The 1619 Project don’t need no steenking historians
In fact, a small industry has grown up consisting of historians and historically minded social scientists who are, one by one, refuting all of the serious claims of the 1619 Project…
Since the launch of The 1619 Project, Hannah-Jones [Times writer and promoter of the project] has booked at least 40 speaking engagements at colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations. At these events, she presents the “1619 Project-view” of history on her own or as part of a panel, often followed by a Q&A with the audience. Dialogue? Yes, but not with critics…
…[A]n unambiguously historical project ought prominently to feature historians. Hannah-Jones, trained as a journalist, founded a project designed to reframe all of American history. She then goes on to engage with fewer historians than I can count on one hand. This is a mockery of authentic historical scholarship and exposes Hannah-Jones’ ulterior motives…
Nikole Hannah-Jones clearly has no interest in engaging with historians or having her historical arguments challenged. The 1619 Project’s claims are unorthodox and controversial but are presented as unquestionable truths. A bevy of accomplished historians have come out against these ideas and have been all but entirely ignored by Hannah-Jones and the New York Times. Why are they so afraid?
They’re so afraid because they know it would destroy their argument and message. They also know they really have nothing to fear, because the leftists who control the universities and the school system at this point will continue to book them and to spread their propaganda in order to indoctrinate a growing number of youths, and will give them a pass on debating any actual historians except the very few who support them.
That article did clear up one thing. I’d been puzzled by the fact that some of the historians critiquing the 1619 Project have been people on the left. But here’s the explanation, and it makes sense to me: they are “upset with the Times for preferring racial grievance to class grievance.”
[NOTE: The title of this post is a reference to this movie moment.]
I have granddaughters in second and sixth grades. If their teachers take up this swill….I’ll….do something. Other than boring them with history by gramps….
I also have relatives who rejoice at the smearing of America. Getting harder and harder to talk to them.
Find it amusing that this Hannah-Jones duffer was on the staff of the Portland Oregonian for a number of years, a subset of which the latest Sulzberger scion to run the Times was also on the Oregonian‘s staff. She was hired by The New York Times Magazine some weeks before said Sulzberger scion was promoted by his father to the position of ‘associate editor’. Martin Kramer once referred to one particular academic faculty as ‘a train-wreck of friend hires friend’. Happens elsewhere too.
The editor of The Magazine, one Silverstein, is their point-man for defending her lousy claims. Between Hannah-Jones, Silverstein, and Sulzberger, their cupboard is rather bare of scholarly accomplishment. The whole place runs on vanity.
The author, Peter Wood, PhD., is president of the regrettably still small but very valuable National Association of Scholars, which I have recommended for support here previously and now do so again. One does not need to be a formal Scholar to join, and the dues are modest. NAS does indeed generate a big bang for the buck, on many fronts!
http://www.nas.org
I have a BA and MA in History, earned when History was really taught. This “project” really tees me off. Most of the so called Historians today are really just SJW.
The bigger issue here is they are introducing into schools. It’s one thing to just run this in their kooky newspaper but using as a teaching guide is way worse.
One of my biggest disappointments of my college years was the two history classes I took. I love(d) history and thought of maybe minoring in it but it was all class driven(not so much race). And this was late 1980s I can only imagine what it’s like now. High school too I imagine which should be much more basic ‘just the facts’. Lack of knowledge of history is massive among the under 30 or so crowd.
The agenda is so transparent it is scary. Hannah -Jones herself claims that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” And how do you change the DNA of a country? Hitler had a proposal for it.
The nice teachers teaching our children and grandchildren have no idea what they don’t know, they are a product of decades of education with social history being taught in colleges instead of actual, factual history.
What a total crock of crap and it is only going to get worse however that is no reason to give them a pass and not challenge this pseudo education whenever possible.
This propaganda effort by the NYTimes is staggeringly troubling — and insulting to anyone who respects the intellectual designs of the founding fathers. I’m thinking every one of us should call our local school board and ask if they are planning to teach this tripe. If so, we should complain — very loud.
Michael Bellesilles. Remember him? Remember Garry Wills’ fawning over “Arming America”?
Why, contrary to the mythology, there were no guns in America before Colt began his nefarious dealings. There were not even any guns made in America before the Revolution.
And the cheerleaders of the left celebrated. https://news.stanford.edu/news/2001/april25/guns-45.html
Now, Michael, the Bancroft Award winning historian and favorite of progressive minded scholars everywhere, has a new gig.
“Michael Bellesiles: Bartender, Writer, History Buff …”
https://www.theday.com/article/20120917/NWS10/309209649
Richard, if you can, before you cannot talk to them at all, see if you can find out what it is that they really want. Ask them why they are so peeved and resentful, and what they expect – or demand – out of life, and most especially out of their fellow man.
Maybe you can get an answer from your (presumptive) progressive relations. I never could get any real, i.e., thoughtful, answers from anyone during an outburst. They just look annoyed, or furious, that the topic had even been broached.
Maybe you can do better.
Richard, if you can, before you cannot talk to them at all, see if you can find out what it is that they really want. Ask them why they are so peeved and resentful, and what they expect – or demand – out of life, and most especially out of their fellow man.
1. Case 1, a 37 year old man who now has many friends, close family who love him, and a marriage prospect. I have reason to believe he’s never quite gotten over being rejected by his peers as a youth. Mothers and fathers are usually at a loss in such situations. His father did have some off-hand suggestions, but not ones an ordinary youth would be well-advised to implement. Some scar tissue there.
2. Case 2, a 65 year old haut bourgeois professional, also with a history of daddy issues. He lives in a social bubble and when outside of it tends to view himself as a visitor from a superior neighborhood.
Those are the cases I know personally. I’d read Vision of the Anointed for a diagnosis of the pathologies in our public discussion.
One thing I think is true: people not reconciled to their own ordinariness are drawn to self-aggrandizing poses and discourse. Gliberal and leftoid politics can serve that end. (A great deal of alt-right / Sailerite / and palaeo discourse can as well).
It’s hard to refute this “Project”. The people you try to persuade are so ignorant of history to get sucked in by this believe that the established newspaper and quoted sources must know more than YOU about these things, or YOU’D be a journalist at a prominent newspaper.
The bigger issue here is they are introducing into schools. It’s one thing to just run this in their kooky newspaper but using as a teaching guide is way worse.
This is part of Gramsci’s plan. The only solution may be the home school but that is tough. Private schools, where I sent my kids, are too expensive now, I can no longer afford to send my grand kids there. The private schools I sent my kids to are now as expensive as many colleges.
This isn’t a version of history being replaced by another, it’s propaganda and indoctrination replacing history curriculum. This is reinforced by the lack of interest on the part of the 1619 Project in debating the subject on its merits with the objecting Historians who are confronting the errors and false premises. The 1619 Project is not interested in history.
History is a symbolic study subject to be replaced while still making use of its name and whatever societal merits can be harvested from it. Much like the impeachment circus we just were subjected to, where a Constitutional process with grave purpose was hijacked, re-configured, and replaced with fraud and idiotic ritual. Our civilization and its institutions are being deconstructed in front of our very eyes, and their value liquidated and sold for parts – all in service of the Brave Way Forward. Fight it, tooth and nail and spare no tactic. They won’t, either.
Neo– some of us immediately made the connection from the title. 🙂
For me the take-away from that movie was the line “..when what you think is the worst that can happen does happen, it is not quite so bad as you thought it would be….” [probably more paraphrase than actual quote.]
How involved are parents in the process of choosing a college for their kids? Are there any stats on this? Is there a trend? Or does it come down to “sorry son I can’t send you there, it’s too expensive. Find something more affordable.” Is it just an economic issue? Four years later their bundle of joy graduates a leftist thug, and parents wonder “Wha happin’d?” That’s their personal disgrace but society has to live with the consequences of their poor decision.
From the AG post, which contains a host of good reference links, an explanation of the goal that looks plausible, and explains why the NYT and its 1619 proponents will never accept Peter Woods’ challenge to debate – and he probably knows that but has to go through the motions of invitation:
That last warning won’t influence the liars, because it’s the main feature of their program.
AesopFan: “That last warning won’t influence the liars, because it’s the main feature of their program.”
We see this same tactic used by climate alarmists against climate “deniers”. The scientific community, as well as historians, need to step up to the plate and set the rules: debate is essential to a free society; if you fail to meet us on the stage you will be labeled Conspiracy Theorists. Furthermore, no school receiving public funding shall teach conspiracy theories. If you fail then the school’s administration will be dissolved and new leadership put into place.
Not to sound like a broken record but…
This. Is. Why. You. Home School. Your. Kids.
Mike K.,
What is it that you think is so ‘tough’ about home schooling? I genuinely want to know.
Molly: “What is it that you think is so ‘tough’ about home schooling?”
I can think of two possibilities: the child lives in a single-parent household and/or the child has a learning disability. I tutored my nephew in math. Progress was extremely slow.
Mike K.,
What is it that you think is so ‘tough’ about home schooling? I genuinely want to know.
Lots of mothers can’t do it. My DIL runs a successful business from home. My grandson was struggling in math in 4th grade. His teacher told his mother that she could not do the math problems with Common Core, either. She suggested his mother teach him math using “traditional methods.” They found a charter school for the kids. He is in high school now.
My son is a fireman and his wife’s income is probably 2/3 of the family income. She, by working from home, has been there for the kids since they were babies. He is gone three days a week. Some families just can’t do it.
My stepson builds houses in Oregon. One house he was building included an apartment for the grandmother who was to home school the kids. Not everyone can do that. My wife could have but I could afford private schools. My kids can’t.
Mike, what is a “DIL”? I searched for its meaning but am dissatisfied with the results.
Hannah -Jones herself claims that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,”
Well, tell her she’s welcome to set up housekeeping somewhere else. Most people are roughly satisfied with the country as is and are under no obligation to twist themselves into knots to assuage her idiosyncratic discontents. The French Caribbean has fairly good quality of life – moderately affluent by global standards and without the wretched quanta of street crime you see elsewhere in the Caribbean. Of course, I don’t think the French immigration regime is accommodating to people who aren’t turnstile jumpers, and it’s not like she has any valuable skills. Learn French and learn accounting, tootsie.
Art Deco, I say it is the height of hypocrisy for one to criticize your nation while also residing there, and therefore enjoying the fruits of your labor. Move abroad and criticize from afar. People might take you seriously then. Same goes for the perpetual Hollywood malcontents.
The only solution may be the home school but that is tough. Private schools, where I sent my kids, are too expensive now, I can no longer afford to send my grand kids there. The private schools I sent my kids to are now as expensive as many colleges.
We finance schooling with tax money out of distributional concerns, not because it actually is a public good on the order of roadways or military services.
Ideally, we’d recognize that schooling is not what economists call a ‘public good’ and we’d re-incorporate local schools as philanthropies run by boards elected by a legally-defined stakeholder body. All but an odd minority would then be enrolled in private schools. Schools could be sorted into two categories: those financed by vouchers issued by local governments and those financed by tuition. Parent’s selecting a voucher-financed school would turn the voucher over to the school which would then turn it over to a local school fund for redemption at face value. Such schools would have some supplementary income from voluntary and unconditional donations, endowments, and miscellaneous fundraising. Other parents would turn the voucher in to the school fund directly and be compensated with cash at a fraction of the face value (calculated according to a formula which included the family’s direct tax payments and number of school-age children as arguments). They could use the cash to pay the charges of tuition-funded schools or to purchase supplies for homeschooling if that’s what they preferred. Quality control could be maintained by a set of state regents examinations administered by state proctors at designated locations, at which truancy laws would compel attendance. Local sheriff’s departments, state corrections departments, the state education department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Armed Services could run schools and receive voucher redemptions as well, but for discrete clientele, not the general run of student (the discrete clientele being incorrigibles, odd lots of students not-proficient in English, odd-lots with low absorptive capacity, military families, and reservation Indians).
Of course, we’ll never get it. So many rice bowls, and their owners all vote Democratic.
Art Deco, I say it is the height of hypocrisy for one to criticize your nation while also residing there, and therefore enjoying the fruits of your labor. Move abroad and criticize from a distance.
There’s nothing wrong with criticism. However, if the import of your criticism is that your host country is a 400-years long criminal enterprise (and you’re doing a lot of lying to try to establish that point), it’s only social parasitism that keeps you here. Alas, much of our professional-managerial class are TWANLOC, and fancy themselves visitors from a superior neighborhood. But yeah, Hannah-Jones and her Sulzberger patrons should get lost, and it would not be substantively unjust to not give them a choice. Bryan Caplan’s another civic tapeworm, albeit of a different stripe. However, he has a wife and children who are innocent of his offenses.
Brian- I think that in this context DIL = Daughter-In-Law.
I could be wrong, it has happened before.
Art Deco, I like your take on reorganizing public schools. One question: How should money be extracted from households having no children, or the elderly whose children have long since departed the nest? I have no children but I still pay exorbitant taxes. For the longest time I considered the possibility that I was paying society back for my own K-12 education. Now at age 63 I think I’ve paid enough already.
Art Deco, DNW.
I am not in a position to diagnose the reasons behind such counter-reality progressive thinking.
As a general rule, they’re Bachelor’s plus. They are employed or retired. Some, given the right circumstances, do genuine good for the unfortunate. Others have a lot on their plate.
However, they seem to need to have a large population to look down on or possibly even hate. went to a wedding of this type of individual.It was traditional, in the sense that the pastor mentioned God once. Also introduced his husband. My connection was to the guy who had on various social media, mentioned his gay friends more than the actual comings and goings would seem to require. His wife is a very nice and extremely accomplished woman…working in what might be called “letters” from a progressive angle. Lots of his gay friends were at the wedding, but none approached me. Warned off, I suppose. “Don’t talk to the big guy in the blue coat. He’s conservative and HE’S FROM THE MIDWEST!” The reference to the midwest came from someone who was connected and wondered how it would all go.
They know MIchael Brown wasn’t doing the hands-up don’t shoot thing but they force themselves to believe he was, and that others believe it. In some circumstances, where the discussion is serious, the conflict between what is and what they need to believe brings on a kind of…..break.
They know, in the sense that they need to know, that Nick Sandmann was aggressively hassling Nathan Phillips, videos notwithstanding. The latter is….reverent tones…an elder in whatever tribe doesn’t want him. I’m an elder in the Presbyterian church. What does that get me? Ummm.
They agree Matthew Shepard’s remains should be in the National Cathedral and don’t know who Jesse Dirkhising was.
They have the usual view of the Trayvon Martin case but have never heard of Roderick Scott’s acquittal. That was a far more egregious case.
WRT America: It seems like Walmart. You’re supposed to dislike it intensely, but nobody can tell you why in a way that has any logical or historical sense.
Project 1619 is designed to discredit America’s history and founding. And the founding fathers. And the Constitution and our culture. That way, major reordering of the entire American enterprise can be justified. Even required.
But why? Is there such a thing as virtue-signaling to oneself? If so, why pick the SJW progressive angles? Best I can figure is if the bulk of the population–or anyway that part you can believe is interested in the issue at all–is traditional, being non-traditional puts you in a minority and then you convince yourself that Those Others are idiots and racists and…… Because if you can’t do that…who are you?
I don’t know, but I do know encountering or being directed to reality is not going to change things.
Another Mike, DIL=”Daughter-in-Law” thank you! The best I came up with was “Divorced-in-Law”.
Correction, I meant to write “Divorced In-Law”.
One question: How should money be extracted from households having no children, or the elderly whose children have long since departed the nest? I have no children but I still pay exorbitant taxes. For the longest time I considered the possibility that I was paying society back for my own K-12 education. Now at age 63 I think I’ve paid enough already.
IMO, local authorities would receive a foundational grant from the state government, then fill in the rest from local taxes. The sum total of the grants would be a discretionary decision of the state legislature, but the distribution would be according to a formula delineated in the state constitution. Relatively impecunious areas would get a large grant, the most affluent areas no grant. The grant would be out of the state’s general revenues, so would be financed by a general sales tax (with a broader base than is common today – including all final demand except rent, real estate sales; and sales of donated, discarded, or salvaged merchandise and applying to all parties selling and buying). The share of spending accounted for by a state grant would properly vary, as some states have more even geographic income distributions than others. I’ve run the numbers and think 20% might be a common proportion.
Public expenditure on primary and secondary schooling is currently $705 bn. Let’s posit 20% of the financing is through state sales taxes, 5% through local sales taxes (collected in core cities), and 75% through local property taxes. Currently, personal consumption expenditures in this country (less housing) are running at just shy of $12 tn. Let’s posit the tax collectors locate $10 tn, a levy of 1.44% will finance the state grant.
As we speak, there is $16 tn in commercial property in this country and $31.8 trillion in residential property. The New York State Comptroller estimates that about 15% of the value of property in the state is held by public or philanthropic agencies. That would mean that the value of real property in this country is currently just north of $56 tn. Let’s posit that taxes are delinquent on 2% of that, that the last 2 or 3 years of increases in nominal values are not incorporated into the most recent assessment, and that taxes are forgiven in designated slum areas. So, we have $530 bn in spending on public schools financed by levies on $46 tn of assessed valuation, or 1.14%. Let’s posit local philanthropies take out a line of credit and are re-imbursed by the state, that the state pays the levies on federal property, and that local authorities make use of sales tax revenues to clear the payables derived from levies on their own property. That would mean an additional increment to your sales tax that would average 0.82% (but vary from one local jurisdiction to another). In lieu of collecting property taxes in slum neighborhoods, you collect a supplementary general sales tax in core cities. If this tax finances 5% of global school expenditure, and discoverable consumer spending in core cities (real estate excepted) is around $1.8 tn, this would require a supplementary sales tax of 2%.
So, a real property tax somewhat shy of 1.2% of assessed valuation, sales taxes outside of core cities that average about 2.3% of the stated retail price, and sales taxes in core cities around 4.3% of the stated retail price (with taxes on slum property forgiven).
You divide the revenue into two funds, with 7/8 going for general schooling and 1/8 going for supplementary schooling. Every custodial parent gets a voucher for each child for general schooling. The vouchers for supplementary schooling are distributed according to a queuing system and go to parents of children with diminished absorptive capacity who might benefit from labor intensive instruction. Given the size of the youth population in this country, the redemption value would be north of $11,000. Parents who turned the voucher in directly in order to homeschool or send their youth to a tuition-charging school would receive a portion of that, based on what their direct tax payments indicated was their household’s contribution to the fund divided by the number of vouchers issued them, but, in any case, not more than the redemption value.
“My grandson was struggling in math in 4th grade. His teacher told his mother that she could not do the math problems with Common Core, either. She suggested his mother teach him math using “traditional methods.” Mike K
I help my 4th-grade granddaughter with her math homework every Monday since 1st grade. My brain is tied up in knots every week. I then end up showing her the way I do it and work towards the expectation of the program. Horrible!! I did home school my children during the 1990’s. My daughter 4th until college. She is a successful fashion designer; my son 1st-7th grade, he served 8 years in the Marine Corps and just finished his Masters in Accounting and is working in that field; my youngest Kindergarten to 4th grade (I went to work to pay for our daughter’s 4 years of college at that point), a graduate of UCLA and a realtor. It most definitely is not for everyone. For so many reasons I’m glad we did it how we did. There are a number of things I would do differently now but that is 20/20 hindsight. At the time, there were people who asked my advice and I told them not to do it (marital problems = no). One of our son’s in-laws are in the beginning stages of setting up a private school, specifically to be in place by the time our granddaughter will be school-age. This to avoid L.A.U.S.D. Nothing more needs to be said.
I’m shocked to see Hannah-Jones as a feature on the Brooks Brothers home page today. I did register a complaint.
Sharon W. I have a niece who taught in LAUSD. Recently left. I mentioned that “wilful defiance” of teachers will no longer result in discipline. She shrugged. Can’t make things much worse.
The moral of the story: never go Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic. Also, diversity breeds adversity and profit. Still, their hope to force a Hutu/Tutsi progression, an an Anasazi-style genocide (i.e. intra-tribal), or even recycle the blacks lynching blacks episode of South Africa, is not forthcoming.
Art Deco: “So, a real property tax somewhat shy of 1.2% of assessed valuation, sales taxes outside of core cities that average about 2.3% of the stated retail price, and sales taxes in core cities around 4.3% of the stated retail price (with taxes on slum property forgiven).”
I can see that you have thought long and hard about this topic. Much appreciated!
Question: In the above quote I understand “1.2%” but I need clarification on the “2.3%”. Is that 2.3% of real estate value when property is sold, or is that a conventional sales tax levied on everyday consumables?
Cicero: “I’m shocked to see Hannah-Jones as a feature on the Brooks Brothers home page today. I did register a complaint.”
Why in this day and age do we need an International Women’s Day? When do I get my “Day”? Sure, there’s Fathers Day but I don’t qualify since I don’t have children.
It does seem like there is an awful lot of pandering going on that pits one class of people against another. Can we just stop it already?
The 1619 Project will be indirectly on the ballot in November. Needless to say, a vote for any Democrat will be in favor.
Question: In the above quote I understand “1.2%” but I need clarification on the “2.3%”. Is that 2.3% of real estate value when property is sold, or is that a conventional sales tax levied on everyday consumables?
Noted above, sales taxes are assessed on final demand. Excluded in the conception delineated above would be rent, real estate sales; and sales of discarded, donated, or salvaged property. So, no tax on selling your house. But, yes, tax on your groceries.
Who needs all that history? Who needs those singularly gifted Founders? Koolaid Brigades on steroids, America? Critical Thinking based on research, reading, scholars, FACTS, TRUTH!!!!!
Oooops, My Bad.
David Marcus, The Federalist: The New York Times’ Correction To The 1619 Project Proves It Is Not Fit For Schools