Chris Wallace Goes At 1619 Author For Claim "Greatest Generation" BRUTALLY OPPRESSED Black People

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CNN+ host Chris Wallace and 1619 Project author Nikole Hannah-Jones went at it over Hannah-Jones’ claim that the “Greatest Generation” was also culpable in “brutally suppressing democracy” for Black people.

Hannah-Jones and Wallace had a mutually warm and respectful discussion on the latest episode of the CNN+ series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, but it was also a conversation that Wallace himself described as “a little heated” at times.

Much of the interview centered around Hannah-Jones’ essay and book on the 1619 Project, including one passage that Wallace particularly objected to.

“Without the idealistic strenuous and patriotic efforts of black Americans, our democracy today would most likely look very different. It might not be a democracy at all,” Wallace read. “We like to call those who lived during World War Two, the Greatest Generation, but that allows us to ignore the fact that many of this generation fought for democracy abroad, while brutally suppressing democracy for millions of American citizens.”

“Again, I am in no way minimizing our terrible racial legacy. But in some of these things, aren’t you overstating?” Wallace asked.

Hannah-Jones did not agree, and told Wallace “if you have half of the country, where it’s in some states majorities, in many other states pluralities, 25% of the population, 40% of the population cannot vote, have their vote violently suppressed, where they’re a single one-party, one-race rule in a region where about 30% of the population is Black. Would you consider that democracy?”

Wallace cited the period during which women were not allowed to vote, and Hannah-Jones said “We weren’t a democracy, then either — half of the population can’t vote. I don’t know how you define democracy. But I don’t define that as democracy.”

“I agree with that. I’m just not sure that I would say that if it weren’t for Blacks, that wouldn’t be a democracy at all,” Wallace said.

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