Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times investigative journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for her series of essays titled “The 1619 Project,” was the featured guest for the latest presentation of CSUF’s “Beyond the Conversation” series.
Recently launched as docuseries on Hulu, “The 1619 Project” seeks to disrupt the generally accepted national narrative by showing how slavery has led to centuries of racial injustices and how Black Americans are responsible for forging the democratic ideals of today, Hannah-Jones said.
Staged Feb. 9 at the Titan Student Union, Hannah-Jones’ appearance was presented in a Q&A format with the journalist fielding questions from Associated Students Inc. president Lydia Kelley.
As a journalist covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine, Hannah-Jones has garnered multiple awards for investigative reporting, including a Journalist of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Discussing “The 1619 Project” with Kelley, Hannah-Jones said the body of work aims to unsettle “the collective memory of who we think we are as Americans.”
The project is often described as a history piece, Hannah-Jones said, but it is more of a revelation on how today’s America has been shaped by the inaccurate framing of historical events.
“Every essay looks at modern America and shows how slavery and its legacy have shaped these institutions, even though we don’t acknowledge it,” Hannah-Jones said. “What we don’t want to grapple with is that in America, freedom and slavery started at the same time and that white freedom was predicated on Black slavery and, of course, Black slavery was predicated on the theft of indigenous lands. We have to acknowledge all of this, and we only wanted to tell one part of the story.”
In pointing out that ”The 1619 Project” addresses “crucial topics that need to be discussed and talked about,” Kelley asked Hannah-Jones to talk about the influence…
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