Re:New York Times retracts core of podcast series ‘Caliphate’
by stjohnswarts on Saturday December 19, 2020 @02:34PM
(#25480409)
Yep I think the project suffers from their own focus on racism has made them as biased as their competition. It's one thing to point out the influence and connections to racism/slavery/people of color on American history and society but it's incorrect to include it at the top of the food chain as the primary motivator of everything down through American history. That's just a naive and lazy argument. I love when people point out the hypocrisy of those who want to sweep such topics under the rug, but to consider them as the primary reason this country exists and why we are the way we are is ludicrous.
I'm not the OP and just starting to dig into the 1619 project so take this with a grain of salt. There's a few parts that seem to extrapolate too far, or view everything from a pre-determined lens of race to chose their narrative.
One example is the claim that the U.S.'s lack of universal healthcare is the result of racism. The project goes on to detail how the Freedman's Bureau (which provided healthcare to former slaves) was prematurely closed, making the case it was because "legislators argued that free assistance of any kind would breed dependence and that when it came to black infirmity, hard labor was a better salve than white medicine."
I'm sure there were legislators that took that view, but other sources point out the organization was only intended to last for one year after the Civil War. When an extension was proposed, the main objections were that it was too expensive and would infringe on States rights. (Unironically, some of the same arguments used today).
Race is certainly part of the fabric of the nation's history and colors many of the problems faced, but I'm not sure race can be used as the root cause of every malaise as the project seems to allude.