ONE SMALL STEP FOR A SCHOOL, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR EDUCATION – OVERNIGHT:  The founder of the 1619 project, which is lowering the level of American schools, is being found out.  Maybe this is a sign that wokeness is brokeness.  From the New York Post: 

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the controversial founder of the 1619 Project, has lost her alma mater’s offer for tenure and is instead under consideration for a fixed five-year contract as a professor of practice.
NC Policy Watch reported on the change Wednesday amid a wave of criticism of her work.

According to the outlet, the University of North Carolina’s board of trustees decided not to approve Hannah-Jones’ tenure – which effectively translates into a career-long appointment – despite support from faculty.

Susan King, dean of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, reportedly called the decision “disappointing” and said she was afraid it would create a “chilling effect.”

King said Hannah-Jones “represents the best of our alumni and the best of the business.”

If she's the best, I wonder what the worst looks like.

She added: “I don’t want to get into a food fight. I want to make sure that our students have the opportunity to have someone of her caliber here and to learn from her. I think our faculty do as well. I realize this is a fraught era in the state. When I heard that the chancellor and the provost wanted to move to this, it was better than having a battle royale about the theory of academic freedom.”

One of the board members told the outlet that “politics” motivated its decision, although others have alleged that political considerations have helped elevate Hannah-Jones despite purported issues with her scholarship.

Jay Schalin of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal penned an op-ed earlier this month in which he suggested Hannah-Jones’s appointment represented a shift toward “propaganda” at Hussman.

“UNC’s hiring Hannah-Jones signals a degradation of journalistic standards, from one in which ethics and truth are prized to one in which a writer’s work is judged according to whether it serves a preferred political agenda,” he said.

He added that Hannah-Jones’s work was “less journalism than an outpouring of emotions. The crown jewel of her career – leading a rewriting of the nation’s history called ‘The 1619 Project’ – has been attacked and ridiculed by historians of all stripes and persuasions as unfactual and biased.”

He quoted historian Sean Wilentz in arguing: “To teach children that the American Revolution was fought in part to secure slavery would be giving a fundamental misunderstanding not only of what the American Revolution was all about but what America stood for and has stood for since the Founding.”

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  The 1619 Project represents the dry rot of American journalism and the American university.  We can only shudder to think what it can do to American students, especially black students.

I hope this setback for wokeness marks the start of a much-needed correction in American public life.  This day can be historic, for the 1619 Project is one of the best-known obscenities of the modern era.

May 19,  2021