Note: This class is open to high school students only.
If you’ve ever sat through an American history class wondering where all the Black people were—besides slavery and Martin Luther King Jr.—Michael Harriot has written the antidote to your frustration. Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America is what you’re looking for. It’s equal parts history lesson, roast session, and revolutionary act.
Harriot sets the entire Eurocentric timeline on fire and rebuilds it from Black roots. From the African presence in America before 1619 to the myth of Lincoln’s “great emancipation,” this book challenges everything we thought we knew—and does so with receipts.
Let’s be clear: this is not your average history text. Harriot writes like your brilliant, sarcastic cousin who majored in African American Studies and never lets foolishness slide at Thanksgiving dinner. His voice is conversational, hilarious, and unrelenting. One moment, you’re cackling at his takedown of founding father folklore; the next, you’re stunned by how deep the lies in our textbooks really go.
Learning goals:
- Reading text (both in class and outside of class)
- Fully participate in discussions
- Written reflections
- Quizzes
- Research and other scholarship connecting to cultural studies
