The award of a Pulitzer Prize to Nikole Hannah-Jones for her essay in the 1619 Project by the New York Times Magazine is the most recent volley from anti-American forces in a divisive and dangerous culture war that has been waged for decades. I do not fault Hannah-Jones’s intentions. She is the product of a system of higher education in which identity politics and ideological warfare have been deeply entrenched and the founding principles and values of our nation have been demeaned and dismissed. In the environment of this academic arena, she honed the writing skills that have now been used to further a corrupt agenda, and she may be unwittingly used by those who are orchestrating a racial grievance industry, spreading a virus that is eating away at the fabric of our nation.
Tragically, the greatest devastation of the 1619 Project will harm low-income communities and a vulnerable generation of black youths, not conservative scholars, writers, and journalists who spar in the isolated arenas of talk shows and policy debates.
The message that Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project is sending to young, black America is that the country of their birth was conceived in hatred toward them and any and all dysfunction they may be experiencing is the inevitable consequence of the legacy of slavery and discriminatory laws. They are barraged with a debilitating mantra that racism is inextricably embedded in the nation’s DNA and that they are exempt from personal responsibility for their actions and are ultimately powerless to be agents of their own uplift. If they are dropping out of school, abandoning children they fathered, or engaging in street violence that is claiming thousands of black lives every year, it is not their fault.
This scenario in which the founding virtues and values of our country are being scoffed, demeaned, and dismissed has dangerous repercussions for national security, as Samuel Adams warned in 1776 with his prescient declaration that “a general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy” and “Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.”
The divisive and debilitating message of the 1619 Project has now been embedded in the curricula of 4,500 public schools. Imagine a young man who grew up learning that our country despises him and conspires against his welfare. How will he respond to the prospect of serving in the ranks of the services that protect America from foreign enemies or becoming a part of a crucial police force that he has been indoctrinated to think of the enemy? The answer is clear. Even now, recruitment of law enforcement officers has dropped by an average of 62% nationwide, and, in some jurisdictions, even desperate 911 calls elicit no response.
In response to the imminent devastation that will be left in the wake of the 1619 Project, a broad-based coalition has joined together in a 1776 Campaign to counter its dangerous, divisive, and debilitating message by promoting the principles of self-determination, personal responsibility, and mutual assistance that have empowered blacks to rise and succeed, even in the face of daunting odds.
The “ground forces” of the 1776 Campaign are low-income community leaders who have committed their lives to empowering the residents of their neighborhoods and vulnerable young people with a message of hope and a vision for their lives and futures and have literally transformed lives and neighborhoods. Their work powerfully counters the falsehoods of the victimization dogma with living evidence of the truth. In this battle for the heart and soul of our nation, they are a far more powerful force than white papers that circulate in the academic and policy arenas or commentators on talk shows. They desperately need and deserve our support.
Robert L. Woodson, Sr. is the founder and president of the Woodson Center.
