The profound and wide-ranging role played by slavery in American history – and contemporary life – is the subject of a multipart New York Times project that debuted this week.
The project drew widespread praise, but also criticism from a chorus that rejected its thesis.
Kelley Fanto Deetz, a scholar of the African diaspora at the University of Virginia, writes that the criticisms are “akin to the recurring social media mantra over recent years that America shouldn’t be blamed, it didn’t invent slavery, and that it’s been around forever.”
Deetz provides a historian’s corrective.
Also today:
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Top story
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Screen Shot of the New York Times homepage for its series, “1619.”
New York Times
Kelley Fanto Deetz, University of Virginia
A historian says that critics get the past wrong.
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Science + Technology
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Corey Harper, Carnegie Mellon University; Constantine Samaras, Carnegie Mellon University
Self-driving cars may someday drop off their owners downtown and then leave to find free parking. What would that mean for cities of the future?
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Jessica Pollock, Boise State University
How do hummingbirds drink sugary nectar and not get sick? Don't they need a balanced diet to stay healthy? Do they eat anything else?
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Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University
This hot, acidic neighbor with its surface veiled in thick clouds hasn't benefited from the attention showered on Mars and the Moon. But Venus may offer insights into the fate of the Earth.
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From our international editions
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Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann, Hampshire College
For Africans and diasporans, learning about their heritage is important. But it remains to be seen how this will translate into a sustained continental and diasporan engagement.
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Dianne Saxe, York University, Canada
Environmental charities are worried about speaking out about climate change during the upcoming federal campaign for fear Elections Canada will consider their activities as "partisan."
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Claire Corkhill, University of Sheffield
Russia appears to have developed a revolutionary mini-reactor able to power a missile.
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