Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

Whenever someone starts to shout about "erasing history" when a statue honoring a slaveowner or Confederate officer is taken down, I always wonder if they are deliberately ignoring all the history that has been erased to make those flawed historical figures seem heroic. Michael Harriot uses this book to bring some of the forgotten and/or suppressed history of Black people in America back into the conversation.

A natural storyteller, he laces even the most infuriating historical events with humor as well as justified outrage and inserts moments from his own family's tales and traditions for a personal touch. The chapters zip through hundreds of years of history, making me wish the book were twice as long so he could cover even more show more topics. Most chapters are followed by supplemental essays -- often short biographies of people who need to be more widely known -- and some very acidic pop quizzes.

Highly recommended.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

Introduction

1. Earth, Wind, and America

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Greetings from Your Future Colonizer

2. The Church Fight That Started Slavery

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Key Terms
• Supplement - Before "Before": The First African Americans
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Colonizer or Nah?
• The Real Wakanda

3. The World, Recentered

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Name the Race
• Ana Nzinga - The King of Queens
• Supplement - The Unenslaving of Jemmy
• How White People Were Invented

4. Survival and Resistance: The Black American Revolution

• Supplement - Fear of a Black Nation
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity

5. Drapetomaniacs: Get Free or Die Trying

• Supplement - To Kill Whites: The Multicultural Rebellion of 1811
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: System Upgrade

6. The Negro, Spiritual

• Food Stop - The Top-Secret Recipe to Aunt Phyllis's Fried Chicken
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: How Black Is Your Church?
• Onesimus Saves the World

7. The Black Emancipation Proclamation : A Poem

• Supplement - The Lost Cause, Explained
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Rank the Lost Causes

8. Construction

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Inhumane Resources

9. Something Else

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Lynching or Nah?
• Food Stop - The Difference between Soul Food and Southern Cuisines

10. Whites Gone Wild: Uncle Rob Explains "Separate but Equal"

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: CTRL+Z for Racism
• Supplement - Funny AF: The Man Who Invented Laughter

11. So Devilish a Fire: The Black Women Who Started the Civil Rights Movement

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: More Fire
• Supplement - Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Queer Black Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll

12. The Race War III: The Conspiracy Theory That Was True

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Whitemare

13. Thug Life: The Other Civil Rights Movement

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Some of the Good Ones
• Supplement - All-the-Way Free
• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: One Good Reason

14. The Great White Heist

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Are You Invested in Inequality?
• Supplement: The Black Women Who Won Reparations

15. The Race of Politics: Uncle Rob Explains the Two-Party System

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Identity Politics
• Food Stop - Chicken Bog vs. Perlo
• The End of the Multiracial Coalition

16. Homework

• Unit Review - Three Little Questions
• Unit Review - Activity: Final Exam

Acknowledgments
Works Not Cited: Black AF History Hacks
Endnotes
Index show less

This is an amazing read and is definitely one of my best nonfiction books of the year. The history itself is mind-blowing, disturbing, and often infuriating; Harriot blends it all perfectly together with a little memoir, wonderful asides, and impeccable humor throughout. The structure is “funny textbook”, but I honestly think it should be a textbook because this is packed with much-needed truths that need to be more widely distributed (*cough* to white people).

Knowing Harriot's work from Black Twitter and The Amber Ruffin Show, I was expecting to learn a lot in an entertaining way. This book delivered. I thought I knew more than most about US history but most of what was covered here was new to me. He uses storytelling devices such as his uncle Rob and a racist baby to flesh out some concepts and the unit reviews at the end of each chapter really highlight the uphill battle Black USians face. The supplements share some cool bits of information. And there's a generous dose of humour to help it all go down.

He clearly makes the case that the US' economic prosperity was built by Black people, dating back to their agricultural knowledge saving the fledgling colonies and giving them both their show more first cash crop and their first food crop. (Rice! I always assumed it was from the East, not from Africa.) Later we see how Black taxes were used to pay for white education while Black schools were neglected to the point of dangerous. He takes a chapter to uplift the Black women who drove the Civil Rights movement who have been forgotten because of sexism. I loved getting the understanding around Black churches. I learned about the Black explorer who covered more ground than Lewis & Clark, the intricacies of Southern cooking, and how a doctor coined a mental illness to describe slaves wanting to be free.

Cannot recommend this book enough. Mind blowing. show less

This book reads like the lovechild of Howard Zinn and Ibram Kendi by way of the 1619 Project, in the best possible way. It presents an alternate reading of American history from the black perspective, starting way before there was even an inkling of the future country. It methodically documents the contributions of people whose achievements were stolen by others, as well as the systematic and brutal exploitation built in to virtually every aspect of the fabric of society.

But rather than a dry academic approach or a self-righteous manifesto, Harriot makes the journey both deeply personal and relevant to the current discussions about race. He tempers his rage at the hypocrisy with humour, underscoring how perverse and violent American show more history really is. Definitely merits a place high on the Must Read ASAP list. show less

Please read this book before it's banned. I consider myself knowledgeable about structural racism and American history (I read [b:The 1619 Project|49814857|The 1619 Project|Nikole Hannah-Jones|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1590129414l/49814857._SX50_.jpg|95241725] the week it was published in The Times after all). But I was infuriated and horrified by how much new information I learned from Black AF History. Journalist and podcaster Harriot covers more than five centuries of American white supremacy in less than 400 pages, peppering the book with justifiable anger and gallows humor. The latter includes snarky textbook-like quizzes, rants from his crazy "Uncle Rob," and several surreal show more conversations with a "racist baby" about reparations and the myth of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. Just for funsies he throws in lighter fare about Southern food vs. soul food, and how to tell if your house of worship is truly a Black Church.

I acknowledge my white female privilege in reading and reviewing this book. show less

In that special category of hilarious and heart-rending as well as infuriating. Harriot is masterful. He presents the history and draws lines between seemingly disparate events in ways that make sense. He sheds light on the heroes of Black history (as well as the oft overlooked racist words and deeds of those who have been portrayed as American heroes in standard history books.) He shares the stories while weaving in his own personal history, cracking jokes and making witty asides all the while. Looking forward to looking through the print version for the visual elements.
(The audio took me forever to get through because I only listen once a week in the car and my loan kept expiring!)

Really excellent stuff. I learned a lot that I didn't know at all and a good amount more about things I knew something about. If you are a white folk, you may find yourself a bit challenged, even if, as I am, you are inclined to agree with Harriot's positions. I think that is a good thing. Take a breath and keep reading. Highly recommended.