Recent Reviews
'The 1619 Project' by Nikole Hannah-Jones
‘The 1619 Project’ is an astounding achievement by Nikole Hannah-Jones and her co-authors. This historical compilation of material focusing on the four hundred years of the Black experience in America will become a valued resource and touchpoint for generations to come. ‘The 1619 Project’ is a must-read to truly comprehend the oppressive history of our country. Despite overt hostility by many white Americans, healing, reconciliation, and progress cannot occur without an understanding of the horrific past that has led us to our troubled present.
The book begins in 1619 when a ship, ironically called The White Lion arrives in America carrying twenty to thirty enslaved Africans. The book ends in May 2020, the year George Floyd is murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. The initial transporting and enslavement of Africans set in motion the brutal exploitation of Black people that has persisted in America in various forms for the last four centuries. Floyd’s recent murder by the police punctuates the point that Black Americans continue to be oppressed by prejudice and violence. Though the book describes persistent injustice, there are also beautiful descriptions of the many impressive achievements and contributions of Black Americans.
Comprised of essays written by different authors, the eighteen chapters cover topics from music and medicine to politics and punishment. Each essay speaks to the history of the Black experience while revealing the oppressive origins of numerous American institutions. A poem or piece of fiction precedes each chapter. The joining of these two literary forms is powerful.
The book is deep and detailed. Here are two quotes by the lead author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, that summarizes the book’s focus.
“On the contrary, facing the truth liberates us to build the society we wish to be. One of the criticisms of the project is that we focus too much on the brutality of slavery and our nation’s legacy of anti-Blackness. But just as central to the history we are highlighting is the way that Black Americans have managed, out of the most inhumane circumstances, to make an indelible impact on the United States, serving as its most ardent freedom fighters and forgers of culture. The enslaved and their descendants played a central role in shaping our institutions, our intellectual traditions, our music, art, and literature, our very democracy. The struggle of Black Americans to force this country to live up to its professed ideals have served as inspiration to oppressed people across the globe. Too long have we shrouded and overlooked these singular contributions. They form a legacy of which every American should be proud.”
“We sometimes forget – and I would argue it is an intentional forgetting-that the racism we are fighting today was originally conjured to justify working unfree Black people, often until death, to generate extravagant riches for European colonial powers, the white planter class, and all the ancillary white people, from Midwestern farmers to bankers to sailors to textile workers who earned their living and built their wealth from that free Black labor and the products that labor produced. The prosperity of this country is inextricably linked with the forced labor of the ancestors of more than 30 million Black Americans, just as it is linked to the stolen land of the country’s Indigenous people.”
Without a truthful accounting and apology of America’s racist origins, healing and progress are not possible. Nikki Hannah-Jones and her talented colleagues have documented the history of Black Americans. In another time, this book could provoke changes to unjust policies and an acknowledgment of America’s transgressions past and present. Given the overt racism and hostility to democracy currently permeating our country, immediate change may not be possible. But this powerful, well-researched and beautifully written book will endure and with it the seeds of hope.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time is a searing indictment of the systemic racism perpetrated by white Americans against their Black brethren. Written in 1962 and 1963, the two essays that comprise the book describe the suffering and humiliation African-Americans have endured in America. Though some progress has been made since publication, this book seems as powerful now as in the 1960s. Look no further than the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers to see the persistence of racism and violence against Black Americans.
In the last few weeks, however, White Americans finally seem more receptive to viewing the long list of murders as part of a systemic problem, rather than another aberration. Black Lives Matter signs have sprouted in many communities and scores of companies, sports teams, and government entities are making long-overdue changes. Yet, so much work must be done.
There are a plethora of excellent books about race currently on the bestseller lists, yet Baldwin’s book is seminal. His prose is mesmerizing with its psychological, political, literary and religious underpinnings. The two pieces are a passionate plea for white Americans to understand our history, end the violence and cease discrimination in America’s institutions. Baldwin is not optimistic. He recognizes that most people prefer superiority to equality. It is hard to do justice to Baldwin’s writing. Instead, I will share a few quotes.
In Baldwin’s letter to his nephew, he writes,
“You were born where you were born and faced the future you faced because you were black and for no other reason. The limits of your ambition were, thus, expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. “
“The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them (white people). And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe and for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. Many of them, indeed, know better, but, as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know.”
In the second article titled Letter From A Region In My Mind, Baldwin describes the injustice Black Americans experience.
“The brutality with which Negroes are treated in this country simply cannot be overstated, however unwilling white men may be to hear it. In the beginning-and neither can this be overstated – a Negro just cannot believe that white people are treating him as they do; he does not know what he had done to merit it. And when he realizes that the treatment accorded him has nothing to do with anything he had done, that the attempt of white people to destroy him -for that is what it is – is utterly gratuitous, it is not hard for him to think of white people as devils.”
“I am, then, both visibly and legally the descendant of slaves in a white, Protestant country, and this is what it means to be an American Negro, this who he is - a kidnapped pagan, who was sold like an animal and treated like one, who was once defined by the American Constitution as ‘three-fifths’ of a man, and who, according to the Dred Scott decision, had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.”
Not surprisingly, Baldwin emigrated to France in the early 1950s. He believed that America must end the “racial nightmare” not just for African Americans but for the benefit of all Americans.
In these times of political chaos and racial violence, Baldwin’s views remain prophetic and critical to our democracy.
what we will become by Mimi Lemay
In the preface of Mimi Lemay’s magnificent memoir What We Will Become, Lemay writes, “There are no villains here, only flawed human beings. We are all a unique composition of our desires, beliefs, greatness and limitations.” This quote sets the tone for an authentic and empathic story about becoming one’s true self.
As soon as Joe and Mimi Lemay’s second daughter Em can speak, Em tells her parents, “I am a boy.” When Em and her big sister play imaginary games, Em dresses and act like a boy. When Em starts changing her clothes multiple times a day, Mimi and Joe believe their child might be obsessive-compulsive. They wonder: is this a phase? Maybe she will be gay? They conclude she is too young to be thinking about these issues. But soon, Em begins growling like a dog. Em only wants to wear boy’s clothes and asks to be called boys’ names at home. Em’s tantrums escalate while Mimi and Joe search for the best way to help their child. They meet with doctors and social workers at Children’s Hospital, talk with Em’s pre-school teacher and voraciously read about child development. Months pass and at each juncture, Em persists in wanting to be treated like a boy.
A breakthrough occurs when the family takes a trip to Disney World. Since they are away from home, Joe and Mimi allow Em to get a boy’s haircut and wear boy’s clothes. They witness a transformation. Em, who is usually sullen and testy, exhibits a lightness each time a person identifies him as a boy. Em appears happy and joyful. When they return home, they allow Em to start kindergarten identifying as a boy. Em becomes Jacob. Lemay expresses anxiety about this decision and is aware of the potential pitfalls. And though she feels sad about the loss of her daughter, her intuition tells her this is the right decision.
Children often repeat or complete the problems that plagued the prior generation. As Mimi wrestles with how to best parent her child, she shares that she, too, has been on an internal journey to find her religious identity. Miriam Netzer was born in 1976 in Jerusalem, Israel. Her parents divorced when Mimi was a toddler; Mimi and her brother lived with their observant Orthodox mother in the United States. When Mimi is in 5th grade, she requests that people call her Mimi instead of Miriam. Her mother persists in calling her Miriam. The Netzer family life revolves around observing the edicts of Orthodox Judaism. Mimi attends Orthodox schools and keeps the thousands of rules required of this sect of Judaism. Mimi’s mother, Judith, is steadfast while her daughter Mimi questions the lessons taught by the Orthodox rabbis. Mimi objects most to the daily prayer her brother is required to say, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Master of the Universe, who has not made me a woman.” Several schools ask Lemay to leave. Lemay’s intelligence and curiosity propel her to confront authorities who want obedience to this version of faith. Lemay's knowledge of the Torah’s valuable lessons enriches this memoir as she intersperses stories into the narrative. She doesn’t want to discard her faith; she wants to be less observant.
Because of Lemay’s struggles leaving her religious community, she has profound compassion for her child. She and her son both pay a high price to live authentic lives. In an ironic twist, Mimi’s mother’s rigidity fosters in Mimi great flexibility, which ultimately allows Em to become Jacob. What We Will Become is a layered, intimate and heartful memoir. Mimi Lemay and her husband Joe, have given their child the greatest gift a parent can give a child, the freedom to be one’s authentic self.
