I recently read an article a black man wrote about how white people couldn’t pass any tests that focused on Black history, no matter how smart they think they are. To be fair, he said that most Black people couldnt pass it either, and he was correct. I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about a lot of history but couldn’t answer any of the questions.

He said anyone who’d taken a Black Studies course could pass it. I’ve never taken a Black Studies course, and that was the writer’s point. We are all brainwashed to not know our own history. This is why I applaud the 1619 Project. I’ve heard a lot about it, and been avoiding it because I was trying to avoid the “trauma” of knowing these things. But Imma suck it up and read it, because failing that test was a watershed moment for me. I need to know this. I can’t ask white people to do something I don’t wanna do myself.