of black people and a taste for violent punishment. Both still define our criminal-justice system. – Bryan Stevenson of @eji_org
The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the ‘white gold’ that fueled slavery. – @KhalilGMuhammad
A vast wealth gap, driven by segregation, redlining, evictions and exclusion, separates black and white America. – @trymainelee
Four hundred years after enslaved Africans were first brought to Virginia, most Americans still don’t know the full story of slavery. – @NMAAHC Curator Mary Elliott and @jazzedloon
We are committing educational malpractice’: Why slavery is mistaught — and worse — in American schools. – @kitastew
If you haven’t yet, check out the NYT’s #1619Project!
If you weren’t able to find a physical copy on Sunday like me, the NYT Store is making them available to order online! Ships on August 26.