Isn’t 400 Years Enough?: The failure to appreciate Black history leaves our nation incomplete.
Preview:
Many of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were driven by a belief that they were in acting in accord with the principles fashioned at the birth of this country, that their protest embodied America’s long history of patriotic rhetoric about freedom and citizenship. And in this, they are at least partly right: Such rhetoric has been used time and again by white supremacists — one of the latest iterations being the Proud Boys and their co-conspirators — to rationalize violence against racial and religious minorities in order to preserve a country white Americans did not want to share.
Originally published: February 10, 2021
Author: Jonathan Holloway
Position: President
Institution: Rutgers University
Published by: The New York Times