Books & Audiobooks
Democracy is empathy realized, if not fully, then at least brought to bear in our best intentions for it. I read The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story during the lead up to the U.S. elections, and I abided questions about the humanity of American history as it meets with present-day elections. Hannah-Jones illuminates the history of racism and specificity of anti-Black racism in shaping the political, juridical, and socioeconomic foundations of the United States.
Author and researcher Michael Morrell wrote that, “only by placing empathy at the heart of deliberation can democracy fulfill its promise of allowing legitimate decisions that give equal consideration to all those in society.” He is articulating an important point about the fact that democracy is inherently dependent upon empathy, and vice versa. Nowhere was this clearer to me than in The 1619 Project.
Hannah-Jones outlined a world of invisible walls and ceilings that existed between the lines of founding documents like the Declaration of Independence, and the U.S. Constitution. Some may critique the book and dismiss it as a volume of revisionist history, though it reads more like a restorative history that precludes justice inclusive of reparations. The depth of research and meticulous crafting of the book are breathtaking, and life honoring where so many lives of enslaved Americans went unwritten and unknown under the crushing weight of the conditions of slavery. She does not tell the story of enslavement as a narrative of brokenness, either. As a white reader I take care to ensure that my “gaze” does not monolithize Blackness into a cruel form of pity that all too easily morphs into poison: white guilt, white tears, “nice racism” which are often easily embraced and occluded by white feminism.
There was a long hymn interspersed with praise in the artistry of contemporary creatives concluding each chapter. On the one hand it spoke to Black excellence in the arts while offering a reminder that the legacy of enslavement can still be articulated by the minds, bodies, and souls of Black folks today, who have yet to see reparations for their role in realizing American economic and military empire the world over.
Black AF History: The Un-whitewashed Story of America complemented Hannah-Jones’ book well, where it filled in American history with even more vivid detail. Where the call for reparations may strike some as unrealistic, Black AF History references the fact that John Locke wrote South Carolinian laws excluding Black people from citizenship and freedom. Furthermore, Locke was a major investor in one of the largest transatlantic slave companies. Harriot notes too, that slavery wasn’t even a product of the times, because no laws existed with the specific cruelty, disenfranchisement, violence, and generational effect regarding slavery. England had no similar laws or sentiments, and France’s Code Noir was written only after the imaginary of American white supremacy took hold in the colonies. Such is the depth of detail written into Harriot’s book, making it an indispensable guide to why American history, is Black history.
There were many details in The 1619 project that had me put down the book several times for its visceral truth-telling; It is one of the few books that has brought me to tears. It details the cold history of nation building wrought on Turtle Island and against people whose only crime warranting generational violence was being born Black. It is a must read not just because on its own, it tells a complete history of Black America, and the United States by proxy.
As Americans take to the polls, I considered the role that empathy will play in the future of the United States. Empathy provides a fulsome answer of whom to the constitutional tenets so often quoted: Life, for whom; Liberty, for whom; And the pursuit of happiness, for whom. We cannot control the outcome of tomorrow’s election, but we can commit to being empathetic citizens who take democracy seriously so that when considering for whom our reply could be: absolutely everyone.
For those looking for more books to read about the history of anti-Black racism in North America while becoming better allies, find some more titles below.