Review - How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

Honesty, people need to read this book.

Smith travels to various places, mostly in the US but also in Senegal to look at how (or how not) the places deal with the history of slavery. He visits Angola, Whitney, NYC, Goree Island, Monticello, a Confederate Cemetery, and Galveston Island. He address the question of history, memory, and education.

In many ways, the book works so well because Smith is able to talk to people, in particular the various tour guides that he meets along the way. He also gets people to seem to open up to him. One of the more interesting conversations is at Monticello, where Smith talks to two women from Texas. Smith is intelligent enough and good writer that he does not heavy hand the conversation as he relates it to the reader. A less writer would have been all "this shows that we really not all that different yada, yada" but Smith simply relates what the women have to say, and lets the reader think about that. He does this not only in the Monticello section but over the course of the whole book.

Smith also, sometimes briefly, addresses how the history and myths are taught as well as how history can stay hidden. This last bit is aptly and moving illustrated at the end of the book where he relates the stories of his grandparents.

The common theme is the lack of education or the failures of the educational system itself, intentional or otherwise (stares at the DoC). This is voiced not only by the guides and people who run/administer the sites but also by those in the community who run work shops and programs