How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith carried the reader with Smith as he examined black history in America, starting with slavery. Growing up in the South, Smith knew racism, and knew that the streets he played on as a kid were named for slaveholders and racists, but never gave it much thought. The paradigm shift this book gave me is so many Americans view black history as starting in chains; but it doesn't. On the journey to trace back roots of black history, Smith visits Monticello, the Whitney Plantation, Angola Prison in Louisiana, a confederate grave in Virginia, Galveston Island, New York City, and Goree Island in Senegal. The biggest takeaway I got from this book was that black history did not begin with chains (p220).
I want to end this review with a quote from a Monticello tour guide which encapsulates my concept of our country: "I believe in the idea of America. I don't believe that this country was perfect. I don't believe it is perfect. I don't believe it's going to be perfect. I believe that the journey to make this a better place is worth the effort and that the United States, if you conceive it not so much as a place to be in but an idea to believe in, it is worth fighting for." (p51).
Miscellaneous:
- "Oppression is never about humanity or lack thereof. It is, and always has been, about power," (p79).
- "Just because something is difficult to accept doesn't mean you should refuse to accept it," (p192).
- In spending the day in the Black History Museum in DC with Smith's grandparents with "the hand that beat them and the laws that said it was okay," (p319).
- "At some point it is no longer a question of whether we can learn this history but whether we have the collective will to reckon with it,"(p320).
Thanks, Emily, for the recommendation.