Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I ordered this book with the 1619 Project book and began reading them together. I found the 1619 Project compelling--and accurate (at least in broad outline and on the points that really matter; I lack expertise to critique 1619 on fine points and details). This book, on the other hand, I found very unpersuasive and uninteresting. I rapidly finished the 1619 Project, but abandoned this mess after a few chapters. The whole debunking and censorship effort on 1619, including but not limited to this book, misses the great virtue of 1619 in illustrating persuasively how the current state of Black America traces back to its beginnings in an unbroken line of hypocrisy, hatred, violence, governmental complicity in racism, and disparate treatment. If you want to better understand what ails Black America and why, the 1619 Project is fundamental. This poorly-done "debunking" does not and cannot refute the fundamentals traced through history in the 1619 Project. Who cares about the role of Blacks in Africa in capturing slaves before the slave trade was ended? Who cares about some free Blacks owning others as slaves before slavery was ended? Those are mere footnotes of history that in no way diminish the immoral, hateful, and violent history of white Americans, including many Founders, treating Blacks as subhuman. We continue to suffer as a nation because of this history and its continuing impact. We have never taken serious needed steps to remedy the numerous racial gaps and abuses. That the 1619 Project is controversial and even targeted for censorship shows plainly how far this nation still is in denial of what is both our greatest continuing flaw and our greatest opportunity.