(Headline USA) Although scholarly criticism has forced the New York Times and others to back off claims that the controversial “1619 Project” is rooted in fact, the black-liberation propagandist who invented it has found a new home in children’s fiction.
Nikole Hannah–Jones plans to release two books for kids this fall based on the debunked theory, alongside contributions from black-liberation activists Jesmyn Ward, Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi, and dozens of others woke authors and journalists.
Among the central objectives of the works is to sell young readers on the idea of slavery reparations, although no modern-day people of color endured the hardships of slavery, which was abolished during the Civil War by the 13th Amendment.
Hannah–Jones received a Pulitzer Prize for her “commentary,” first published in the New York Times Magazine, which has helped form the basis for critical race theory.
The National Association of Scholars later sent a letter to the Pulitzer board asking it to rescind the prize after some of the key assumptions were disproved.
“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,” wrote the NAS.
Before leaving office, President Donald Trump established a “1776 Commission” that issued a report meant to counter the 1619 Project and support what Trump called “patriotic education.”
Yet, the hybrid of Marxism and Malcolm X has spread at an alarming rate in public schools and universities, with groups like Black Lives Matter now promoting their own curricula.
Black-liberation dogma also has continued to spread in leftist pop-culture, where disputed, racist concepts such as “white privilege” are now featured on family sitcoms by the Obama-partnered streaming service Netflix.
But the effort to normalize the baseless historical revisionism and to indoctrinate the nation’s youth into accepting it would not be complete without a hostile, partisan takeover of children’s bedtime stories.
“The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” expands upon the original 2019 commentary piece that centers the country’s history around slavery.
“Born On the Water” is a volume for young people, based on a student’s family tree assignment, with words by Hannah–Jones and Renee Watson and illustrations by Nikkolas Smith.
Both works were announced Tuesday by Penguin Random House and will come out Nov. 16.
“When we published ‘The 1619 Project’ in 2019, none of us could have imagined all that it would become,” Hannah–Jones said in a statement. “The historic events that have since taken place in our country have only affirmed the thesis of, and necessity for, a project that grapples with how slavery, oppression and the struggle for [b]lack liberation created the country we live in today.”
In “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” Hannah-Jones expands on her original essay, provides an introduction that responds to critics, and includes a new essay calling for “reparative solutions to the legacy of injustice the project documents,” according to Penguin Random House.
The book, to be published by the Penguin Random House imprint One World, also features seven new essays from historians, and dozens of new poems and fictional works.
Besides Kendi, Reynolds and Ward, writers include the nonfiction authors Michelle Alexander, Bryan Stevenson and Matthew Desmond, former U.S. poet laureates Tracy K. Smith, Rita Dove and Natasha Trethewey, and novelists Terry McMillan and Yaa Gyasi.
“Together, the 18 essays in the book and the 36 creative works come together to show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into nearly every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship, to capitalism, religion and our very democracy,” according to the publisher’s announcement. “This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, even the way we remember.”
The Penguin Random House imprint Kokila will publish “Born On the Water,” which Hannah-Jones calls a clear-eyed look at slavery that also celebrates black culture and shows “an inhumane system could never strip the humanity of a people.”
“It is a story of affirmation for every [b]lack child, and a story of America that will speak to every child no matter their race,” she says.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
