Having failed to take down Donald Trump with the Mueller investigation, the American media have turned to race as a way to discredit the president.
DaTimes launched the first assault with its project about slavery and race.
In case you missed it, DaTimes has determined that the nation started in 1619, the title of its nearly 100-page missive on race in DaMagazine, when slaves were shipped to Virginia.
It’s worth noting one significant error with this revisionist history: Slaves actually arrived on the continent 100 years earlier in Florida, which was controlled by Spain. But that fact undermines the narrative that DaTimes and others are pushing.
But I digress. DaTimes links slavery to rush hour traffic, mass incarceration, an “inequitable” healthcare system, and American overconsumption of sugar. “[N]early everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery,” DaTimes argues.
But there’s more. The Smithsonian will examine the slave trade, beginning in the 15th century. In partnership with the Pulitzer Center, DaTimes has offered lesson plans, guides, and activities to help teachers bring this material into their classrooms.
Others have decided to toe the line. DaPost offers an advice column from a college professor: “Dear fellow white people here’s what to do when you’re called racist,” on how to cope with such attacks.
USA Today chimed in about “America’s original sin.” AOC called the electoral college a “scam” because it gives too much power to white people in flyover country.
The creators of the 1619 project and its followers argued that they are interested in a dialogue about race, but it’s a diatribe. At a meeting with reporters and editors at DaTimes, executive editor Dean Baquet faced outrage from the staffers who wanted the organization to call Trump a racist.
According to a recording of the meeting obtained by Slate, the question of how to address presidential “racism” was something the paper would need to do. “How do we cover America, that’s become so divided by Donald Trump?” asked Baquet, who is black. “How do we grapple with all the stuff you all are talking about? How do we write about race in a thoughtful way, something we haven’t done in a large way in a long time?”
The emphasis on race comes at a time when Trump’s support from minority voters has never been better. A recent Zogby poll found that a quarter of blacks and half of all Latinos support the president.
Had DaTimes and others been serious about a dialogue about race, there have been many opportunities, particularly during the Obama years. Hanging such a discussion on events from 400 years ago seems rather dubious.
Why not just admit that race is the media’s current argument against Trump for the 2020 election? That would at least be honest.
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