#266: How The 1619 Project Took Over 2020

Happy Thursday! Thank you, loyal readers new and old, for opening today’s issue of the Highlighter. One tidbit about this newsletter is that each week starts fresh, which means I typically don’t save articles for future issues. If a piece doesn’t make the cut, that’s too bad. In general, I like this approach, because there’s an immediacy to the process, but the downside is that some weeks teem with outstanding articles, while other weeks leave me scrounging for days for pieces worthy of your time.

That’s all to say that I’m happy to report that high-quality writing was in abundance this week. I’m confident that you’ll appreciate all four pieces. Today’s lead article offers a measured account of The 1619 Project, its contributions to our culture, and the outcry that followed its publication last August. If historiography isn’t your thing, take in an inspiring profile of Angela Davis and a stimulating interview of Isabel Wilkerson. Both pieces will help center you. If they don’t, you can always resort to making yourself an elaborate paper planner, which promises to allay your anxiety. Please enjoy!

How The 1619 Project Took Over 2020

Last August, the night before The New York Times published The 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones asked, “What if I told you that the year 1619 is as important to the American story as the year 1776?” This provocative question framed a masterwork of journalism that won her a Pulitzer Prize and earned accolades from many teachers eager to have their students reconsider the prevailing narrative of our nation’s founding.

But the project also has faced a major backlash, first from a small group of prominent historians, who revealed an historical inaccuracy in the original text, then from a libertarian journalist, who frolicked in a Twitter tug of war with Ms. Hannah-Jones, and finally from our current President, who claims, basically, that students who learn about slavery will learn to hate America.

In case you haven’t been following this culture war blow by blow, this succinct article by Sarah Ellison does an outstanding job summarizing the controversy and explaining the significance of the debate. (20 min)

+ Teachers: I’d love to hear how you used The 1619 Project with your students this year.

The Greats: Angela Davis Still Believes America Can Change

Angela Davis: “The real criminals in this society are not all of the people who populate the prisons across the state, but those who have stolen the wealth of the world from the people. The elephant in the room is always capitalism. Even when we fail to have an explicit conversation about capitalism, it is the driving force of so much when we talk about racism. Capitalism has always been racial capitalism. The abolitionist imagination delinks us from that which is. It allows us to imagine other ways of addressing issues of safety and security. Most of us have assumed in the past that when it comes to public safety, the police are the ones who are in charge. When it comes to issues of harm in the community, prisons are the answer. But what if we imagined different modes of addressing harm, different modes of addressing security and safety?” (26 min)

+ Please ask me about the time Prof. Davis and I had an intimate conversation on the streets of San Francisco.

Loyal reader Salem begins every morning right: with her journal and Highlighter mug, in which she prepares a cleansing beverage consisting of hot lemon water, turmeric, and cayenne. This could be you, too! highlighter.cc/store

The Caste System In America: Isabel Wilkerson On Armchair Expert

The first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, Isabel Wilkerson developed her thesis that American institutional racism is a rigid, inexorable caste system in the 15 years she conducted research for The Warmth of Other Suns, her classic book on the Great Migration. In this interview with Dax Shepard, Prof. Wilkerson is equally warm, thoughtful, and incisive, explaining in plain terms how our caste system grants or withholds status and privileges, assigned at birth, based on a person’s perceived rank in the hierarchy. If you haven’t read Caste yet, this conversation might get you over the hump. (68 min)

+ If you don’t have time right now to read another book, check out an excerpt, featured in Issue #250.

In A World Gone Mad, Paper Planners Offer Order And Delight

Are these chaotic times making your brain hurt? If so, you may want to log off your Google Calendar and get yourself an old-fashioned paper planner to regain your sanity and spur your creativity. You’ll join a community of millions of (mostly white) women who will help you block your time, meet your goals, and build colorful spreads (with or without stickers). But as Quinci LeGardye warns, don’t get too caught up or else you’ll fall down the Plan With Me rabbit hole, worry about how your hands look on video, analyze the racial inequities in the community, and spend way too much at The Happy Planner. (20 min)

+ Reader Annotations: Last week’s crowdsourced Padlet, “An Anonymous Teacher Speaks,” in which teachers complained of “toxic positivity,” struck a chord. A teacher who wished to remain anonymous wrote:

I want to get lost in the negativity. I don’t like that about myself. My coach and one of the school leaders love to say we can do hard things — and if anyone can do this, it’s us. What if we can’t? Or what if we are trying but it’s bad?

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. Loyal readers, if one of today’s articles resonated with you, please hit reply and tell me what you think. That’s what makes this reading community a strong one. Plus I’d appreciate it!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to end. Thank you for reading The Highlighter. Please congratulate yourself for getting some good reading done. Let me know what you thought about today’s issue by hitting reply or by clicking on the thumbs below. I’m grateful for your feedback.

Also, let’s welcome our community’s 3 new members Darren, Desiree, and Paul. (Thank you, Susan and Lynette, for getting the word out!) I hope that you find this newsletter a solid addition to your Thursday email inbox.

If you really like The Highlighter, please help it grow and get better. I appreciate your support. Here are a few ways you can help:

Send today’s issue to a friend and encourage them to subscribe
Buy me a cookie so my sugar levels stay high enough to read
Formalize your support and join Darren and Maker as a VIP

On the other hand, if this newsletter is cluttering your inbox, please unsubscribe. See you next Thursday at 9:10 am PT!