- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Nobel winners hope protein work will spur 'incredible' breakthroughs
- What are proteins again? Nobel-winning chemistry explained
- AI steps into science limelight with Nobel wins
- Overshooting 1.5C risks 'irreversible' climate impact: study
- Demis Hassabis, from chess prodigy to Nobel-winning AI pioneer
- Global stocks diverge as Chinese shares tumble
- Time runs out in Florida to flee Hurricane Milton
- Chad issues warning ahead of more devastating floods
- Creator's death no bar to new 'Dragon Ball' products
- Chinese stocks tumble on lack of fresh stimulus
- Trio wins chemistry Nobel for protein design, prediction
- Braving war: Lebanon's 'badass' airline defies odds
- US weighs Google breakup in landmark trial
- Chinese stocks tumble on stimulus upset, Asia tracks Wall St higher
- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
'The 1619 Project' comes to TV with Oprah-produced docuseries
"The 1619 Project," which began as a New York Times essay series about the impact of slavery on United States history and became a lightning rod for intense political divisions, will launch a new television docuseries produced by Oprah Winfrey this Thursday.
The Hulu six-part series is fronted by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work producing the original project -- written mainly by Black scholars -- including her own deeply personal introductory essay that viewed America's origins through the lens of enslaved Africans.
Slavery is ingrained "in the very structure of our politics, our economic system, our medical systems," Hannah-Jones told a recent Television Critics Association panel discussion about the series.
"These systems, because they were built into the foundation of our country, they replicate on their own, whether or not you are personally racist," she said.
Two episodes will be released each Thursday, each based on different essays -- "Democracy," "Race," "Music," "Capitalism," "Fear" and "Justice."
They will follow "real stories, real people in real life who are experiencing challenges in each episode," said director Roger Ross Williams.
"We got to work with Oprah, who was incredibly really involved in the development in the beginning and really passionate about it," he added.
Showrunner Shoshana Guy said the television series would expand on the project's writings through "listening to people and seeing their emotion on the screen."
"The 1619 Project" takes its name from the year in which the first enslaved Africans were brought to mainland British America, and was launched by the New York Times on the 400th anniversary of that event.
Also spawning a podcast, a book and an educational curriculum for schools, it quickly became a favorite talking point -- and punching bag -- for Donald Trump, who during his presidency regularly mocked the series as "totally discredited" during rallies.
Some arguments put forth by the project, including a claim that the American Revolution was motivated by white settlers' desire to keep slaves in the face of growing abolitionist sentiment in Britain, were publicly questioned by prominent scholars.
But Hannah-Jones said the backlash was "indicative of why the project had to exist in the first place -- that we've all been indoctrinated into these myths about America and we've all been told a history that's not true."
"There are certain Americans who think, if this were true, certainly I would have heard about it before," she said, adding that others reject the project for "strictly political" reasons.
"This project exposes power, exposes hierarchy, exposes that we were founded on lofty ideals of democracy and freedom and also the practice of slavery and what does that mean for the country that we live in today," she said.
U.Ndiaye--CPN