Dueling “narratives”: 1776 vs. 1619
[Hat tip: commenter Artfldgr.]
A group called the Woodson Center has launched a counter-project to the NY Times’ “1619 Project” falsehoods:
As long as the perpetrators of race grievance that are represented by the 1619 Project are permitted to go unchallenged, this country will continue its social, spiritual, and moral decline.
“1776” has enlisted a group of black scholars and social activists who uphold the true origins of our nation and the principles through which its founding promise can be fulfilled. While acknowledging that slavery and discrimination are part of our nation’s history, we believe that America should not be defined solely by this “birth defect” and that black Americans should not be portrayed as perpetually helpless victims.
Rather than giving point-by-point counterarguments to the findings and conclusion of the 1619 Project, our focus will be to identify and highlight solutions, models of success in reviving our streets and communities, and actionable goals that should be pursued.
Key themes of “1776” will be to:
— Debunk the myth that present-day problems are inevitable results of our past, using evidence to confront the incomplete and misguided economic, historical, cultural, and religious positions taken by the 1619 Project. Specifically, debunking the myth that slavery is the source of present-day disparities and injustice. America should not be defined by its failures.
— Tell stories from the past and present of resilience and upward mobility. America should be defined by its promises.
The Woodson Center is headed by Robert Woodson Sr., a black Republican activist who is now 82.
Sounds like an extremely worthy goal. I wonder whether the schools of America will be receptive to it, given how far to the left they’ve steered, and how many of them have already adopted the 1619 propagandist curriculum.
This, like the NAS, is a worthy effort but will get nowhere. As you said, the rot is too deep. I just received my copy of the quarterly magazine from the college where I used to work. On the second page the president announces proudly how the college is working and supporting the 1619 project. Not only does that mean that the history department now takes up the project but also any students in the education department will have to toe the 1619 line. The march goes on.
I highly recommend Jason Riley’s excellent article about this project in today’s WSJ. The essays have been prepared by some of the leading black intellectuals in the country, some conservative, some libertarian and some left-of-center without being “woke”.
Good for these scholars, and may their work prosper.
physicsguy, I suppose this means I’ll have to actually look at my alma mater’s mailings to see if it has adopted the 1619 nonsense. Based on its recent mailings, I think it very likely. We haven’t sent them any money in years. A trip out to honor my husband’s revered physics professor a few years ago showed us a great deal of political bias in the Physics department, which was a shock.
They’re right. Political myths, liberal license, protection rackets, affirmative discrimination, and diversity are clear and progressive anthropogenic forcings of adversity.
The purveyors of culture (e.g. the odious AG Sulzberger) would prefer to promote social fictions that do nothing to benefit the black population. The black population would actually benefit from enhanced efforts at crime control, the replacement of public schools with voucher-funded private schools (which could turn trouble-makers over to the Sheriff or put them out on the curb), a redistribution of manpower from (half-assed) liberal education to vocational training, and a reconstitution of tertiary schooling which would include a completely revised schedule of degree and certificate programs. They would also benefit from conscientious feedback on their actual performance in schools and in the workplace. They will get none of this from the social sectors which make the Democratic Party their electoral vehicle.
The Democratic Party and the people within it do nothing but wreck stuff and reconstitute institutional purposes so that the the function of any given institution is to sluice income to the people nominally employed there.
A Janitor’s View
The Real Story of Slavery – Part 1
https://reasonmclucus.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-real-story-of-slavery-part-1.html
The Real Story of Slavery – Part 2
https://reasonmclucus.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-real-story-of-slavery-part-2.html