Sunday February 5th – [Online] Confronting the Resistance to Learning Black History

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm.  You can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.  After 12:30 pm, we will also have an extended discussion for half an hour.  Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

Last year, at Toronto Oasis, we watched and discussed the following video featuring Nikole Hannah-Jones, an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSVBR964RiY

In this video, Hannah-Jones talks about her work on the 1619 Project – a long-form journalism endeavor that re-examines the legacy of slavery in the United States. In 2020, Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her work on the 1619 Project.

As a follow-up to that topic and discussion we had about a year ago, this Sunday we’ll be watching and discussing an interview of Nikole Hannah-Jones by one of her critics, broadcast journalist Chris Wallace. It’s a tough but very interesting debate-style interview. It’s particularly relevant given the current climate in the United States where some states are passing legislation “forbidding any teacher or lesson from mentioning race/racism, and even gender/sexism” (https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-states-banning-critical-race-theory/). More recently, in Florida, the DeSantis administration has blocked an AP course on African American Studies for high school students (https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/19/politics/ron-desantis-ap-african-american-studies/index.html)

This topic and video were selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup to get access to the Zoom link:
https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/khbwzsyfcdbhb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!