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How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Book by Clint Smith · 2 quotes · Blacks, Slavery, African Americans

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How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America Quotes

“Nya nodded. "So many people come here without an understanding of the primary cause of the Civil War. Some people think Jefferson wrote the Constitution. I mean there are just so many ways that our public education is failing people by just not giving them the context to understand that Monticello is a plantation, and that slavery was a system that created the economic prosperity that enabled our country to exist. That is not something most people understand. I don't really blame them, because they're not taught to engage that history, and most people are not out here reading all these books that are piled on my desk.”

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Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
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“Angola prison has been regularly and casually referred to as a plantation by state authorities and media for over a century. When many people say "Angola is a prison built on a former plantation," it is often made as an unsettling observation, not as a moral indictment. Is it because our collective understanding of slavery, and its inherent violence, is so limited? Or is it that violence experienced by Black people is thought less worthy of mourning? White supremacy enacts violence against Black people, but also numbs a whole country--Black and white--to what would in any other context provoke our moral indignation.”

RacismSlaveryAfrican AmericansBlacksWhite SupremacyPlantationsPrisonsAngola Prison
Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
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