In the article “The 1619 project” the author Hannah Jones brings up many points in how African Americans have contributed and technically built this country in her writing. She makes me realize so many things about slavery that I never thought about. In the beginning she shows us a piece of her childhood and elaborates on how she used to think when she saw her father putting up an american flag in their front yard. She thought how could her father, a man that has seen full hand how society has treated them, still believe that this country was theirs. She was taught in school that her people had made little contributions to society. Soon she realized how much of an impact African Americans had on making America. African Americans made railroads, helped produce cotton and even helped our famous leaders such as George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. She continues to explain how the supposed “We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’’ This did not apply to the one-fifth of the country. Yet despite the hardships and being denied the freedom African Americans believed in the American creed. Many Americans tried to justify slavery, in Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he tried to argue that it wasn’t the colonists’ fault. Instead, he blamed the king of England for forcing the institution of slavery on the unwilling colonists and called the trafficking in human beings a crime. Yet neither Jefferson or most of the founders intended to abolish slavery they just let it continue. As I read this article I was surprised by the new information and inspired in how these African American males would go out and serve their country despite being treated harshly. I believe that the United States and people are evil but I do not think that society is evil. I say this because people are racists not society. Society as a whole is stable; it’s neither good nor bad. And the United States is evil because our laws have been written in a corrupt way. It would take many generations to completely change America. We would have to start from square one again. And because no one wants to do the work everybody just lets it be governed like it was 401 years ago. My role is a citizen. I should be doing more to help this country but the fact is like everybody I’m busy with my own that I don’t have time to be thinking on how I can help improve this country.
