When Nikole Hannah-Jones noticed the absence of her ancestors in American history, it inspired her to tell the full story of America.
Inclusive storytelling gives children from all backgrounds and walks of life the ability to feel seen, heard and connected to the environment and society they live in. This, however, was not the experience for 11-year-old Nikole Hannah-Jones, who was born in the predominantly white town of Waterloo in her home state of Iowa.
"I think sometimes it can be hard for white Americans to understand what it's like to never see someone like you -- how demeaning that is, how it feeds into feelings of inadequacy, and how we're all being shaped then by this false narrative about who are, the true Americans who are the people who helped build this land," she said. "'The 1619 Project' hopes to fill in some of those holes.
Some years later, when Hannah-Jones was an investigative reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times, she saw an opportunity to mark the 400th anniversary of the year the first African slaves were sold into U.S. slavery. This, she thought, was the moment to put the year 1619 into the national lexicon.
This was a project on slavery and its legacy, something that we as a society have not wanted to deal with," she added. "So the fact that so many Americans embrace this project, and we're learning from this project, I couldn't have imagined when I first pitched the project."Hannah-Jones described an "intensive and enduring backlash" that reached "the most powerful people in this country." This includes a slew of Republican lawmakers, like Sen.
"What we're asking people to do is to stare into that discomfort, because that's how you get in touch with your humanity. It's that discomfort that allows you to say, 'This was wrong.' What we did, and facing it, is the only way that we can overcome what happened," she said.
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