1619: “Fear,” by Leslie Alexander and Michelle Alexander
Also: Thank you for a very thoughtful discussion yesterday
Hi Book Clubbers! Thank you for our thoughtful discussion yesterday. Special appreciation goes to facilitators Camille, Kira, Trevor, and Wes. I’d love to hear about your experience. Feel free to fill out this quick survey, email me directly, or leave a comment below.
Before launching into this week’s essay: If you’d like to facilitate a future small group, here’s the sign-up sheet. I’ll follow up with tips and resources.
Now it’s time to dive into Module 3. Here’s our schedule.
This week, let’s read “Fear,” by Leslie Alexander and Michelle Alexander. The essay explores white fear of Black resistance to white supremacy. Beginning with the protests of the murder of George Floyd, then moving back in time to the Stono Rebellion, the Haitian Revolution, and Nat Turner’s Rebellion, Prof. Alexander and Ms. Alexander (they’re sisters) explain how systems of the state – the police, laws, surveilllance, and mass incarceration – served to protect against disruption of the racial order.
This week
Read “Fear,” by Leslie Alexander and Michelle Alexander.
Recommended: What’s one connection you noticed between an idea in “Fear” and an idea in another essay? Please share your contribution in the comments. And say hi to your fellow group members, too, while you’re at it!
Also, please feel free to reach out. All you need to do is hit reply. Let’s build momentum and make this book club a deep and transformative one. Thank you and have a great week!
A few connections I noticed: (1) How the Haitian Revolution bolstered Louisiana’s sugar industry (“Sugar”) at the same time it led to fear and Black Codes in the rest of the South (“Fear”). (2) How Reconstruction was a brief moment of greater equality (“Democracy), but it was reversed because white people were scared to lose supremacy (“Fear”).
Also I noticed that the Alexanders seemed hopeful at the end of the chapter. Was this because they wrote this essay in 2020? Would they say the same thing now?
When asking if the two Alexanders are related I learned that indeed they are. I am responsible for organizing a program at our retirement community to observe MLK Day. N.B. New Hampshire was the last of the states to create a holiday for MLK. When I took on the resonsibility
for condensing the years from April 1968 to now into 15 minutes, I neglected to notice
that the holiday - and our observnce of it - coincides with the president's inauguration.
The chapter on FEAR has saved me. Not only does it summarize, it ends with a quote from
James Baldwin. I plan to steal abundantly and hope you will permit. John Merrifield