The main theme of the New York Times 1619 Project (as sociologist Alexander Riley aptly sums it up) is: “It is not just the American Founding that is racist to its core; every facet of white identity, from the beginning to the present moment, is directed in a laser focus toward the oppression of blacks. … Indeed, it is blacks who made everything valuable and worthwhile in this country.” But the Project’s anti-white screed, as I explain below, badly distorts history on four key points: 1. The Times paints U.S. slavery as a unique evil; and by current standards, it was brutal; yet, at the time, slavery prevailed nearly worldwide; and the U.S. system was not as harsh as many others. 2. In any case, the South had no clear path by which it might have divested itself of slavery’s baneful legacy. 3. The Project asserts that slavery and racism have enriched current U.S. whites; they have not, and the Times case relies on studies that other scholars have largely rebutted. 4. The Times also ascribes U.S. blacks’ problems solely to white malice; such a claim is, at best, simplistic. The 1619 Project seeks to justify punishing U.S. whites for what it regards as their sins against blacks. But the social model that the Times promotes can only lead to endless, bitter strife. ... Read More