the 1619 project book by nikole hannah jones

“We have to stop letting the language hide the crime.” This is what these were and we call them plantations so we can pretend that’s not what happened, and we weren’t going to do that in this book.

Where children and people’s loved ones were bought and sold, “where women were routinely raped because that produced more money for the owner. “These were camps where people were forced to labor against their will for life through extreme threats of violence and coercion,” Hannah-Jones, 45, explained. Pushing back on the idea that modern style changes are euphemistic, Hannah-Jones argued exactly the opposite: Using the word “plantations,” for example, would facilitate the denial of what happened there. The conversation also was available to a virtual audience.

The sold-out event was attended by more than 550 people and hosted by the Los Angles Times Book Club and Ideas Exchange. Special guest authors Nafissa Thompson-Spires and Terry McMillan also read passages from their contributions to “The 1619 Project,” which collects work from many prominent authors, including Tracy K. For the last stop of her “1619” book tour, Hannah-Jones joined Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida for a wide-ranging conversation about her groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning series turned anthology, its origin story and, among other things, its intentional language.

The 1619 project book by nikole hannah jones