By Lela Gallery
- 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones said that America is not an exceptional country and that its founders “did not believe in democracy.”
- The statement comes amid criticism that the project teaches a false history of America.
Mount Holyoke College hosted in September its Common Read Keynote with Pulitzer-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones to talk about The 1619 Project, which was chosen to be this yearâs common read.
During the keynote, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer Kijua Sanders-McMurtry interviewed Hannah-Jones.
âI think the 1619 Project should honestly be at every college, university, corporation, and school foundationally if these institutions are truly interested in being anti-racist,â Sanders-McMurtry said. âI think there is this idea out here right now that this is anti-American, and that this is seeking to reframe a narrative that doesnât need to be reframed, and I think youâve done a beautiful job saying that this does need to be reframed and hereâs why.”
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Hannah-Jones responded by saying, âFor the anti-American comments, I feel like people who make those comments have clearly not read the project.” âAlso, I donât think weâre an exceptional nation. I think thatâs ludicrous for any nation to make that claim, and we certainly cannot make that claim. Weâre a nation founded on genocide, and chattel slavery, and classism, and gender discrimination. Weâre not. We had exceptional ideas but weâre not an exceptional nation. But if you believe that, then your country can certainly withstand scrutiny.â
“Anti-Americanism has been used against Black activists, Black scholars, Black journalists pretty much as long as weâve been in this country,â Hannah-Jones added. âItâs that our efforts to have our full humanity and full citizenship and to call this country out for its hypocrisies is seen as anti-American.â
As for the project, Hannah-Jones hopes what âthat colleges will do is use this one, to lead students to be more critical of what we know, how we know it, how do we get this shared national memory, who created it, whatâs left out, what is the purpose of the history that weâve been taught.”
Hannah-Jones called history taught in schools âa nationalistic agendaâ and that itâs ânot about truth, it’s about giving us a shared sense of American exceptionalism and American identity and because of that you had to downplay genocide, you had to downplay what happened with chattel slavery, you had to downplay what happened to most marginalized groups.”
She also noted that she would argue that our âinability to be honest about who we areâ is the reason why President Donald Trump is in office and why âwe donât know whether or not weâre going to have a fair election this fall or not.”
Next, Sanders-McMurtry asked Hannah-Jones if the U.S. would ever have a true democracy, to which she responded that America at its âfounding, did not believe in democracy.” She called the American Revolution âthe Revolution of the eliteâ and claimed that âthese elite white menâ didnât intend for America to be a âdemocratic republicâ or âfor us to have democracy.â
Hannah-Jones also called it a âfairytaleâ that âthe demographic destiny of our country will turn us into a more interracial democracy,” saying that when âwhite peopleâ start to âlose an American majority, they always found ways to hold onto power.”
She cited examples of what she sees as âwhite peopleâ maintaining  âpower,” including Stacey Abramsâ failed gubernatorial candidacy in Georgia, the electoral college, noting that only one Republican has won the presidency with a majority popular vote in the last 30-40 years, and voter suppression laws. Ultimately, Hannah-Jones said that she didnât have faith in democracy, especially since âan open white nationalist and misogynistâ who has âled the most corrupt administration in the history of this countryâ can still win this Novemberâs election.
âLarge numbers of white Americans are willing to suspend democractic principles to maintain racial power, and weâre seeing that,â Hannah-Jones said, citing an unnamed study.
Mount Holyokeâs Common Read Keynote with Nikole Hannah-Jones occurred one day after President Donald Trump announced support for witholding federal funding from schools that teach the 1619 Project.
Campus Reform reached out to Mount Holyoke for comment, but the school did not respond in time for publication.