Yet again, the Grey Lady doth protest too much. nytimes.com/2020/10/16/mag…
From the article above: "A few notes on this phrase, “true founding”: It was written by a digital editor and approved by me. (Hannah-Jones, as a staff writer at the magazine is not typically involved in matters of digital display language.)" 🤔
https://twitter.com/reason/status/1308799042776776705?s=20
I do not understand why the Times cannot put down this bone. Dean Baquet did the project a huge disservice. (See thread by @wesyang)
https://twitter.com/wesyang/status/1316027396147929090?s=20
The paper would have seemed masterfully ethical if it had left Stephens's critique to stand alongside the project. As he wrote, "we’re supposed to report and comment on the political and cultural issues of the day, not become the issue itself." 
What if the Times had published the project the way Hannah-Jones introduced it? (“What if I told you that the year 1619 is as important to the American story as the year 1776?”) washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…
What if they had listened to critiques of their overreach? Defensiveness, as @seanwilentz points out, is "a major tell." And now they are at it again. I had been so pleased that they published a critique from within. Stephens burnished their reputation & they keep tarnishing it.
This comment by Hannah-Jones should have been the spirit of all of the defenses of the project: “I should have been more careful with how I wrote that” (the part about slavery and the revolution)... "and I am tortured by it. I’m absolutely tortured by it.” I applaud her for that.
An epilogue: From The 1619 Project's editor: "Only 8 percent of high school seniors were aware that slavery was the central cause of the Civil War; and fewer than one in four students could identify how certain provisions in the Constitution gave advantages to enslavers.”
Here's some more horrifying information about public education: In 2017, among ADULTS surveyed:
One in four could not name all three branches of government.
33% couldn't name EVEN ONE branch of government.
37% couldn't name A SINGLE First Amendment right. annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-are-…
One in four could not name all three branches of government.
33% couldn't name EVEN ONE branch of government.
37% couldn't name A SINGLE First Amendment right. annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-are-…
Meanwhile: There were over 40,000 concentration camps and ghettos in Europe. In 2018, almost half of Americans couldn't name A SINGLE ONE. When asked about Auschwitz, more than 40% of American adults and fully two-thirds of American Millennials did not know what it was. (cont’d)
Fewer than half of Americans can correctly answer a MULTIPLE CHOICE Q abt how many Jews were killed in the Holocaust. (Pew)
There are many ways in which our schools fail to educate our children. It's unacceptable (but unsurprising) that slavery isn't accurately taught. (cont’d)
There are many ways in which our schools fail to educate our children. It's unacceptable (but unsurprising) that slavery isn't accurately taught. (cont’d)
American students SHOULD learn the history of slavery. Errors & exaggerations notwithstanding, The 1619 project could have been embraced by everyone across the political spectrum. It's unfortunate––and tragic––that it required a reframing of our founding. (cont’d)
That turned what could have been an apolitical addition to our national understanding of slavery into an ideological program. It took what could have brought us together as a country in a deeper look at our shared history into a way of dividing the country into "us" and "them."
More on this from @PhilWMagness
https://twitter.com/philwmagness/status/1317487371630379009
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