Revise History, Win a Prize

In a past article I wrote about a New York Times lengthy essay, part of a series, by Nikole Hannah Jones titled “The 1619 Project,” the premise of which was to revise or perhaps reinvent the history and advancement of America. It is Jones’ contention and that of the NYT that the foundation of this nation from its origin, and its incredible growth, tremendous progress, and exceptionalism are based on and grew out of slavery.

Since the Project's introduction, the concept itself has been subjected to one of the most sustained criticisms from historians on all sides of the political and ideological spectrum. It has garnered the wrath of the enlightened as nothing more than an erroneous and conceited effort, and I believe to seemingly change history at the behest of a leftist progressive agenda that is antithetical to the values and principles we hold as sacred.

According to Hannah Jones, the American Revolution was not fought for the independence of the colonies from the British, but to perpetuate slavery. The NYT eventually issued a correction, in part, to this unfounded fabrication. It stated “some” of the Founders thought this way. Jones also consulted a number of historians who expressed their misgivings and criticisms; one, in particular, was Leslie M. Harris, a black history professor at Northwestern University who expressed her disagreement thusly, “Far from being fought to preserve slavery, the Revolutionary War became a primary disrupter of slavery in the North American Colonies.”

Even the sixteenth and one of the most respected presidents, Abraham Lincoln, did not escape Jones’ distorted view of history. Honest Abe was accused of being “opposed to black equality.” In a New York Post series debunking the 1619 Project, historian Allen Guelzo stated that Lincoln called for black voting rights, and was hailed by none other than Frederick Douglas. There is a list of history scholars that have united and denounced Jones’ assertions; these include Sean Wilentz and James McPherson of Princeton, Gordon Wood of Brown University, James Oakes of CUNY. 

Perhaps one of the most forceful criticisms came from Gerard Baker in The Times of London who observed that this “represents so much of the West’s self-image these days, and that it’s true that US history is bound up in a history of repression and exploitation of minorities. But to say without evidence that its very foundational motivation was the persecution of those minorities is a conscious effort not to provoke academic debate but to inculcate the entire country, its people and institutions in a continuing crime against humanity.”

By now you might be asking, why bring this up again, in the face of the current crisis we have to deal with, this seems of little consequence, but it is. First another brief history, only this time there is no question to its relevance and truthfulness. The Pulitzer Prize is awarded for excellence in journalism, literature, and music. Since its inception, it appears the committee that determines who will receive this prestigious award has succumbed to an ideological and political agenda that leans left of center and one that has corrupted its once sterling reputation.
 
In a recent announcement made of the winners of this once honored award, and as you by now have probably determined, Hannah Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for her distorted and fictitious essay. Let us once again go to the words of Gerard Baker “The Pulitzer, like the Oscars, Tonys, and others, are less about rewarding quality journalism and more about affirmation of the prevailing ideologies of the principal intendants of America’s cultural story.” In other words, the liberal elite left has a stranglehold on the American culture, and they can twist, distort, deceive, and do just about anything they please to satisfy their radical desires.

To say this is a travesty would be too kind. It’s an injustice, historical criminality; it is a malicious effort to undermine and destroy what the Founders believed was the essence of what they would die for, an America “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Hannah Jones’ and the Pulitzer committee’s blatant disregard for the truth is beneath contempt, and just another chapter in an ideological bible, not the Word of God, but one filled with deceit and platitudinous ravings of false prophets and demagogues whose political and socialist agenda has at its core to relegate to the trash heap of history, Western Civilization.