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Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers
An indispensable corrective to the falsified version of black history presented by The 1619 Project, radical activists, and money-hungry “diversity consultants.”In the rush to redefine the place of black Americans in contemporary society, many radical activists and academics have mounted a campaign to destroy traditional American history and replace it with a politicized version that few would recognize. According to the new radical orthodoxy, the United States was founded as a racist nation—and everything that has happened throughout our history must be viewed through the lens of the systemic oppression of black people. Rejecting this false narrative, a collection of the most prominent and respected black scholars and thinkers has come together to correct the record and tell the true story of black Americans in all its complexity, diversity of experience, and poignancy. Collectively, they paint a vivid picture of black people living the grand American experience, however bumpy the road may be along the way. But rather than a people apart, blacks are woven into the united whole that makes this nation unique in history.Featuring Essays John Sibley ButlerJason D. HillColeman Cruz HughesJohn McWhorterClarence PageWilfred ReillyShelby SteeleCarol M. SwainDean NelsonCharles LoveRev. Corey BrookStephen L. HarrisHarold A. BlackStephanie DeutschYaya J. FanusieIan RoweJohn Wood, Jr.Joshua MitchellRobert CherryRev. DeForest Black Soaries, Jr.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 11, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
June 1, 2021
This is a set of essays that directly refutes the nonsense of the New York Times 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory. The essays are from Black writers, some prominent and some not. But there is a common theme. All reaffirm that a) the history of Blacks in the country as consistently oppressed (i.e. that racism is systemic) is not confirmed by even a casual reading of history. b) That the supporters of 1619 and CRT want to deny an individual's ability to surmount all sorts of issues. c) By trying to diminish the importance of individual achievement the as the authors refer to them "race hustlers" want to consign Blacks to a lifetime of dependency. This is an inspiring book with lots of facts and figures about the real and rich history. It means as one author commented "to embrace the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past." In claiming 1776 as the true referent point for US history the authors begin from "the recognition that the stain of slavery has its deeper origin in the darkened recesses of the human heart. We are neither idealists not disappointed idealists. Rather we have both hope and confidence that the political arrangements stipulated by the Constitution and its associated documents were and are adequate to the challenges immediately before us and our forebears and to those that lie ahead."
October 3, 2021
Conservative propaganda piece that is completely devoid of any logic in its attempt to refute the 1619 project it sacrifices any semblance of rationality in favor of clear political partisanship and slavery apologism.
February 11, 2022
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I actually started reading this book and The 1619 Project (the book) at the same time. This book appears created primarily to debunk The 1619 Project. What I don't understand is why both ideas cannot co-exist? For example, though many of the essays in this book are primarily criticism of The 1619 Project, many of the essays do not even mention it and instead focus on black excellence. This is what 1776 Unites claims is its purpose and I say bravo for that. But it failed miserably by spending so much time on criticizing The 1619 Project. In fact, in the final essay of this book, the author writes that 1776 Unites "will not engage in a gladiatorial debate with the purveyors of grievances such as The 1619 Project." And yet that is EXACTLY what this book does!
I do have to point out before I continue this review that this book is responding to the publication the NY Times put out in 2019 not the book published in 2021 that I am currently reading. I am about 3/4 done with that book and it is excellent. If they really wanted to convince readers that it is false, they would do well to use authors who write as beautifully as the authors of The 1619 Project. Red, White and Black, is unfortunately not nearly as well written plus it is poorly cited. The 1619 Project is heavily cited with legitimate sources.
Finally, I don't understand their objection to the history The 1619 Project brings forth. There is nothing wrong with revisionist history when it reveals truths that have been white-washed for decades. What is wrong with incorporating everything in our history? The good things people of all ethnicities did, as well as the bad? Let's give space to the history of all races that are also Americans--blacks, asians, latinos, whites. History has many facets. We should include the history revealed in The 1619 Project alongside the uplifting histories of so many black Americans that are also shared in Red, White and Black. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Which is why we should never forget slavery (or the holocaust or any other horror humanity has perpetrated on each other).
I do have to point out before I continue this review that this book is responding to the publication the NY Times put out in 2019 not the book published in 2021 that I am currently reading. I am about 3/4 done with that book and it is excellent. If they really wanted to convince readers that it is false, they would do well to use authors who write as beautifully as the authors of The 1619 Project. Red, White and Black, is unfortunately not nearly as well written plus it is poorly cited. The 1619 Project is heavily cited with legitimate sources.
Finally, I don't understand their objection to the history The 1619 Project brings forth. There is nothing wrong with revisionist history when it reveals truths that have been white-washed for decades. What is wrong with incorporating everything in our history? The good things people of all ethnicities did, as well as the bad? Let's give space to the history of all races that are also Americans--blacks, asians, latinos, whites. History has many facets. We should include the history revealed in The 1619 Project alongside the uplifting histories of so many black Americans that are also shared in Red, White and Black. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Which is why we should never forget slavery (or the holocaust or any other horror humanity has perpetrated on each other).
June 17, 2021
From my published review at the website of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute:
The book’s aggressive subtitle, “Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers,” makes clear its uncompromising editorial stance. The authors did not set out to engage in a polite colloquy but to respond forcefully to today’s dominant narrative about race in America, one advanced most visibly by the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which famously argued that the nation’s “true founding” was marked by the arrival of first enslaved Africans 400 years ago and which sought to “reframe the country's history” by placing the consequences of slavery at the very center of our national narrative. The mission statement of 1776 Unites leads the collection and stands as a cri de coeur for the essays that follow, authored mostly by Black intellectuals, journalists, and entrepreneurs: “We acknowledge that racial discrimination exists—and work towards diminishing it. But we dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class, and American history.” Indeed, they do. And how.
Readers seeking a point-by-point refutation of the 1619 Project are best directed elsewhere. The authors of Red, White, and Black concern themselves mostly with countering the metanarratives about the role of race in America that 1619 centers and supports. “In the end, what do America’s youth, especially those of color, need to equip themselves for success?” asks Dr. Lucas E. Morel, in the foreword to the collection. This is the essential question for K–12 educators, who are often tasked unfairly with shouldering the burden of answering it independent of other institutions or, when out over their skis, take it upon themselves to answer unilaterally, thereby turning teaching into activism.
More here: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national...
The book’s aggressive subtitle, “Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers,” makes clear its uncompromising editorial stance. The authors did not set out to engage in a polite colloquy but to respond forcefully to today’s dominant narrative about race in America, one advanced most visibly by the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which famously argued that the nation’s “true founding” was marked by the arrival of first enslaved Africans 400 years ago and which sought to “reframe the country's history” by placing the consequences of slavery at the very center of our national narrative. The mission statement of 1776 Unites leads the collection and stands as a cri de coeur for the essays that follow, authored mostly by Black intellectuals, journalists, and entrepreneurs: “We acknowledge that racial discrimination exists—and work towards diminishing it. But we dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class, and American history.” Indeed, they do. And how.
Readers seeking a point-by-point refutation of the 1619 Project are best directed elsewhere. The authors of Red, White, and Black concern themselves mostly with countering the metanarratives about the role of race in America that 1619 centers and supports. “In the end, what do America’s youth, especially those of color, need to equip themselves for success?” asks Dr. Lucas E. Morel, in the foreword to the collection. This is the essential question for K–12 educators, who are often tasked unfairly with shouldering the burden of answering it independent of other institutions or, when out over their skis, take it upon themselves to answer unilaterally, thereby turning teaching into activism.
More here: https://fordhaminstitute.org/national...
July 22, 2021
This short book, which is a series of essays from a variety of black writers, is a full-fronted assault on the "1619 Project," which these writers believe does a terrible to the African-American community. This group is part of a larger project called "1776 Unites," which is attempting to reset the "starting date" of the United States back to its traditional location: the Fourth of July, 1776. The writers (and the larger organization) believe that the supporters of the 1619 Project have built their analysis on group victimhood rather than individual agency and that by claiming that racism is "in the DNA" of the United States they have labeled the nation irredeemable, a conclusion that the contributors to this book profoundly reject. Each of the essays contributes to the enterprise in its own unique way. There are short pieces about individuals who overcame the adversities that racism presented to achieve success and recognition, a couple that emphasize the importance of education (Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass are mentioned a number of times), and one or two that point to the Black Church as an important part of the struggle for justice that is increasingly out of vogue. But the overall take on American history in this collection is that while slavery and racism worked to make the lives of untold numbers of African-Americans incomprehensibly difficult, slavery does not continue to "define" the nation and the majority of the American people have worked to make it "a more perfect Union." In this way the thesis of this book echoes the message of Barak Obama's 2008 speech about race when he was first running for president. My chief concern about this book is that it is written by a handful of (self-described) "elites" in the black community. Many, if not most, came from supportive, middle class families where education was stressed. How well might they understand the challenges faced by individuals who did not have the advantages that they had? One of the essays claims that the chief lesson of the Tulsa massacre was not what happened in 1921, but the fact that the people of that neighborhood rebuilt black Tulsa over the course of the next decade and a half. I'm not so sure about that. In any event, putting this book up against the material in the 1619 Project demonstrates, once again, that history is messy.
Want to read
May 13, 2023I am marking this book as to-read because of the video below from Bob Woodson. He carries himself both thoughtfully and eloquently, and my hope is that he writes the same way he speaks.
https://youtu.be/O4oZT03UnCI
https://youtu.be/O4oZT03UnCI
July 7, 2022
This was astounding. I will offer a proper review when I get my thoughts together.
August 29, 2021
This uplifting collection of positive and affirming essays by Black intellectuals, scholars, thinkers, pastors, and Civil Rights activists begs to be read. Each one offers some important takeaway. The stories of "resilience and upward mobility and achievement against the odds" are so inspiring, and have an entirely different impact from focusing stories of past horrors. It is imperative to "depict black Americans as leaders who triumphed over adversity and made the country a better place, not as victims who led lives of tragic desperation" (73).
These essays demonstrate that "the Founding and everything that came after it were not perfect. There have always been and are still those who have been forgotten, ignored or even gravely harmed in and by our country, while others have enjoyed great success. Yet we are convinced that Americans fitting this description, far from being helpless victims in need of rescue, possess within themselves the very power necessary to renew their own lives and the life of our entire nation" (166). Consider: "Americans are the first individualist and, by design, the first non-tribal people in the world" (11).
The authors oppose Critical Race Theory's focus on victimhood, of "[b]laming today's families for the mistakes of our ancestors is not a prescription for unifying the country or empowering racial and ethnic minorities" (148) and advocate for alliances between blacks, whites, and others to resolve American problems and the teaching of "useful skills, rather than basket-weaving intersectional nonsense" (10).
The authors show us why we must define America more by ideals and moral triumphs and aspirations. "This is what is so disturbing and dangerous about the 1619 Project's aspiration for children: to create in the minds of students and teachers of all races a vision of America that is imbued with a permanent malignancy that is hostile to the dream of students of color" (94). "What good does it do to tell a black child in 2019, based on nothing but thoughtless pessimism, that the only country he'll ever live in will forever reject him?" (117).
Shouldn't our young people be taught to understand the pathways more likely to have them flourish financially, rather than perpetuate the noxious notion that black kids are owed something and that their path to success must be paved by a massive government handout?" (95) We must tell our children "they have power in their individual choices, and that those decisions can shape their destiny despite structural barriers associated with race, class and poverty" (96). Rev. Brooks declares, "We seek to empower, not enable. We seek to equip not excuse. We seek to inform, not ignore" (52).
To focus on the systemic, structural harm perpetuated by Caucasians, "grants to the white race a wicked superiority, treating them as an oppressive people too powerful for black Americans to overcome. It brands blacks as hapless victims devoid of the ability, which every other culture possesses, to assimilate and progress" (94).
The message of the 1619 Project is to "condemn the conventional generative family and traditional Christianity, without which slavery could not have been overcome...You are alone and face a vast systemic threat...Only the agencies of the federal government can help you" (126). Government intervention used to supplement "family, church, and other mediating institutions" but is increasingly substituting for them (123), leading people to rely on it, instead of the traditional institutions. "Is this the world in which we really want to live? An infantilized world, without adult perseverance and responsibility? A world without hope, a world without reverence for those whose achievements belie the suffering they have endured and overcome?" (124).
We learn that present-day problems that plague the Black community are not the vestiges of the past we have been led to believe. For decades, the narrative has been that 72% of all Black births are out-of wedlock births due to slavery, but in 1938, only 11% were, and in approximately 75% of the enslaved families, "all of the children had the same mother and father" (7).
The academic pieces are more informative than inspirational, like Robert Cherry's, with a highlight finding that "states with high employment rates of 20-24 year olds also had higher rates of birth among 15-19 year olds....in 1993, 20.9% of black teen girls became pregnant, 7.8% had abortions, and 10.7% gave birth." This rate decreased by 44% and the share of girls earning at least an associate's degree rose 28% between 2006 and 2014, the Great Recession, proving that the birth rate was an economic decision on the girls' part (59).
The models are striking. Rev. Brooks, who reforms Chicago gang members, and Carol Swain went from high school dropout and teenage mother to tenured professor at Princeton. Their lessons: take responsibility, an echo of the famous statement of Frederick Douglass in 1859:
"The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply this, that the man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. This rule may appear somewhat harsh, but in its general application and operation it is wise, just and beneficent. I know of no other rule which can be substituted for it without bringing social chaos. Personal independence is a virtue and it is the soul out of which comes the sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must be developed from within. . ."
These essayists agree wholeheartedly. They espouse and promote the bourgeois norms Amy Wax and other scholars identified as the practices that "will do far more to move working-poor Americans toward success" than "culturally responsive teaching: "Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime."
(See https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opini... ).
"Indeed, a staggering 97% of millennials who followed the 'success sequence'--getting at least a high school degree, working full-tie, and marrying before having any children, in that order--avoided poverty. And 'Black Men, Making It in America: The Engines of Economic Success for Black Men in America,' reveals that a number of factors--education, work, marriage, church participation, military service, and a sense of personal agency--are all highly correlated to black male success in America." See https://www.aei.org/research-products...
And the false promise of materialism leads to perdition as well. Rev. Soaries freed his congregation from their collective debt burden. He led his people to reject "the false promise that material consumption will lead to fulfillment...retail therapy...fast and loose with credit...compensatory consumption: buying things to compensate for feelings of insignificance. The more we accumulate, the more we want, because our spending never satisfies us the way the master promises it will. Instead it creates overwhelming stress that takes a serious toll on marriages and families. I'd love to say that the American church has stepped up with answers, but unfortunately, one of our fastest-growing segments is full of prosperity preachers who go on television and tell people that God actually wants them to have things they can't afford (80).
It's time to replace resentment with gratitude to the ancestors for their perseverance and strength and take advantages of the opportunities the U.S. offers. Harold Black compares the U.S. Black household income of $59,000 to the that of three nations indicated by his DNA test: Mali $822, Togo $610, and Cameroon, $1451 (66). That provides some essential perspective.
So does Coleman Cruz Hughes' powerful statement: "In the history of multi-ethnic societies, it is difficult to find a single example in which a minority group rose from poverty to affluence by pursuing a strategy that focuses primarily on nursing historical grievance (however valid), seeking atonement for them, and stigmatizing those within its ranks that advocated an inward-looking strategy. By contrast, history is replete with examples of minority groups, even ones who have suffered routine political repression and violence, rising to affluence by pursuing the opposite strategy: avoiding politics entirely and focusing single-mindedly on entrepreneurship and education.
Rarely does history provide a lesson as unambiguous as this one" (p. 119).
Providing supposedly compensatory advantage in various ways to Blacks is likely to have a backlash. It is difficult to justify the conglomeration of the extremely diverse cultures gathered in the group currently labeled "Hispanic," far less providing compensatory advantage. Indigenous people in Guatemala have nothing in common with German-Chilean oligarchs or Afro-Venezuelan revolutionaries or the many alabaster complected extraordinarily successful and entrepreneurial Cubans who trace their ancestry to Spain, as if Spain were on some lower cultural level than the rest of Europe. It's a recipe for disaster and demagoguery. One essayist writes, "Poor white Americans...ineligible for both affirmative action and legacy programs may be the most genuinely neglected population...making up the plurality or majority of those felled annually by suicide, auto wrecks, and opiate and other drug overdoses" (8).
While it's true I hadn't known the stories Stephen Harris shares about the Harlem Hellfighters in WWI or Olympian Alice Coachman, I had certainly learned all about indentured servitude, enslavement, Elijah McCoy, Madame C.J.Walker, Crispus Attucks, Ida B. Wells, et al. in Connecticut public school in the late 1970s through the 1980s. It is shocking to me that people say they were never taught this history. Frankly, I doubt it. Consider that 26% of the U.S. population does not know the earth revolves around the sun, which they most certainly were taught. There is a difference between not being taught and not learning.
There are important reflections here about integration and segregation. John Sibley Butler, whose work on Black entrepreneurship is classic, is a fourth generation college graduate. He states, "As a southern black bourgeoisie, I was shocked to find that most northern blacks grew up with no system of black private colleges or great communities that were built by blacks" (155). "I am happy to be from the segregated South, where private colleges and great communities flourished because the ex-slaves who created them had a vision for black excellence" (159). He laments that it has become more fashionable to say one is from the ghetto than the black bourgeoisie.
Similarly, Harold Black recalls "...my parents simply could not envision the circumstances under which black would want to live with whites and especially worship with them" (64). This is echoed in the article in The New Yorker about Black homeschoolers in June 2021. "In a study conducted in 2010 by professors from Temple University and Montgomery County Community College, homeschooling parents said that they thought Black Americans had been tricked into fighting for integration. 'Somebody put in our heads that being around your own kind was the worst thing in the world. How you need to be in better neighborhoods, in neighborhoods where people don’t want you, in schools where people don’t want to teach you,' a mother in Virginia, who was homeschooling two children, said."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
In well over 100 webinars, Zoom sessions, conferences, etc. on the theme of anti-racist education in the past few years, I have asked this question and no one wants to touch it. I am sincere and earnest in my question, but there are now Questions That Must Not Be Asked, which is truly counter to the spirit of academic inquiry and, frankly, the pursuit of truth and authentic progress.
The evidence supports the statement that alumni of HBCUs and alumnae of women's colleges enjoy disproportionate and extraordinary success. Students and institutions attribute this success precisely to the institutions' focus on a single particular identity of their constituents, which celebrates and affirms that identity in various ways that heterogeneous environments do not, provides critical mass of peers, teachers, and role models that share it, and perhaps responds to particular aspects of that identity. Then there's research from Black academics that has given rise to various universities' building of "living learning communities" (like UCONN's Scholars House) just for Blacks, especially Black males, to help them excel. Many colleges like Harvard have a special graduation ceremony just for Black students.
Should we conclude that the increased support in a homogeneous environment outweighs the benefits of diversity for Blacks and women?
The research seems to indicate that for Blacks and for women, there is much to be gained in separate higher education but what are the implications for society? For K-12?
Do we just insist on integration in every institution because we "feel" it is the best for our society as a whole in spite of the research?
If so, wouldn't this militate against the extraordinary success of HBCUs and women's colleges and call for their dissolution?
Ruminate on the timeliness of this statement:
"There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” -- Booker T. Washington in 1911. Plus ça change, plus c'est le même chose.
These essays and the 1776 Unites initiative are so much more than just correctives to the 1619 Project. "...Shelby Steele has observed that sometimes people who don't know how to handle their freedom will reinvent their oppression. Will that be America's story fifty years from now: a nation gripped by grievance? Or will we be in the midst of a new awakening in which people of all races are learning to embrace the ideals of family, faith, education, entrepreneurship, and hard work, as the pathway to move from persecution to prosperity?
Now is a time for choosing" (176).
What an excellent anthology. We would all do well to demonstrate such love of this country, God and fellow human, to reject victimhood, and to insist on taking responsibility for one's own destiny.
These essays demonstrate that "the Founding and everything that came after it were not perfect. There have always been and are still those who have been forgotten, ignored or even gravely harmed in and by our country, while others have enjoyed great success. Yet we are convinced that Americans fitting this description, far from being helpless victims in need of rescue, possess within themselves the very power necessary to renew their own lives and the life of our entire nation" (166). Consider: "Americans are the first individualist and, by design, the first non-tribal people in the world" (11).
The authors oppose Critical Race Theory's focus on victimhood, of "[b]laming today's families for the mistakes of our ancestors is not a prescription for unifying the country or empowering racial and ethnic minorities" (148) and advocate for alliances between blacks, whites, and others to resolve American problems and the teaching of "useful skills, rather than basket-weaving intersectional nonsense" (10).
The authors show us why we must define America more by ideals and moral triumphs and aspirations. "This is what is so disturbing and dangerous about the 1619 Project's aspiration for children: to create in the minds of students and teachers of all races a vision of America that is imbued with a permanent malignancy that is hostile to the dream of students of color" (94). "What good does it do to tell a black child in 2019, based on nothing but thoughtless pessimism, that the only country he'll ever live in will forever reject him?" (117).
Shouldn't our young people be taught to understand the pathways more likely to have them flourish financially, rather than perpetuate the noxious notion that black kids are owed something and that their path to success must be paved by a massive government handout?" (95) We must tell our children "they have power in their individual choices, and that those decisions can shape their destiny despite structural barriers associated with race, class and poverty" (96). Rev. Brooks declares, "We seek to empower, not enable. We seek to equip not excuse. We seek to inform, not ignore" (52).
To focus on the systemic, structural harm perpetuated by Caucasians, "grants to the white race a wicked superiority, treating them as an oppressive people too powerful for black Americans to overcome. It brands blacks as hapless victims devoid of the ability, which every other culture possesses, to assimilate and progress" (94).
The message of the 1619 Project is to "condemn the conventional generative family and traditional Christianity, without which slavery could not have been overcome...You are alone and face a vast systemic threat...Only the agencies of the federal government can help you" (126). Government intervention used to supplement "family, church, and other mediating institutions" but is increasingly substituting for them (123), leading people to rely on it, instead of the traditional institutions. "Is this the world in which we really want to live? An infantilized world, without adult perseverance and responsibility? A world without hope, a world without reverence for those whose achievements belie the suffering they have endured and overcome?" (124).
We learn that present-day problems that plague the Black community are not the vestiges of the past we have been led to believe. For decades, the narrative has been that 72% of all Black births are out-of wedlock births due to slavery, but in 1938, only 11% were, and in approximately 75% of the enslaved families, "all of the children had the same mother and father" (7).
The academic pieces are more informative than inspirational, like Robert Cherry's, with a highlight finding that "states with high employment rates of 20-24 year olds also had higher rates of birth among 15-19 year olds....in 1993, 20.9% of black teen girls became pregnant, 7.8% had abortions, and 10.7% gave birth." This rate decreased by 44% and the share of girls earning at least an associate's degree rose 28% between 2006 and 2014, the Great Recession, proving that the birth rate was an economic decision on the girls' part (59).
The models are striking. Rev. Brooks, who reforms Chicago gang members, and Carol Swain went from high school dropout and teenage mother to tenured professor at Princeton. Their lessons: take responsibility, an echo of the famous statement of Frederick Douglass in 1859:
"The lesson taught at this point by human experience is simply this, that the man who will get up will be helped up; and the man who will not get up will be allowed to stay down. This rule may appear somewhat harsh, but in its general application and operation it is wise, just and beneficent. I know of no other rule which can be substituted for it without bringing social chaos. Personal independence is a virtue and it is the soul out of which comes the sturdiest manhood. But there can be no independence without a large share of self-dependence, and this virtue cannot be bestowed. It must be developed from within. . ."
These essayists agree wholeheartedly. They espouse and promote the bourgeois norms Amy Wax and other scholars identified as the practices that "will do far more to move working-poor Americans toward success" than "culturally responsive teaching: "Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime."
(See https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opini... ).
"Indeed, a staggering 97% of millennials who followed the 'success sequence'--getting at least a high school degree, working full-tie, and marrying before having any children, in that order--avoided poverty. And 'Black Men, Making It in America: The Engines of Economic Success for Black Men in America,' reveals that a number of factors--education, work, marriage, church participation, military service, and a sense of personal agency--are all highly correlated to black male success in America." See https://www.aei.org/research-products...
And the false promise of materialism leads to perdition as well. Rev. Soaries freed his congregation from their collective debt burden. He led his people to reject "the false promise that material consumption will lead to fulfillment...retail therapy...fast and loose with credit...compensatory consumption: buying things to compensate for feelings of insignificance. The more we accumulate, the more we want, because our spending never satisfies us the way the master promises it will. Instead it creates overwhelming stress that takes a serious toll on marriages and families. I'd love to say that the American church has stepped up with answers, but unfortunately, one of our fastest-growing segments is full of prosperity preachers who go on television and tell people that God actually wants them to have things they can't afford (80).
It's time to replace resentment with gratitude to the ancestors for their perseverance and strength and take advantages of the opportunities the U.S. offers. Harold Black compares the U.S. Black household income of $59,000 to the that of three nations indicated by his DNA test: Mali $822, Togo $610, and Cameroon, $1451 (66). That provides some essential perspective.
So does Coleman Cruz Hughes' powerful statement: "In the history of multi-ethnic societies, it is difficult to find a single example in which a minority group rose from poverty to affluence by pursuing a strategy that focuses primarily on nursing historical grievance (however valid), seeking atonement for them, and stigmatizing those within its ranks that advocated an inward-looking strategy. By contrast, history is replete with examples of minority groups, even ones who have suffered routine political repression and violence, rising to affluence by pursuing the opposite strategy: avoiding politics entirely and focusing single-mindedly on entrepreneurship and education.
Rarely does history provide a lesson as unambiguous as this one" (p. 119).
Providing supposedly compensatory advantage in various ways to Blacks is likely to have a backlash. It is difficult to justify the conglomeration of the extremely diverse cultures gathered in the group currently labeled "Hispanic," far less providing compensatory advantage. Indigenous people in Guatemala have nothing in common with German-Chilean oligarchs or Afro-Venezuelan revolutionaries or the many alabaster complected extraordinarily successful and entrepreneurial Cubans who trace their ancestry to Spain, as if Spain were on some lower cultural level than the rest of Europe. It's a recipe for disaster and demagoguery. One essayist writes, "Poor white Americans...ineligible for both affirmative action and legacy programs may be the most genuinely neglected population...making up the plurality or majority of those felled annually by suicide, auto wrecks, and opiate and other drug overdoses" (8).
While it's true I hadn't known the stories Stephen Harris shares about the Harlem Hellfighters in WWI or Olympian Alice Coachman, I had certainly learned all about indentured servitude, enslavement, Elijah McCoy, Madame C.J.Walker, Crispus Attucks, Ida B. Wells, et al. in Connecticut public school in the late 1970s through the 1980s. It is shocking to me that people say they were never taught this history. Frankly, I doubt it. Consider that 26% of the U.S. population does not know the earth revolves around the sun, which they most certainly were taught. There is a difference between not being taught and not learning.
There are important reflections here about integration and segregation. John Sibley Butler, whose work on Black entrepreneurship is classic, is a fourth generation college graduate. He states, "As a southern black bourgeoisie, I was shocked to find that most northern blacks grew up with no system of black private colleges or great communities that were built by blacks" (155). "I am happy to be from the segregated South, where private colleges and great communities flourished because the ex-slaves who created them had a vision for black excellence" (159). He laments that it has become more fashionable to say one is from the ghetto than the black bourgeoisie.
Similarly, Harold Black recalls "...my parents simply could not envision the circumstances under which black would want to live with whites and especially worship with them" (64). This is echoed in the article in The New Yorker about Black homeschoolers in June 2021. "In a study conducted in 2010 by professors from Temple University and Montgomery County Community College, homeschooling parents said that they thought Black Americans had been tricked into fighting for integration. 'Somebody put in our heads that being around your own kind was the worst thing in the world. How you need to be in better neighborhoods, in neighborhoods where people don’t want you, in schools where people don’t want to teach you,' a mother in Virginia, who was homeschooling two children, said."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
In well over 100 webinars, Zoom sessions, conferences, etc. on the theme of anti-racist education in the past few years, I have asked this question and no one wants to touch it. I am sincere and earnest in my question, but there are now Questions That Must Not Be Asked, which is truly counter to the spirit of academic inquiry and, frankly, the pursuit of truth and authentic progress.
The evidence supports the statement that alumni of HBCUs and alumnae of women's colleges enjoy disproportionate and extraordinary success. Students and institutions attribute this success precisely to the institutions' focus on a single particular identity of their constituents, which celebrates and affirms that identity in various ways that heterogeneous environments do not, provides critical mass of peers, teachers, and role models that share it, and perhaps responds to particular aspects of that identity. Then there's research from Black academics that has given rise to various universities' building of "living learning communities" (like UCONN's Scholars House) just for Blacks, especially Black males, to help them excel. Many colleges like Harvard have a special graduation ceremony just for Black students.
Should we conclude that the increased support in a homogeneous environment outweighs the benefits of diversity for Blacks and women?
The research seems to indicate that for Blacks and for women, there is much to be gained in separate higher education but what are the implications for society? For K-12?
Do we just insist on integration in every institution because we "feel" it is the best for our society as a whole in spite of the research?
If so, wouldn't this militate against the extraordinary success of HBCUs and women's colleges and call for their dissolution?
Ruminate on the timeliness of this statement:
"There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” -- Booker T. Washington in 1911. Plus ça change, plus c'est le même chose.
These essays and the 1776 Unites initiative are so much more than just correctives to the 1619 Project. "...Shelby Steele has observed that sometimes people who don't know how to handle their freedom will reinvent their oppression. Will that be America's story fifty years from now: a nation gripped by grievance? Or will we be in the midst of a new awakening in which people of all races are learning to embrace the ideals of family, faith, education, entrepreneurship, and hard work, as the pathway to move from persecution to prosperity?
Now is a time for choosing" (176).
What an excellent anthology. We would all do well to demonstrate such love of this country, God and fellow human, to reject victimhood, and to insist on taking responsibility for one's own destiny.
April 4, 2023
Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers
did not, it seem, "rescue" me from some revisionist history. This is likely because it offers no point-by-point refutation; it simply a reaction to the New York Times' 1619 Project that was first published in August 2019.
The mission statement reads:
From my perspective, this project, brought on by 1776 Unites, just replaces what they likely allege is "liberal" or "left-wing" groupthink with another contemporary groupthink: right-wing reactionism.
This collection of essays, which Robert Woodson Sr. introduces us to, misses the mark in both rigor and substance. Admittedly, there are valid points to be made about the speed with which schools had adopted any part of it as curriculum. It is worth noting though that the original 1619 Project had expressed that the project was meant to offer more in the way of the untold narratives of slavery in America as evidenced by their comment that "[m]ost American don't know the full story of slavery. This is the history you didn't learn in school."
I suspect that the contributors to this small tome would likely agree that slavery is a subject that is poorly taught in public education. There is ample evidence that this is a problem.
Woodson Sr. views the 1619 project as a grand weapon.
According to Wilfred Reilly, systemic racism doesn't exist in America today, intersectional analysis is tantamount to basket weaving, and more focus should be on teaching skills - like test taking - that would better build up people. (Because learning to take a test is better than learning the material belying the test?)
Jason Hill's entire essay can be summed up to the last sentence: America has never disappointed him. (Congrats, I guess?)
Harold Black would like to inform us all that being hyper-focused on the evils of slavery - which nearly every essay agrees with, slavery was horrible - is really just a perpetuation of victimhood.
McWhorter goes on to acknowledge that disparities between black and white Americans is "not the fault" of Black Americans, and then alleges that the entire 1619 project is really just an attempt to make the case for reparations. But later alleges that the 1619 project "demands that we adjure complexity." ("Abjure" means "solemnly renounce.") But this flies in the face of the very same analytical framework that Carol Swain later alleges is destroying America: critical race theory.
These narratives continue, repeatedly, until the end. Every essay. It's the same 2-5 pages of "victimhood bad, CRT bad, woke bad, 1619 bad, intersectionality bad, America started in 1776, Lincoln good, patriotism good, America good."
The last I checked, having a firm understanding of American history is good. Critical thinking is good. But this book doesn't offer any substantive narrative on how to think critically about the subject, nor any historical rebuttal per se, but rather a suggestion on what to think about a project they think is going to lead to the destruction of America.
Philip Wagness at the American Institute for Economic Research fact checked a letter written by five historians criticizing the 1619 Project on historical inaccuracies, namely on whether slavery was a motivating factor in the War of Independence, a claim made by Nikole Hannah-Jones in the original edition that was later updated to say "not the sole reason, but part of the reason," and was more balanced and fair than the 25 essays in this collection.
That said, there is value in the narratives of these scholars and thinkers, and they offer, I think, an ideological balance to left-leaning narratives. Their voices and ideas should not be discounted as it relates to black lives, experiences, and thought. But in terms of the books intended purpose - to offer a counter weapon against the dangers of the 1619 Project - it woefully falls flat in this endeavor, and in some ways, appears entirely to offer a counterproductive rebuttal to ideas that simply are not true in their framing.
On page 452 of the 2021 hardcover edition of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, Nikole Hannah-Jones writes:
This quote does not speak, to me at least, of a mentality of victimhood, but of a pure embrace of resilience and full strength of will. Critically assessing the finer points of slavery, long held narratives, and seeking to, perhaps finally, teach a complete and worthwhile history on an issue that defined this country seems to me a worthwhile endeavor. Yelling "patriotism" as a rebuttal does not.
The mission statement reads:
We acknowledge that racial discrimination exists-and work towards diminishing it. But we dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class, and American history that defames our national heritage, divides our people, and instills helplessness among those who already hold within themselves the grid and resilience to better their lot in life.
From my perspective, this project, brought on by 1776 Unites, just replaces what they likely allege is "liberal" or "left-wing" groupthink with another contemporary groupthink: right-wing reactionism.
This collection of essays, which Robert Woodson Sr. introduces us to, misses the mark in both rigor and substance. Admittedly, there are valid points to be made about the speed with which schools had adopted any part of it as curriculum. It is worth noting though that the original 1619 Project had expressed that the project was meant to offer more in the way of the untold narratives of slavery in America as evidenced by their comment that "[m]ost American don't know the full story of slavery. This is the history you didn't learn in school."
I suspect that the contributors to this small tome would likely agree that slavery is a subject that is poorly taught in public education. There is ample evidence that this is a problem.
Woodson Sr. views the 1619 project as a grand weapon.
According to Wilfred Reilly, systemic racism doesn't exist in America today, intersectional analysis is tantamount to basket weaving, and more focus should be on teaching skills - like test taking - that would better build up people. (Because learning to take a test is better than learning the material belying the test?)
Jason Hill's entire essay can be summed up to the last sentence: America has never disappointed him. (Congrats, I guess?)
Harold Black would like to inform us all that being hyper-focused on the evils of slavery - which nearly every essay agrees with, slavery was horrible - is really just a perpetuation of victimhood.
McWhorter goes on to acknowledge that disparities between black and white Americans is "not the fault" of Black Americans, and then alleges that the entire 1619 project is really just an attempt to make the case for reparations. But later alleges that the 1619 project "demands that we adjure complexity." ("Abjure" means "solemnly renounce.") But this flies in the face of the very same analytical framework that Carol Swain later alleges is destroying America: critical race theory.
These narratives continue, repeatedly, until the end. Every essay. It's the same 2-5 pages of "victimhood bad, CRT bad, woke bad, 1619 bad, intersectionality bad, America started in 1776, Lincoln good, patriotism good, America good."
The last I checked, having a firm understanding of American history is good. Critical thinking is good. But this book doesn't offer any substantive narrative on how to think critically about the subject, nor any historical rebuttal per se, but rather a suggestion on what to think about a project they think is going to lead to the destruction of America.
Philip Wagness at the American Institute for Economic Research fact checked a letter written by five historians criticizing the 1619 Project on historical inaccuracies, namely on whether slavery was a motivating factor in the War of Independence, a claim made by Nikole Hannah-Jones in the original edition that was later updated to say "not the sole reason, but part of the reason," and was more balanced and fair than the 25 essays in this collection.
That said, there is value in the narratives of these scholars and thinkers, and they offer, I think, an ideological balance to left-leaning narratives. Their voices and ideas should not be discounted as it relates to black lives, experiences, and thought. But in terms of the books intended purpose - to offer a counter weapon against the dangers of the 1619 Project - it woefully falls flat in this endeavor, and in some ways, appears entirely to offer a counterproductive rebuttal to ideas that simply are not true in their framing.
On page 452 of the 2021 hardcover edition of The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, Nikole Hannah-Jones writes:
But as this book has shown, a truer origin story requires us to place Black Americans prominently in the role of democracy's defenders and perfecters. It is Black Americans who have struggled and fought, when any white Americans were willing to abandon the charge that "all men are created equal," to make those words real. It is Black Americans who have consistently made the case, even when they were utterly disenfranchised and forced out of the political process, that all citizens deserve equal access to the benefits of a country founded on a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."
This quote does not speak, to me at least, of a mentality of victimhood, but of a pure embrace of resilience and full strength of will. Critically assessing the finer points of slavery, long held narratives, and seeking to, perhaps finally, teach a complete and worthwhile history on an issue that defined this country seems to me a worthwhile endeavor. Yelling "patriotism" as a rebuttal does not.
October 7, 2021
This was an excellent book, which provided many short essays about the current cultural phenomenon that is The 1619 Project and its progeny.
I’ve read a few similar books, but this was the best because it provided many prominent and very well respected and educated Black American perspectives on this subject. I come away feeling good about the prospects of our country being able to properly and convincingly countering the narrative that has taken over pop culture. It will be difficult and will take time, but the voices of those who wrote these essays will prevail.
The NYT lost any and all credibility as The Paper of Record with me long ago, particularly in how the NYT covers issues relating to Israel. I can just imagine how the many authors of these essays must feel about being betrayed with The 1619 Project.
I’ve signed up for the mailing lists of 1776 Unites as well as the Woodson Center. Both of which are fine organizations with concrete plans on how to help their fellow Americans.
I’ve read a few similar books, but this was the best because it provided many prominent and very well respected and educated Black American perspectives on this subject. I come away feeling good about the prospects of our country being able to properly and convincingly countering the narrative that has taken over pop culture. It will be difficult and will take time, but the voices of those who wrote these essays will prevail.
The NYT lost any and all credibility as The Paper of Record with me long ago, particularly in how the NYT covers issues relating to Israel. I can just imagine how the many authors of these essays must feel about being betrayed with The 1619 Project.
I’ve signed up for the mailing lists of 1776 Unites as well as the Woodson Center. Both of which are fine organizations with concrete plans on how to help their fellow Americans.
July 8, 2024
My problem with this book is that it does exactly what it speaks out against… creates a superior narrative that all Black folks are expected to fall in line with. While there were many ideas that held validity, the gross misstep of expectations makes it an unreliable read for me. To assume that all Black Americans who pattern their lives after the bourgeoisie model will achieve financial success and be respected is as farcical as assuming a positive attitude will overcome racism. The book is a series of essays by Black folks associated with the 1776 Unites movement… which was established as a counter narrative to the 1619 Project. It holds that strong entrepreneurism coupled with a stalwart adherence to the principles of the founding fathers will somehow fix all issues of race. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to social justice issues, and again while this book has some legitimate ideas, their arrogance and extremism negates their value.
October 31, 2021
Thought provoking! Educational and enlightening!!
March 28, 2022
Essays from black authors rebutting the 1619 pseudo-curriculum. Powerful read.
March 29, 2022
This is such an important perspective. I look forward to reading more by those collaborators that I wasn’t already familiar with.
November 14, 2022
Actually I was not able to finish this book. It is due back at the library with no renewals, and I've not been able to do much more than read the introduction and foreword and skim through the chapters. But I was able to get a good sense of what the book is about and what it is trying to accomplish.
This is a book by black authors who have created a movement called "1776 Unites" to debunk the myths of the 1619 Project. They "dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class, and American history that defames our national heritage, divides our people, and instills helplessness among those who already hold within themselves the grit and resilience to better their lot in life...and maintains a special focus on voices in the black community who celebrate black excellence and reject victimhood culture and showcases the millions of black Americans who have prospered by embracing the founding ideals of America."
Here are just a few of the essay titles:
*We Cannot Allow '1619' to Dumb Down America in the Name of a Crusade
*Slavery Does Not Define the Black American Experience
*The Cult of Victimhood
*A Dream as Old as The American Dream: Why Black Patriotism is More Important Than Victimization
*Children Achieve the Expectations We Teach
*We Must Scrap the '1619 Project' for an Accurate Account of American History
*Critical Race Theory's Destructive Impact on America
I look forward to checking this book out again in the future and getting a better look at it. I think it would be especially useful to educators, definitely those in higher education, who see the fallacies of the 1619 Project and want the point of view of successful black educators, journalists, and political leaders to help them understand and debunk the myths of CRT.
This is a book by black authors who have created a movement called "1776 Unites" to debunk the myths of the 1619 Project. They "dissent from contemporary groupthink and rhetoric about race, class, and American history that defames our national heritage, divides our people, and instills helplessness among those who already hold within themselves the grit and resilience to better their lot in life...and maintains a special focus on voices in the black community who celebrate black excellence and reject victimhood culture and showcases the millions of black Americans who have prospered by embracing the founding ideals of America."
Here are just a few of the essay titles:
*We Cannot Allow '1619' to Dumb Down America in the Name of a Crusade
*Slavery Does Not Define the Black American Experience
*The Cult of Victimhood
*A Dream as Old as The American Dream: Why Black Patriotism is More Important Than Victimization
*Children Achieve the Expectations We Teach
*We Must Scrap the '1619 Project' for an Accurate Account of American History
*Critical Race Theory's Destructive Impact on America
I look forward to checking this book out again in the future and getting a better look at it. I think it would be especially useful to educators, definitely those in higher education, who see the fallacies of the 1619 Project and want the point of view of successful black educators, journalists, and political leaders to help them understand and debunk the myths of CRT.
March 1, 2025
Mostly about Black conservatives that ignore or downplay racism and bigotry.
April 13, 2022
This book of essays is not one to read in one sitting. They were written in reaction to the 1619 Project of the N.Y. Times. The introduction and early essays are too full of statistics and contain a few obvious errors. Some of the essays in the middle of the book are good and inspiring.
April 23, 2022
A Refreshing Read
This series of short essays brings hope that we as a nation can overcome our collective sins and build a stronger future.
This series of short essays brings hope that we as a nation can overcome our collective sins and build a stronger future.
May 9, 2022
Essays by prominent Black commentators aimed to denouncing the 1619 Project and suggesting positive ideas to help heal Black neighborhoods and advance Black lives. An important book.
September 22, 2022
A Needed and Unique Criticism of Critical Theory
America has been shaken in very recent years by the rapid and alarming emergence of something called Critical Race Theory (CRT), a basically Marxist ideology (dialectical and historical materialism and class struggle) that asserts that all history and social structure can be explained by the conflict between oppressor classes (whites) and the oppressed (blacks principally, but the underlying ideology has rapidly expanded into other groups, notably based on gender and sexual expression). Under critical theory everyone seeks to explain their own situation and that of our society and culture in terms of victimhood.
An influential product of the ideology is the New York Times “1619 Project”, which claims the foundational date of American History is not 1776, the year of The Declaration of Independence, but rather 1619, the year in which the first African slaves arrived in the colonies. The 1619 Project and CRT have made great inroads and acceptance into American public education, media, culture, politics, and even commerce and religion.
“Red, White, and Black” is a collection of 28 short essays taking strong exception to the conclusions and precepts of these emerging influences. The unique and powerful perspective, and one that is much needed, of the book is that the authors of the essays are black Americans and part of the 1776 Unites movement. They have a credibility because of their backgrounds that cannot be easily dismissed on the basis of non-identification. Together they present a hopeful picture of race in America if we are led by true American principles and not the recent revisionism. Anyone, regardless of race, who can relate honestly to the changes in American race relations from fifty or sixty years ago would be hard pressed to disagree significantly.
I personally found certain essays by Joshua Mitchell, Shelby Steele and Carol Swain to be among the most convincing as they dealt with overcoming racism of prior decades, but most of the essays are valuable and compelling. The book is filled with perspectives that were new to me. For example, Swain reveals that the Africans who arrived in 1619 actually had indentured servant status, in many cases are known to have worked off their servitude, and in some cases even were awarded land grants and later held indentured or enslaved Africans themselves. That in no way is an apology for the horrors of what emerged in the trans-Atlantic slave trade or inhuman conditions of American slavery, but it is strikingly missing from the 1619 ideology.
I highly recommend this very interesting and unique book.
America has been shaken in very recent years by the rapid and alarming emergence of something called Critical Race Theory (CRT), a basically Marxist ideology (dialectical and historical materialism and class struggle) that asserts that all history and social structure can be explained by the conflict between oppressor classes (whites) and the oppressed (blacks principally, but the underlying ideology has rapidly expanded into other groups, notably based on gender and sexual expression). Under critical theory everyone seeks to explain their own situation and that of our society and culture in terms of victimhood.
An influential product of the ideology is the New York Times “1619 Project”, which claims the foundational date of American History is not 1776, the year of The Declaration of Independence, but rather 1619, the year in which the first African slaves arrived in the colonies. The 1619 Project and CRT have made great inroads and acceptance into American public education, media, culture, politics, and even commerce and religion.
“Red, White, and Black” is a collection of 28 short essays taking strong exception to the conclusions and precepts of these emerging influences. The unique and powerful perspective, and one that is much needed, of the book is that the authors of the essays are black Americans and part of the 1776 Unites movement. They have a credibility because of their backgrounds that cannot be easily dismissed on the basis of non-identification. Together they present a hopeful picture of race in America if we are led by true American principles and not the recent revisionism. Anyone, regardless of race, who can relate honestly to the changes in American race relations from fifty or sixty years ago would be hard pressed to disagree significantly.
I personally found certain essays by Joshua Mitchell, Shelby Steele and Carol Swain to be among the most convincing as they dealt with overcoming racism of prior decades, but most of the essays are valuable and compelling. The book is filled with perspectives that were new to me. For example, Swain reveals that the Africans who arrived in 1619 actually had indentured servant status, in many cases are known to have worked off their servitude, and in some cases even were awarded land grants and later held indentured or enslaved Africans themselves. That in no way is an apology for the horrors of what emerged in the trans-Atlantic slave trade or inhuman conditions of American slavery, but it is strikingly missing from the 1619 ideology.
I highly recommend this very interesting and unique book.
December 7, 2021
This collection of essays, a response to the 1619 Project, offers a much more constructive and hopeful path toward racial reconciliation in the USA. It doesn't minimize the impact of slavery and the problems of the past and present but also focuses on the great progress made in our history and the promise of the future. As those who've joined Robert Woodson's effort in 1776 Unites, these black Americans want the whole story to be told and warn against the destructive emphasis on the past that frames African Americans and their descendants as perpetual victims. The well meaning focus on past atrocities threatens to derail the progress made during the past 150 years and those of the civil rights movement in the 1950's and early 60's. Woodson and others have been hard at work doing things that really make a difference while efforts like the 1619 Project and Black Lives Matter only perpetuate the problems as they benefit too much from the status quo. Those who have bought in to the dominant narrative promoted by these efforts in the media would likely dismiss 1776 Unites out of hand as an apologia for white racism. Those with a more open mind who want to see progress, not just problems, will find encouragement from the voices in this book. Most importantly the stress on doing what makes a difference invites us all to support their efforts in practical ways. This, by no means, justifies the injustices experienced by black Americans either in the past or present. Instead it offers us a practical and hope filled path to continue the effort to right those wrongs. Robert Woodson and company deserve our ongoing support.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...
August 12, 2021
"Red, White, and Black" is a collection of essays by "a black-led movement of scholars, grassroots activists, and other concerned Americans who believe America's best days lie ahead of us." Spoiler alert - if you believe the 1619 project is the true history of America, "Red, White, and Black" is not for you. The writers, all successful black Americans, relate their own stories, as well as the stories of those who preceded them - Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, Dr. King, and lesser known Americans like Alice Coachman, the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. These are inspiring and uplifting stories of individual success. "Rather than reinforce this falsehood idea of powerlessness in the face of a system rigged against them, why not educate young people of color about the forces within their control that are most likely to put them on a pathway to power and economic success?" The "success sequence" - a high school degree, job, marriage, and then children - helped a staggering 97% of millennials avoid poverty. The charge of evil in the white west is a pervasive accusation that supports victimization of not only blacks, but many other oppressed groups as well. When one of the contributors visited Africa in the 70s he returned with the realization "that America for all its faults and failings, was not intractable evil." The various authors are members of 1776 Unites, a nonpartisan and culturally diverse coalition of 'writers thinkers and activists focused on solutions to our country's greatest challenges in education, culture, and UPWARD MOBILITY [caps mine]."
September 10, 2021
Series of essays written by Blacks who reflect a rarely heard perspective. They “are launching 1776 unites to counter the false history that the 1619 project espouses and has disseminated as a school curriculum. We aim to highlight the victories that are possible in spite of oppression and to open the door to discussion of solutions to the moral disarray that afflicts not only minority low income neighborhoods but also takes its toll among the affluent. We acknowledge that slavery and discrimination are part of our nations history, but we believe that America should not be defined solely by this “birth defect “and that black Americans should not be portrayed as perpetual helpless victims. The US is a flawed but very good country, where it is simply not terribly hard to succeed, given hard work and personal responsibility.
Each essayist makes points that made me think, and I easily could have written a review almost as long as the book. Many interesting takes.
Dean Nelson: never before had it occurred to me to process the racial slights I experienced as personal affronts. I knew they were wrong of course, but I never thought of “people being ignorant“ as a serious injustice in need of correction. Powerful oppressors versus harmless buffoons. We must avoid rearing kids who see every setback they face through the lens of race and look for opportunities to be offended or outraged.
Clarence Page: we must disrupt the long-held stereotypes of black people as helpless bystanders in their own history.
Each essayist makes points that made me think, and I easily could have written a review almost as long as the book. Many interesting takes.
Dean Nelson: never before had it occurred to me to process the racial slights I experienced as personal affronts. I knew they were wrong of course, but I never thought of “people being ignorant“ as a serious injustice in need of correction. Powerful oppressors versus harmless buffoons. We must avoid rearing kids who see every setback they face through the lens of race and look for opportunities to be offended or outraged.
Clarence Page: we must disrupt the long-held stereotypes of black people as helpless bystanders in their own history.
June 26, 2022
Listening to the news these days seems terribly one-sided, which makes me think that everyone, except a lonely few, thinks the same. Few people think like me. I loved reading this book, hearing from the people who are impacted most by what is happening in our world today and realizing that I think like them!
The writers are far more intelligent than I am and challenged by thinking and my dictionary skills. I loved reading their stories and how they came to believe what they believe.
They encouraged me in my understanding of true history and offered evidence that what many are saying these days are lies. Lies with a purpose. Lies that we must fight against.
I would love to meet and talk with each of these men and women. A very worthwhile book to read - unless you are entrenched in your own opinions.
A favorite quote: "The constellation of taboos around race and other questions of identity that America began to call 'political correctness' in the 1990s and has evolved into 'wokeness' since 2012 is now, in many elite circles, a kind of substitute morality. It's no wonder then that serious conversation about virtues, moral character, and civic responsibility have all but evaporated, leaving superficial adherence to the approved platitudes about identity as the true measure of decency."
The writers are far more intelligent than I am and challenged by thinking and my dictionary skills. I loved reading their stories and how they came to believe what they believe.
They encouraged me in my understanding of true history and offered evidence that what many are saying these days are lies. Lies with a purpose. Lies that we must fight against.
I would love to meet and talk with each of these men and women. A very worthwhile book to read - unless you are entrenched in your own opinions.
A favorite quote: "The constellation of taboos around race and other questions of identity that America began to call 'political correctness' in the 1990s and has evolved into 'wokeness' since 2012 is now, in many elite circles, a kind of substitute morality. It's no wonder then that serious conversation about virtues, moral character, and civic responsibility have all but evaporated, leaving superficial adherence to the approved platitudes about identity as the true measure of decency."
May 5, 2022
Instead of the "1619 Project", every school in America needs to make this book required reading. It is truly for all people, no matter race, religion, country of origin, etc. It is for everyone who ever had a dream of succeeding. It is for anyone who thinks "I can't do this." America is unique in that anyone can be successful with the right mindset and ambition. Yes, it will be difficult, but it is worthwhile. We must not tell our vulnerable children they cannot succeed because of their color. We should not tell our children they are responsible for the lack of success of others because they were born white. We must remind everyone of the ability of America to realize her mistakes and fix the problems so we are once again the "city on a hill" that Reagan talked about. Reparations were paid in blood by the Union soldiers on the battlefields of the Civil War. No one wants to be remembered for the worst thing done in our lives. We should remember why America is the greatest country in the world and work to return her to that greatness.
June 22, 2021
Not a "great book", but a very good and important book.
This collection of essays seeks to shift the public debate about race to an optimistic view. The essays focus, mostly, on celebrating African-American entrepreneurs, scholars, and leaders throughout our Nation's history. Their successes were earned through grit but more importantly, on the shoulders of those who came before them and established the under celebrated black community institutions of churches, schools, banks and businesses. Interesting stuff. Sadly showing how pathetically omnipresent it has become, the spectre of the 1619 "Project" is ever present in the book. Rather than attacking it head on, though, the book largely tries to out flank the 1619 Project. It offers a hopeful view of a pluralistic America in which black and white Americans all have agency, opportunities, and hope. Good stuff, and well worth the read. And money.
This collection of essays seeks to shift the public debate about race to an optimistic view. The essays focus, mostly, on celebrating African-American entrepreneurs, scholars, and leaders throughout our Nation's history. Their successes were earned through grit but more importantly, on the shoulders of those who came before them and established the under celebrated black community institutions of churches, schools, banks and businesses. Interesting stuff. Sadly showing how pathetically omnipresent it has become, the spectre of the 1619 "Project" is ever present in the book. Rather than attacking it head on, though, the book largely tries to out flank the 1619 Project. It offers a hopeful view of a pluralistic America in which black and white Americans all have agency, opportunities, and hope. Good stuff, and well worth the read. And money.
July 27, 2021
This is a series of essays written by Black authors who are part of 1776Unites. It is a very important body of work as a counterpoint to CRT and The 1619 Project. It is important to remember that the T in CRT stands for Theory, and it is just that - a theory with significant flaws, one of which is that it entirely overlooks any progress the nation has made. Similarly, the 1619 Project has been shown to lack historical accuracy. I don't have a problem with either of those being taught in our schools, as long as they are taught alongside the information and viewpoints presented in this book. What is missing from education at the moment is critical thinking. One needs to be presented with both sides of an issue, and be given the ability to debate either side with all its merits or flaws.
September 15, 2021
Excellent read...everyone should read this book to help understand the history of black Americans and slavery. This book is a series of essays presenting various individuals personal experiences. Learned a great deal about various historical black American leaders.
Discusses the position of "oppressor" vs "oppressed" and the impact on the various growing groups of groups that feel they are being "oppressed". Impact of growing/developing as an oppressed group and the options available to individuals to mold their future.
I can not say enough about this book...I learned a great deal. Many authors of the essays...no one diminished the impact of slavery but all discuss the options available to everyone to mold their own future.
A must read for anyone interested in the history of our country.
Discusses the position of "oppressor" vs "oppressed" and the impact on the various growing groups of groups that feel they are being "oppressed". Impact of growing/developing as an oppressed group and the options available to individuals to mold their future.
I can not say enough about this book...I learned a great deal. Many authors of the essays...no one diminished the impact of slavery but all discuss the options available to everyone to mold their own future.
A must read for anyone interested in the history of our country.
July 21, 2021
The Past Is Just That, The Future Holds More Promise
As a member of the generation that lived under de facto racial injustice, segregation and Jim Crow laws. I can wonder where does this nonsense like BLM, the 1619 Project and liberal leftists, who actually cheer the ignorance of uneducated Americans of African ancestry. Every wrongheaded notion and social pathology that can be inflicted on the American experience is being done. We black “Baby Boomers” have failed miserably to teach both sides of the coin of the American Experience. What now? My Mom used to tell me that was “that a hard head will make for a soft arse”. Sometimes just saying, don’t touch that fire, will not measure up to actual experience being burnt.
As a member of the generation that lived under de facto racial injustice, segregation and Jim Crow laws. I can wonder where does this nonsense like BLM, the 1619 Project and liberal leftists, who actually cheer the ignorance of uneducated Americans of African ancestry. Every wrongheaded notion and social pathology that can be inflicted on the American experience is being done. We black “Baby Boomers” have failed miserably to teach both sides of the coin of the American Experience. What now? My Mom used to tell me that was “that a hard head will make for a soft arse”. Sometimes just saying, don’t touch that fire, will not measure up to actual experience being burnt.
March 1, 2022
Red, White and Black, a collection of essays written by Black American thinkers, writers, educators and business people, strongly refutes the 1619 Project. These thought provoking articles are very well written and are quite persuasive. The recurring theme recognizes the stain of slavery on United States history; yet, rejects the notion that slavery is the root of all that ails the Black community. Indeed, many of essays argue that 1619 is counterproductive in that it reinforces a victim mentality and actually impedes progress toward a colorblind society.
I would recommend that any school teaching the 1619 Project also present the alternative views held here.
I would recommend that any school teaching the 1619 Project also present the alternative views held here.
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