67 pages • 2 hours read
Clint SmithA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Placing the origin point of Black family/community disruption at the transatlantic slave trade, Smith offers a trajectory of white supremacy’s transformations from the slave trade to contemporary society, showing how the disruption remains a vital element in the subjugation of Black people. Smith suggests the origins of Black family/community disruption when he speaks with Kane:
Part of what Hasan teaches his students is that we cannot understand slavery and colonialism as two separate historical phenomena. They are inextricably linked pieces of history. Slavery took a toll on West Africa’s population; millions of people were stripped from their homelands and sent across the ocean to serve in intergenerational bondage. The profound harm continued during colonialism, with much of the continent stripped of its natural resources (260).
While Kane’s distinction between the systems of plunder might seem to suggest that colonialism is less culpable in the phenomenon of separation, Kane’s students are acutely aware that the legacy of colonialism remains in the psyches of Senegalese people. By psychological mechanisms, colonialism continues to disrupt Black families and communities:
They told me that so many of the most talented young people from Senegal go on to universities around the world, and then don’t come back. They say it comes from the fact that they don’t have the same job opportunities back in Senegal, but also because people have internalized the idea that they are more valuable and more important if they live and work in Europe or America (266-267).
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Contemporary Books on Social Justice
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
National Book Awards Winners & Finalists
View Collection
National Book Critics Circle Award...
View Collection
Politics & Government
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
Popular Study Guides
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection