Post your reflection on Hannah-Jones here.

Reflection on Hannah-Jones’, “The Idea of America. Intro to 1619 Project.” Additional readings to consider in your reflection, Magness, “Fact-Checking the 1619 Project and its Critics.” And Lindsay, “After All, Didn’t America Invent Slavery?”

This was supposed to be due Thursday the 12th, but you can post it by Tuesday 17th.

 

Possible topics to reflect on:

  1. Hannah-Jones thought on the leading role of African-Americans in the U.S. in the pursuit of goal of freedom and equality.
  2. How this relates to more recent immigrants.
  3. How the author shifts in the use of “we” and “us.” Is it possible or not for the “we” or “us” to include everyone with equality?
  4. Is the USA “in its DNA” an evil, unjust, racist society? What is your role and position in it? What do you do and what should you do in response?
  5. Do you consider yourself an American? What is the “idea of America” that Hannah-Jones agrees with and supports? What is the “idea of America” she condemns and disagrees with?
  6. Compare the situation of slavery, based on reading Hannah-Jones, to how we care or don’t care about the homeless person on the street, in the subway, etc.
  7. What have you learned that you didn’t know before from reading Hannah-Jones, Magness, and Lindsay? Are they addressing the same audience? Is there a discourse community they all belong to?
  8. Reflect on a topic that strikes you in relation to the readings, and in your personal experience. What type of language do you choose to use? Who is your audience?

82 thoughts on “Post your reflection on Hannah-Jones here.”

    1. Thanks. You can post your reflection when you’re ready. You don’t need to come to class tomorrow. We will be doing a reflection on every Tues and Thurs and continue with the readings.

  6. Jeanne Ngoma
    James Wu
    English 101: Composition I, Section 0815
    March 9th, 2020
    The 1619 Project
    The 1619 project was developed by the New York Times Magazine in 2019 for the 400th anniversary of arrival of the first African slaves in Virginia and edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, an American journalist, to reexamine the legacy of slavery in the United States of America and tell the story truthfully. This project explains how black Americans have fought to make democracy’s founding ideals true and contributed to building the richest country in the world.
    Slavery is the state of being owned and controlled by someone else by force. Slavery has started 9,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (B.C.). Enemies captured during war were kept against their will by conquering country, according to FreeTheSlaves website. Even in the bible, the Egyptians captured the Israelite people by force (Exodus 21). By the 8th century, African slaves were sold to Arab households like prisoners to serve them. Same thing in Germany, where the number of captured slaves were higher.
    Hannah-Jones starts this article by talking about her dad who was born in a family of sharecropper, which is a form of agriculture where landlords allow farmers to work on their lands in order to give them back some produced crops. Her father used to fly the American flag in the yard, and she was not really understating that. He was trying to teach her that she belonged to America, and she should be proud of it. Her grandmother worked so hard to feed her three children, but still was not able to find a well-paid job. African slaves could not vote, use the public library and have a good job other than toiling, working as cleaners in white people’s houses or plantations. Her father went to army at seventeen-year-old to escape poverty and in the hope of being treated as an American by serving the country, which was not really the case.
    In august 1916, the day where American slavery started, the Jamestown colonists bought 20 to 30 slaves from English pirates who had stolen them from Portuguese slave ship. Those slaves were taken from Angola to the new world. There were about 12.5 million. They had been forced to leave their homes, their families and their lives and brought in chains to America across the Atlantic Ocean, but unfortunately, 2 million did not survive the cruel journey and died on the way. Women were raped, and men were murdered. African slaves were unable to defend themselves, and they were kept uneducated. Children who were born from white colonists and female slaves had also to work as slaves, and some of them were bought, sold or given as gift, which is very sad. Slaves could not get married legally. They were tortured and treated inhumanly.
    The article declares that the United States of America is a nation based on an ideal and lie because of the declaration of independence that states that all men are created equal. This statement is basically seen as a hypocrisy from white men because it is not everyone that get the same opportunities and the same amount of respect from society. During slavery, there was injustice and not everyone was free to do whatever they wanted, which pushed black people to protest and make themselves heard and understood. According to Hannah-Jones, the reason why white colonists declared independence is because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery. They wanted to keep getting money from slave trade. They made people believe about change and more opportunities knowing that it would certainly not happen, so they can continue getting advantage on them. There was even a law in the constitution that protected the property of those who enslave black people. Other countries were not allowed to intervene or end the importation of Africans to America, and everyone should turn over enslaved people who ran away seeking refuge and protection, which sounds horrible to me. What a sad and destructive word. People’s feelings are not respected at all, and they are not even seen as human beings, but as animals. African slaves have worked hard to build America and transform it into the most powerful country in the world. They built the plantations of some well-known powerful men from the past, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
    On august 14, 1862, the highest nation’s court had declared that no black person could be an American citizen. For the president Abraham Lincoln, black men were troublesome presence. When help was needed, he felt forced to invite five black men in the white house for the first time to talk about war and ask them to go fight for their own deliberation because there was not enough white men, and the war was not going well. He and some other white Americans feared revenge from black people after being released by war, but nothing happened to them because all black people wanted at that time was freedom. Things started changing. Black people started working in congress. They got the right to vote, which was for all people regardless of color. They were able to get educated, buy or inherit houses.
    Money equals power, yes, but using people in a very bad way to get profits and make some benefits on them is inhuman and heartless. Trafficking human beings is a crime, and whoever does it should be punished no matter the reason. Everyone deserves a chance to make a difference. It is not because black Americans are from a slave race that they are inferior to white men, no. All human beings are supposed to be equal in all level and complete each other regardless of race, culture or religion. Society has also to understand it and offer more opportunities, so people can grab some of them and produce good results.
    It is very sad to notice that even today, some people still face racism. According to Joe Sammen, author at center for health progress, the U.S immigration policy is harming black immigrants more than white immigrants. People of color are targeted by society. White immigrants have more privileges than black immigrants and receive more opportunities. Personally, I do not think that the United States of America is an evil or unjust country. People living in and working for society are responsible of what is going around. Human beings are naturally selfish, but it does not necessarily make them evil because they still got the power to do what is good. Being evil, unjust or racist is a choice depending on beliefs. Sometimes, people keep doing things that they know are not good, but they do it anyway. No one is born heartless. People should stop destroying each other and collaborate in order to make things work.
    The situation of slavery in the 1619 project is different from homeless people on the street and in the subway. Homeless are free to do whatever they want, while African slaves were not. African slaves were kept without their consent. They were forced to work for nothing. They could not even escape or run away. Homeless people usually end up on the street because of poverty, the inability to afford a place to live and food. It is not always a choice to become homeless, but life’s circumstances bring people to that point.
    I have never directly experienced racism since I came to the United States of America, but sometimes while walking, I feel like people around me of other races start moving away once I get closer to them. I do not know why, but black people have been labeled dangerous in this country, and people are constantly afraid of them. It often hurts me when I notice that people are running away from me or avoiding any physical contact with me. To conclude, I just want people to keep on mind that we are human beings first, and America is a country for everyone. Let’s treat each other equally.

    Work cited
    1. The 1619 project-The New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
    2. After all, did not America invent slavery?
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2019/08/30/after-all-didnt-america-invent-slavery/#409b61287ef6
    3. Fact checking the 1619 project and its critics
    https://www.aier.org/article/fact-checking-the-1619-project-and-its-critics/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9ZzzBRCKARIsANwXaeJyvewFsNUWz9-reEONVhybwUhY0rC_VHyv2zQIG5faNbjVA-d7QsgaArUNEALw_wcB
    4. The racism of U.S immigration policy
    https://centerforhealthprogress.org/blog/the-racism-of-us-immigration-policy/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9ZzzBRCKARIsANwXaeL5x6NyTFJ4Jqnn44DEcRLIJCobIapi5RgvH1zlbc-SLjHWU9V8b4AaAj0EEALw_wcB

  12. Prof. James Wu
    English 101
    Sina Pahari
    03.12.2020

    “ THE 1619 PROJECT”

    The project 1619 is an ongoing project developed by the New York Times Magazine in 2019 with the purpose of re-analyzing the legacy of slavery within the United States and timed for the 400th anniversary of the advent of the primary Africans in Virginia. It is an interactive project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for The New York Times, with contributions through the paper’s writers, which include essays on the records of different components of contemporary American existence which the authors consider have “roots in slavery and its aftermath.

    Slavery is the state of being a slave, allowing an individual to own, buy and sell other individuals. Slavery in America started out in 1619, when the privateer The White Lion added 20 African slaves ashore within the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The crew had seized the Africans from the Portugese slave ship Sao Jao Bautista.

    In the article the 1619 project, Hannah jones tells a story about her own life and about the slavery in America during that time. Where she tells a story about her father born into a family of sharecroppers on white plantation Greenwood, Miss, where black people bent over cotton from can’t-see-in-the-morning to can’t-see-at-night, just as their enslaved ancestors had done not long before. Her grandmother also worked very hard to feed and raise her children. During that time of slavery, black African people were restricted to use the public library or even to vote. The only thing they could do wash work for the rich white people by cleaning their house, making them food and so on.

    The history begins in the 1860, at more or much less the identical time that plantation slavery was established within the Chesapeake. The year 1619 has grown to be symbolic of slavery commencement in our history, when a Dutch man of war brought twenty Africans to be sold to wealthy people.

    The articles also argues that the United Sates of America is a nation based on lie because of declaration of independences that states that all men are created equal. This statement is basically on hypocritic, because in reality not everyone in the society get the same amount of respect and opportunities. During the time of slavery not everyone was able to live a free life dong whatever they like to do specially black people because they were treated as slavery in very crucial way. Living a very hard life as known as being a slavery.

    It is very bitter to hear and to know that people still face racism in some fields and sector even today. I have read the many article regarding racism, where different people states the racism they face in their day to day life. from reading that article it is very sad to know. Because everyone should be treated equally no matter your color or whether you are black , Hispanic ,or Asian.

    It is totally different situation between a slavery and homeless people on the street and in the subway. Because homeless people can live a very free life they can make their own choice on how they want to live their life. But a slave cannot live a free life he/she has to live a life under someone’s order doing whatever they ask for and they don’t have a choice and they are one that lives a harsh and crucial life, which is very sad to know about.

    I personally have never experienced racism since I came to the United States of American or even in my own country Nepal. But I still feel very bad for the black African ancestors who had to live a life as slave, watching the interviews, documentary and reading articles. To conclude I just want every living human being to know that we are born equally and should be treated as equal.

    Work cited
    The 1619 project- the New York Times
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html

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