New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones says Martin Luther King Jr. 'never called for a colorblind society'
Hannah-Jones penned the controversial 1619 project.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones asserted on Thursday that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never called for a color-blind society.
Hannah-Jones posted a series of tweets on the growing opposition against critical race theory in education.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones was called out Thursday for claiming there is no need to "leave out context and inconvenient facts" from a strong argument when critics pointed out she did exactly that with her controversial "1619 Project." (Getty Images for Tribeca Festival) (Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival)
"There’s a wink-and-nod game being played right now tht [sic] those who acknowledge the construct of race are being racist/race obsessed, that CRT is bad because it ‘forces’ people to acknowledge the role of race in a society built on it. This 700 pp book is a *survey* of US race laws," Hannah-Jones tweeted.
In her tweet, she included an image of a book titled "States’ Laws on Race and Color."
After spending several tweets criticizing opposition to racial studies, Hannah-Jones concluded by claiming that Dr. King "never called for a colorblind society."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Dr. King never called for a colorblind society. He called for a society that stopped treating Black people as second-class citizens and for specific race-based policies to address the 350 years of race-based discrimination. Dr. King talked about race, Black & white, ALL THE TIME," Hannah-Jones said.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is seen during an event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the memorial in Washington, U.S., October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis (Reuters)
King gave his iconic 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech where he called for people not to be judge one another by the color of their skin.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character," King said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Hannah-Jones is famous for creating the 1619 project which aimed to "reframe the country's history" and suggest slavery is ingratiated into every facet of American life. Although the New York Times journalist received a Pulitzer Prize for her project, five historians criticized the work noting several wrong elements including the claim that the Revolutionary War was fought to preserve slavery.
The New York Times journalist claimed opposition to her project was not about "an accurate rendering of history."
AP Photo/John Minchillo, File 1619 Book cover: Amazon (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Hannah-Jones’ tweet followed the recent Virginia gubernatorial election on Tuesday where Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe notably caused controversy by stating that he didn’t believe that parents should tell schools how to teach their kids and that critical race theory wasn’t being taught in Virginia schools. However, his later claim was contradicted by examples from the Virginia Department of Education website.
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