Carol Anderson: History is Uncomfortable

Note: Click the button at the bottom of this page to go to original source, where audio of the Q&A is available.

To many, watching the Jan. 6 riot unfold at the U.S. Capitol was shocking. But not to Carol Anderson.

Anderson, a best-selling author and professor of African American studies at Emory University, traces a long history of racial violence and its ties to the insurrection in a new documentary, “I, Too.”

On this edition of “Closer Look,” you’ll hear a post-film-premiere Q&A with Anderson and host Rose Scott recorded live at the Carter Center.

At the film’s core is Anderson’s warning about holding on to a “sanitized” version of history, especially as state legislators in Georgia and across the nation restrict what can be taught in classrooms.

“When you have this historical narrative that has greatness right there, and then you have this nation being built only primarily by white men,” Anderson told the audience.