As I was reading the 1619 Project on the New York Times, I was personally astonished and moved from the stories and quotes. Clicking on the link, I had absolutely no clue it would be as brutal and real as it is. The website was designed intricately by having different links leading to articles and quotes which could be read by scrolling horizontally and vertically.It truly brings out the horrors of slavery and the extreme mistreatment of African Americans during slavery and years after. I have always learned about slavery, but I have never truly engrossed myself in articles from people personally affected by slavery and hear from their point of view.
For starters, the set up is more on the dark side to represent the intense stories with impactful quotes. The quotes do not sugarcoat slavery whatsoever as they should not. The powerfulness of these quotes truly show how hard times were during slavery for African Americans and how it is not okay to discrimiate and hate. It saddens me to think that anyone had to go through what people put slaves through. For example, I was shocked to find out Angola made their prisoners pick cotton. The systems of the government were so backwards at this time because the economy was obviously their top priority, which they strengthened through capitalism. The fact any law officer thought making prisoners pick cotton to help the southern economy is horrible. Growing up in Louisiana, I have heard and learned so much about Angola, but I have never learned that Angola was built on slave plantations, and it is larger than Manhattan! These two facts blow my mind because Angola is a part of Louisiana where most of us have been born and raised. Hearing all of this from Bryan Stevenson was intriguing because I feel as if I understand him through reading Just Mercy, so reading his further opinion on slavery and the Criminal Justice system was moving to me.
Finally, I skimmed through multiple articles which also all embraced and emphasized the negative impacts slavery has had on our society as a whole. Not only was there bias on the streets and amongst people, but there was also racial disparities in the courtroom. The government should be something people feel safe with and can trust, but having slavery in our history, there will always be skeptism and fear of the government that their is still bias remaining in the Criminal Justice System. I can say I learned a great deal of new information from reading this project and was truly impacted by reading all of these author’s points of view on slavery and the biasness that is still in play today. I can only hope that the lingering racial disparities existing today can come to an end and everyone can have the ability to live their life without the fear of being discriminated.
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