Thread by @Macalester

We'll be live-tweeting today's virtual @macalumni and community event with @nhannahjones. We're excited to welcome Professor Hannah-Jones to the wider @Macalester community, and are looking forward to her conversation with @WalterDGreason and Dr. Tia-Simone Gardner. #NHJatMAC

We're starting the event with a welcome message from @MacalesterPres, introductions and a Land Acknowledgement from our Provost Dr. Lisa Anderson-Levy. Our moderator, @WalterDGreason is up next, and then @nhannahjones. We're so glad you're here with us. #NHJatMAC

@MacalesterPres @WalterDGreason @nhannahjones @nhannahjones, "I've loved history my entire life [...] I couldn't conceive of the project without historians" - historians like @WalterDGreason.

@MacalesterPres @WalterDGreason @nhannahjones @nhannahjones on the history and importance of 1619; "The memory is so clear. I was 16, and I was stunned that nobody had ever taught us that date." #NHJatMAC

"I have spent my life studying history, particularly the history of Black people in America," @nhannahjones #NHJatMAC

"How could I write about modern school segregation without showing you all the policies, all the laws, that have led to it?" @nhannahjones #NHJatMAC

"I was worried that the 400th anniversary would be treated the same way many of our anniversaries would be treated-- erased. Except now [...] I was at the @nytimes," @nhannahjones #NHJatMAC

"This was a massive project that we produced on a very limited timeline, with no idea the type of scrutiny it would come under, quite frankly," @nhannahjones #NHJatMAC

"History is interpretation, and historians argue about interpretation all the time," @nhannahjones #NHJatMAC

"The most contested part of the project are about 2 to 3 paragraphs in my essay, 6,000 words in a 40,000 word project about the American revolution and I will admit I was naive about how angry that was going to make people," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "You also have to be able to sort, what is a factual error and what are disagreements over argument, strength of argument, focus, interpretation. Most of the criticism was factual errors," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "If people can't believe that it's based in research, that it can be backed up, then everything we do as journalists is worthless," @nhannahjones on the validity of argumentation when supported by fact, research, and investigation. #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "I used to read the newspaper every day with my dad and even as a young child, the only place Black people could be find in the newspaper was the crime log [...] yet every day I'm seeing Black folks doing normal and extraordinary things," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "We know that coverage is being shaped through a lens," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "We have a mantra in journalism school - if your mother says she loves you, check it out - that means we are to be skeptical of all things, and particularly skeptical of power," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"With police, we were deferring to power because for many white journalists police are honest, fair, and don't lie [...] what changes that are citizen journalists who bypass the media and begin posting videos online that dispute those stories," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "We have 36 states that have passed or are seeking to pass anti-history laws. That's not a sign of a healthy democracy," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "I'm not hopeful right now, I'm actually gravely concerned. There are dozens of scholars that say our democracy in peril [...] memory laws are a sign of a country that is slipping into authoritarianism," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "We have a choice and I might not be hopeful but I'm not helpless, and none of us are helpless," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"We have to decide that as Dr. King said Those who wish us ill seem to be more efficient with how they use their time than those who wish us well,'"@nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "How do we keep conversations with those, how do we start conversations, with those with whom we so vehemently disagree?" asks @WalterDGreason on behalf of a Mac community member #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones @WalterDGreason "I truly believe that most Americans do want a more honest grappling with who we are as a country, most Americans want a more fair county and the struggles we are seeing now is that powerful people know that most Americans want that," @nhannahjones @NHJatMac

@nhannahjones @WalterDGreason "Why would a country that believes itself to be good and exceptional think it is acceptable to deny poor people aid because you just think they are undeserving of our help?" @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones @WalterDGreason "So, we have to choose what society we want to be in and I think most Americans would be appalled at that and yet it exists," @nhannahjones @NHJatMac

@nhannahjones @WalterDGreason Q for @nhannahjones - "What have you done to make the #1619Project more accessible?" asks a Mac student via @WalterDGreason #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones @WalterDGreason "I personally fund raised to make sure we could print 200,000 additional copies that we gave out for free to public school systems in heavily black and low income cities to historically black colleges, to churches, to community groups," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"Not every American wants to read thousands of words, long essays ... so the 1619 Project podcast taps into the oldest form of storytelling in the world, one human being talking to another," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"We have the 1619 children's book now called "Born on the Water", the idea of the white lion and perfecters of democracy to children," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"We're currently filming the 1619 documentary, a six-part series to air on ABC and Hulu," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"Then there's the thing that has probably caused the most consternation is the curriculum. For
1619education.org, we worked with the @pulitzercenter to form a curriculum teachers can use if they choose to," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@pulitzercenter @nhannahjones "The #1619Project is not about the past. It's actually about America right now," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@pulitzercenter @nhannahjones "It's addressing that question every single Black person gets at least once, but probably multiple times in your life, slavery was a long time ago, get over it," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"It defies logic except you realize the logic of the United States is we must, in order to deal with this hypocrisy of a nation, we were not the only slaveocrisy but far, but the only one founded on the ideas of individual liberty," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "...and to deal with that we have engaged in a 350-year cover-up, very, very smart, very, very loyal people are still engaging in," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "If you read the 1619 Project, [I hope] you obsess over the end notes and you realize whatever you are reading right now is just entry," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"Then you realize we have all been told such a colossal lie about our country and because of that, we can't live without it," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

@nhannahjones "To wrap up, the last essay in the book is called "Justice" for a reason, a racist system as opposed economic system, and alleviates us of the need to do anything to address the chasm that is the black/white wealth gap," @nhannahjones #NHJatMac

"[that gap]...has remained unchanged since the time Dr. King was assassinated, the primary cause of Black hurt in this country, and then we can have clean hands and we don't have them," @nhannahjones wraps up. #NHJatMac

@WalterDGreason closed with gratitude to our sponsoring departments and offices; American Studies, Education Studies, English @oldmainfloor2, History @historyatmac, Media and Cultural Studies, and our Provosts Office.

Thank you all for joining us for this event, we hope you enjoyed the conversation. Most of all, thanks to @nhannahjones for her time, continuing work, and her words and wisdom. #NHJatMac