“Why we most confront hard history?”- A critical Analysis of Hasan Kwame Jeffries- with TED Talks
The birth of US bill of rights on the pillars of slavery.
TED Talks Daily Podcast bring talks every weekday on provoking ideas to every imaginable subject. It covers a wide range of topics from art to science and everything that could fit in between by world’s leading creators and thinkers. This article will depict my critical analysis on the podcast — Why we must confront hard historical truth| Hasan Kwame Jeffries.
MODE, AUDIENCE & GENRE
TED is basically a non-profit organisation. The motive of this organisation is to spread ideas through talk shows in a short span of time(18 minutes or less). It also runs independent TedX events to help communities share ideas in different part of the world. The organisation believes in the power of ideas that can help shaping the world by creating a deeper understanding just about everything. This also includes online communities for people to interact and work on ideas.
TED Talks have a broad genre covering almost everything in this world that could help in building a better understanding and attitude. The talk shows are basically live events in which leaders or great thinkers are invited to talk and share ideas.
The audience is basically American. This episode draws historians and students at Ohio State University to understand, confront and question the need of hard history.
NARRATORS AND ACTORS
This talk show is a piece of first person narration, so Hassan Kwame Jeffries(a historian) is the narrator to the story of his life experiencing why history is important at the first place. Sharing the experience of racism that has divided the country into different parts and how this has affected his family and also about how he could see the irony of democracy on how it evolved.
The main actor of the story is James Maddison the 4th President of The United States of America, Father of the constitution and architect of the bill of rights. A renowned person who was the reason of America’s liberation was himself running a slave labor camp at his own mansion.
The story however holds multiple actors for a short spam of time, explaining the discrimination faced by Hasan’s Family at various chronological intervals and how this has affected his life.
Hasan’s great great grandfather being enslaved at the Jasper County (Georgia), his great grant father accumulating and loosing a land in Jasper County Georgia along with his life, his grand father leaving Georgia and growing up in Newark (New Jersey) and leaving nothing behind after his death, his father and mother who somehow managed to purchase a home at the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in New York.
The story also holds a special section for Hasan’s daughter on how her innocence triggered the factual description of slavery in Hasan’s mind.
SETTINGS AND MOVEMENT
The setting in the story can be broken into two distinct parts to elaborate it further.
The first setting of the story is — the library of James Maddison, the place where the idea of the bill of rights was conceived
Second setting embark the era of modern world — the crown heights section — Brooklyn, New York
The first setting however is also the main setting that concludes “Why we must confront history?”- as per the title of the podcast.
— SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
The first setting comes into play when historian Hasan receives an invitation to spend few days at the historic home of James Maddison in Montpelier. “As a historian, I understand the importance of a place” says Hasan.
Centre Piece of Montpelier was Maddison’s house and the centre piece of the house represent a library where the idea of bill of rights was conceived.
On going to the lower section of the house Hasan encounters to the cellars of the mansion, where Maddison enslaved 100+ people over the course of his life time. On being asked to slide his hands to the wall of the cellars he thinks of his daughter doing something similar while he drives and then suddenly he realises in a snap that the brick wall has impression of the slaved children.
This shows him the irony of bill of rights to come from a place and a man who himself enslaved so many people.
The second setting denotes the chronological line of Hasan’s family that how the racism that enslaved people earlier were then creating problem for the black people to live equally and hence showing a significant racial wealth gap. As he and his brother would become the first in their family to get a significant family wealth after their parents.
The first setting now explain hard history and why do we need to confront hard history.
“Those who cannot remember past, are condemned to repeat it. — Reggie Gibson ”
But Hasan doesn’t fear of the history to repeat itself but he fears of that if not known the history will continue itself which created injustice and equality in the first place.
WHAT’s THE POINT
So does this make any sense? or was it just a controversial talk.
The story brings me to the thought of learning. Telling knowing is better not because the history should be known but because history could end. Hasan insisted to seek truth and confront hard history and I think one may wonder what he/she could learn out it.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Listen to the podcast here: Why we must confront hard history?
