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Revoke the Pulitzer Prize for the 1619 Project: Too Little, Too Late?
I felt vindicated for my early attacks on the 1619 Project when I learned that the National Association of Scholars signed a letter that directed the Pulitzer Prize Board to revoke its award of the Prize to The 1619 Project. But my appreciation of the news was short-lived.
The NAS acted nobly in criticizing the 1619 Project. As they said in their letter to the Board:
We call on the Pulitzer Prize Board to rescind the 2020 Prize for Commentary awarded to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her lead essay in ‘The 1619 Project.’ That essay was entitled, ‘Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written.’ But it turns out the article itself was false when written, making a large claim that protecting the institution of slavery was a primary motive for the American Revolution, a claim for which there is simply no evidence.
They went on to say:
The duplicity of attempting to alter the historical record in a manner intended to deceive the public is as serious an infraction against professional ethics as a journalist can commit. A ‘sweeping, deeply reported and personal essay,’ as the Pulitzer Prize Board called it, does not have the license to sweep its own errors into obscurity or the remit to publish ‘deeply reported’ falsehoods.
And finally, the Times changed its digital version but did not make the change public:
Beginning almost immediately after its publication, though, the essay and the Project ran into controversy. It has been subjected to searching criticism by many of the foremost historians of our time and by the Times’ own fact checker. The scrutiny has left the essay discredited, so much so that the Times has felt the need to go back and change a crucial passage in it, softening but not eliminating its unsupported assertion about slavery and the Revolution.
Many of us would recognize the signatories to the letter that included, Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College; Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Roger Kimball, Editor and Publisher; Wilfred M. McClay, historian at University of Oklahoma; and a Ricochet contributor, Paul Rahe, Professor at Hillsdale College.
Although President Trump has called for schools that teach the 1619 Project to be defunded, many schools have been using the curriculum for months, particularly in California and the Chicago Public Schools. Dr. Janice Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, offered this statement:
‘The stories we tell about our nation’s history matter deeply, and the 1619 Project offers us a new set of stories by ‘placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are’ through a collection of essays, stories, poems, and photography that marks the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery,’ Jackson wrote.
‘As educators, we are always looking for new tools and strategies to help students contextualize the world around them so they may one day become informed and effective citizens,’ the CPS CEO said.
No one except the NAS seems particularly concerned that this curriculum is false, deceptive, and misguided. This story is just another example of the anti-American propaganda that has been taught in our schools for years.
Maybe President Trump will begin the process of holding the schools accountable for teaching the truth.
Or is it too late to make a difference?
Published in Journalism
Well they were “advertising for students in the local shopping throwaway” because they DID get just as arrogant, only it didn’t last as long because they don’t have a government (near-)monopoly etc.
Pulitzer has always seemed to me to be more style over substance.
If we’re going to take away the Pulitzers for fake news, how about Walter Duranty’s?
Although to be fair, Roxanne Pulitzer looked pretty good in Playboy…
A small thing, but our family was recently approached about giving a donation to my Catholic high school. I loved my high school and several of my relatives have gone there, so I was inclined to be generous. But given all that is going on, I decided to do some due diligence and not just blindly support my alma mater. I contacted the school and have asked for course syllabi and lists of text books. We as conservatives can’t bemoan higher education but open our purse strings anyway because of old school ties.
I hope that, if they pass muster, you let them know that you did check before donating, and why; and that you will – I hope – check in the future before making later donations.
Oh yes I will. In fact I am talking to the head of the school next week.
Lilly Pulitzer had a pretty good recipe for crushed potato chip encrusted fried chicken. And Mrs. Flicker has a closet full of her flowery print Capri pants.
I think the biggest problem is the standardized college entrance exams: the ACTs and SATs because these tests exert a lot of control over the high school curriculum. But there is hope there too. Many schools are giving kids other options.
I’m for ridiculing the whole Pulitzer scam until the repent sobbing and gnashing their teeth in sackcloth and ashes. Anything less is to leave them in a continued state of spiritual squalor and despair where their discernment is obviously and deeply impaired. Five million Ukraine deaths. A major coup attempt against the leader of the free world. These are not minor misses. This is far worse than mere incompetence. We still have a working pillory downtown, here (Welcome to Williamsburg). Time to put it to good use.
I just had a thought. If the left believes in participation trophies so there is no winner, then why do they maintain a “best reporting” award such as the Pulitzer?
Because the Left is not consistent? :-) (I read a story about that recently in the magazine, “Well Duh.” :-) )
It’s all here:
https://ricochet.com/810447/progressive-thought-updated/
That came after. I found a tendency for private school boards to be dominated by donors and they could get very arrogant.
Choice is not a panacea. Many parents might choose the false curriculum.
But at least it won’t be forced on them from above.
I would love to see the revocation of the Pulitzer Prize for this piece of trash. However, we now have at least two generations that have been hopelessly propagandized and this, combined with their narcissism and utter lack of self-awareness, makes it almost impossible to have an intelligent conversation with them. It was interesting to see the below exchange (if you can call it that) between a journalist (snicker) and the author of “Debunking Howard Zinn”.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/mary-grabar/2020/10/10/how-arrogant-journalist-helped-crucify-columbus-new-haven
It’s a story that we see repeated over and over. Thomas Sowell nailed it years ago when he said, “It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.” This was never more evident when the author of the 1619 Project was asked about the NAS Letter. She rolled her eyes; sneered and said “Consider the source”. How very witty of her but I suppose, in today’s America, that is intended to pass for brilliant repartee.
For the record, I forced myself to read “A People’s History of the United States” and thought it was one of the worst pieces of propaganda that I have ever seen. Still that is the Left’s idea of history so I suppose it was inevitable that sheer cr*p like the 1619 Project would come around. We can probably expect more of the same.
The PRA – People’s Republic of America – would not be the People’s, it would not be a Republic, and it sure as hell would not be America…
Well done! I hope they’ll provide honorable results, @gossamercat!
Major, powerful pushback needs to happen, so there is no doubt about the message, @sisyphus. We have to stop worrying about our image.
Sowell is so insightful. Too bad blacks don’t appreciate his brilliance.
As Sowell himself has pointed out at times, his name really is Tom…
Sad.
Many sensible points are contained in this discussion. I concur in regarding the 1619 Project as a travesty, a dangerous one. For further insights, please find time to read Bret Stephens in Sunday’s NYT. In a long essay he denounces in the pages of his own employer the failures of the entire effort. Of course he is decorous in his arguments. Yet in my view he is shockingly brave, and perhaps has a new job already lined up. I could not bring myself to enter the comments area.
As a fine point, I doubt that the NAS as a whole endorsed the letter in question. Wording I saw was careful to say the organization agreed to “host” the signees demand. But I could be wrong.
All reasonable and intriguing points, @captspaulding. I’m surprise and delighted to hear that Bret Stephens may have come to his senses! I hope it’s not temporary, but I guess time will tell. I was so disappointed to see his changes in position and in his leaving the WSJ.
You are probably correct about the NAS; I doubt in these times we could expect scholars to behave like scholars. But I’m so pleased to see those who are standing up to lies. Thanks for weighing in!
I was surprised that this made it past his editors. Probably just a matter of time before the adolescents at the NYT declare that Stephens’ words made them feel “physically threatened”.
Wait for it. 3-, 2,- 1. . .
Well here is a prime example of why the 1619 Project is flourishing in schools.
History isn’t being taught chronologically anymore, it’s being taught thematically. I saw this in my old public school before I left. The idea was that the kids (mostly black and Hispanic) had a hard time learning the detailed information so it was better to focus on material that they could relate to so my colleague was redesigning the curriculum for the World History program with thematic units.
Anyway, I just saw this link and it’s not from my school, but it’s the same idea. But this is the ecosystem where 1619 thrives. It’s one-dimensional history that isn’t linked to more complicated causal chains. Give the kids one date and one word-slavery- and they’re set. What is interesting is how the teacher, a former marketer, talks about education like he’s selling something and not teaching. And therein lies the problem.
So very sad. In many ways, the complexity I began to learn in college regarding history was what drew me in. I had no idea, @giuliettachicago; you have been a wealth of information on this site!
This explains why kids don’t know when anything happened. Simple things like whether the Mexican-American War was before or after the Civil War.
Without a chronology, there is no story.
In the blue suburb that we recently left, the “theme” of the entire curriculum, including math, was “white people are evil. White men are the evilest of the evil”
My son’s world history class spent more time on “Racism and misogyny in video games” than on anything resembling actual world history. The rest of the class focused exclusively on slavery and colonialism. They had to watch several movies from a list of movies made by African-American moviemakers that obviously focused on the evils of “systemic racism.” When my wife complained to the teacher that the almost all the movies on the list that 14 year old Freshman had to choose from were rated R, the teacher responded that there were 1 or 2 movies on the list were not rated R.
And don’t get me started on the essay he was forced to write based on incredibly biased selected “source material” on the history of slavery and how the legacy of slavery still dominated today’s society.