'The 1619 Project' docuseries shows all of America is touched by slavery
LOS ANGELES - What if we considered slavery the true beginning of the America we know today?
That’s the premise behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The 1619 Project." It’s now a docuseries on Hulu. Six episodes examine the ways the institution of slavery have impacted all aspects of modern-day America. Good Day LA’s Brooke Thomas sat down with the project's creator, Nikole Hannah Jones.
"If you are not Black in this country, you haven't been forced to think about all of the ways that this legacy is shaping the society that we live in. You can kind of go through your life and not ever have to examine that," Hannah-Jones said.
Hannah-Jones calls the 1619 Project the most important work of her life. She says it’s both important and necessary because instead of confronting the truth about the way our country was built, we are taught a story of American exceptionalism.
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"That this is the land of equality, that anybody who wants to work hard can live the American dream. And of course, this project sits in opposition to that. It says, yes, we were founded on ideals of freedom, but the practice of slavery, we're on stolen land and that matters," Hannah-Jones said.
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In Part 2 of our series with Hannah-Jones, she addresses some of the criticism of her work. The docuseries is available on Hulu.