Comcast corporation (NBC), the Pultizer center, Shell Oil, the New York Times, the leading newspaper in the country -- at some point you have to recognize that you are telling the narrative the powerful people in America want to hear.
It could be that you aren't the only power center, you don't have complete control of everything, but you're not an upstart rebel if the most prominent newspaper in the country has you on payroll and is afraid to fact check you, and corporations are lining up to sponsor you.
It also doesn't mean you're wrong. You can be powerful but correct. The anti-vaxx movement is relatively rebellious and anti-establishment but pretty much entirely wrong. But the claim being made isn't that she is an elite and correct but that she's a rebel and correct.
I do think many of the 1619 project's narratives are wrong, but they are promoting these narratives in the most elite spaces in America. They aren't exactly Counterpunch, Black Agenda Report, Z Magazine, giving talks in a library basement in Oakland.
Some of these narratives are very finely crafted. For instance the article about black wealth (if you are going to insist on drawing that as a social category) excludes basically everything the Obama administration did that allowed homeowners livelihoods to be destroyed.
Instead, it talks about redlining and historic segregation which -- yes those are real things that happened. The people who did them also came and went long ago (and there was a federal policy response for them too) they aren't the elites today who are happy to promote 1619ism.
You can follow @ZaidJilani.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: