America@250: Without Slavery, Our Nation Would Be Unrecognizable to Us
In August 2025, TV fitness personality Jillian Michaels publicly expressed her support of the removal of references to US slavery from the exhibits at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Below is the response from Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and creator of The 1619 Project:
Hey y’all. I do not usually do these videos, but as a creator of The 1619 project and someone who has studied the history of slavery for three decades, I could not let that viral CNN clip of Jillian Michaels stand.
I have to first state that the times are far too serious and dangerous for us to lend our platforms to harmful nonsense. It’s simply irresponsible with everything that’s happening in this country to have someone as credential-less as Jillian Michaels on a major network show legitimizing the erasure of our history.
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“…The United States economy and political systems were built in significant part by slavery. This is simply undeniable. Without slavery, our nation would be unrecognizable to us…”
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