Noteable Book!

        Once in a discussion with a Norwegian friend he wondered about the reality of white supremacy in America. Part of my reply to him was "America had never come to terms with the history of slavery from the earliest days of European settlement." While the North won the War Between The States, for a variety of reasons the South won the peace.

     Any person wanting to understand the reality of American slavery, that person would do well to read How The Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With The History Of Slavery Across America, Clint Smith, 2021.  "Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks--those that are honest about the past and those that are not--that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history and ourselves." Book cover. 

      Beginning at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Plantation and ending in Senegal, Smith leads the reader on tour sites illustrating the breadth, depth and agony of slavery in America. "Slavery's an institution. In Jefferson's lifetime it became a system. So what is the slave system? It is a system of exploitation, a system of inequality and exclusion, a system where people are owned as property and held down by physical and psychological force, a system being justified even by people who know slavery is morally wrong. By doing what? By denying the very humanity of those who are enslaved solely on the basis of the color of their skin."  P. 11

     Visiting New York City for a tour of sites relating to slavery the tour guide, 'Damaras' speaks: '"Race is a byproduct of racism. In fact race doesn't exist...It's a social construct There never has been any scientific or genetic evidence to back up the concept of race. Despite it being false, it has woven its way into the fabric of all of our societies."' P. 209

    Smith's writing bears evidence of his gifts as a poet given the marvelous descriptions of the settings he has chosen to investigate. The book's status as a New York Times bestseller heartens me has I wish everyone would read it.

Takk for alt,

Al