What Libertarian Overreactions to the 1619 Project Say About America - FREOPP (2024)

TheNew York Times Magazine’sThe 1619 Projecthas earned a large amount of praise for its ambition to explore the breadth of the legacies of slavery in what was to become the United States. There was also a furious backlash, most notably from conservative and libertarian pundits about the impugning the ideals of the nation and misrepresenting the role of capitalism in American history. As a descendant of enslaved people who works at a free-market think tank and writes about race, particularly as itremains so relevant in the criminal justice system, I found myself in an awkward position. The level-headed criticism by libertarian academics regarding the economic history of one particular essay seem plausible to me, but the incredulous social media reactions to the whole project as “anti-American,” “divisive,” or “immoral” were not only wrong, but things I took personally. No one asked me to publicly defend the project,though I did, but the cultural schism the 1619 Project exposed goes deeper than reflexive libertarian remonstrations on the internet.

Matthew Desmond’s 1619 Project contributiontraces the brutality of modern American capitalism to the slave plantation easily (and predictably) drew the most criticism from libertarians. Economic historian Phil Magness published a couple arguments undermining these claims. Magness’s argument, in an oversimplified form, is two-fold: Heprovides historical evidence that free-market capitalists and slavers were at philosophical and economic oddswith each other; and Magness also contests theeconomic history Desmond’s piece relied on, what Magness generally describes as the New History of Capitalism (NHC). The NHC thesis relies on cotton’s gross domestic product (GDP) estimates by NHC author Ed Baptist. As Magness points out, economic historians of varying ideologies have been highly critical of Baptist’s methodology and the broader NHC literature, to the point Magness calls the GDP statistic Baptist uses “unambiguously false” because it so greatly exaggerates cotton’s value as a percentage of American wealth.

Economic historian Dierdre McCloskey has previouslymade the argument inReasonmagazinethat America didn’t get rich because of slavery, as NHC proponents say, but in spite of it. Market capitalism of goods and services made America rich, the argument goes, while agrarian slavery made money for a precious few but wasn’t the economic behemoth Baptist and others allege. At the end of the day, Magness’s and McCloskey’s claims about American wealth creation are empirical matters, and I am not an economist, but a problem with their critique remains even if one grants everything they say is true.

If slavery’s role in the antebellum U.S. economy is grossly overstated in the 1619 Project and elsewhere, Americans nevertheless live in a post-slavery society where the descendants of the enslaved are, on net, disadvantaged relative to white peers across nearly every socioeconomic and quality-of-life measure.

Most people aren’t as ideological as academics or think tankers. Thus, while resolving academic discrepancies is important, King Cotton’s percentage of GDP is not something more than a relatively few specialists and ideologues will get upset about. People want explanations about what happened and how to fix the problems that the past has passed on to today. If slavery’s role in the antebellum U.S. economy is grossly overstated in the 1619 Project and elsewhere, Americans nevertheless live in a post-slavery society where the descendants of the enslaved are, on net, disadvantaged relative to white peers across nearly every socioeconomic and quality-of-life measure. Regardless of how America got rich,it got rich while black people were made pooror, in many cases, after black folks started moving up the economic ladder post-Emancipation only to be kicked down and plundered in new ways. And race-based African slavery marks the genesis of these problems in the United States.

The failure to recognize this ongoing problem is compounded by the broader and longstanding libertarian habit of downplaying racism as a fact of life for minorities in the United States, andAfrican-Americans specifically. Perhaps economic historians should not take blame for the broader ideological fights in which their empirical arguments are used, but a recognition of the political implications of the data they refute probably warrants mention.

But if the 1619 Project were only triggering economic historians and libertarians on Twitter, the issue would have little cultural significance outside the handful of buildings and media spaces that libertarian scholars and pundits occupy. Rather, the less cogent and more vitriolic attacks on 1619 reflect a much larger segment of the American public who has yet to come to terms with the legacies of slavery that remain all around us.

While it may be more comforting to some to blame MAGA hat-wearing Trump voters for their cultural obstinacy, the question of whether or not —or to what extent— candidates should focus on racial issues is also being fought under theguise of “electability”for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Racism and the fight against it remain at the core of American politics; and no party or faction is immune to episodic spasms of race-related cultural conflict. This presence remains because American institutions, public and private, still disadvantage black people and other people of color.

For its upcoming September issue, theAtlanticpublished “The Great Land Robbery” by Vann Newkirk, a story about the near-disappearance of black-owned farms in Mississippi since the 1960s. Newkirk’s remarkable reporting recounts the way racism can operate within both private and public institutions, including the federal government, despite half a century of prohibitions on government discrimination. Permits, co-operative memberships, good ol’ boy networks, illegal coercion, and secured government loans could make or break farms, and break them they did. “Thousands of individual decisions by white people, enabled or motivated by greed, racism, existing laws, and market forces, all pushed in a single direction,” Newkirk writes. That direction ended in what Newkirk calls “mass dispossession” of black-owned land and wealth. TheAtlanticestimated that the value lost in the hundreds of thousands of acres of dispossessed land ranged between $3.7 and $6.6 billion in today’s dollars.

The segregation, discrimination, and disadvantage we’ve inherited from America’s original sin are neither geographically nor politically isolated.

The 1619 Project itself was spearheaded byNew York Timesinvestigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. Hannah-Jones often writes about school integration,including a moving 2016 pieceabout choosing to send her daughter to a segregated but well-run school in Brooklyn, P.S. 307. The story includes a local fight about integration and overcrowding in which well-off white parents exerted enormous political pressure to keep their kindergarten-aged children that were slated to attend an over-enrolled mostly white school in Brooklyn Heights from being rezoned into P.S. 307 — where the students are overwhelmingly black and Latino. The parents from Brooklyn Heights pleaded that they feared for their children’s safety, ostensibly from the incumbent classmates at P.S. 307. In the end, the education council came to a political compromise that greatly advantaged the white parents. Far from MAGA country, this integration fight happened ina borough in which Donald Trump garnered 18 percentof the vote in 2016. Although visceral American racism is far more acute on the political right, the segregation, discrimination, and disadvantage we’ve inherited from America’s original sin are neither geographically nor politically isolated.

The problem of American racism and racial disadvantage, then, goes beyond assaults on “capitalism,” however one defines it. It is true that American racism stems from the socio-legal justifications to implement race-based slavery for the profit of the slavers, but it has grown beyond that into politics, social assumptions, interpersonal reactions, public policies, and, of course, institutions. Economists can bicker over the dollar amounts, but African-Americans (and others) have most certainly been victimized repeatedly over the years through theft, coercion, law, policy, and public disfavor. Some losses can be recouped in lawsuits, such as thePigford v. Glickmansettlementawarded to black farmers or the damages and reparations given tovictims of Chicago Police Department torture. But other black losses cannot be quantified, let alone recovered, because there is no practical method for recovering decades of opportunities refused to them.

As Hannah-Jones wrote in her 1619 essay, “it would be historically inaccurate to reduce the contributions of black people to the vast material wealth created by our bondage. Black Americans have also been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom.” The 1619 Project has sparked a much needed discussion about slavery’s myriad legacies that still effect the country today. It is not, and it cannot be the last word on this subject. Those who profess to know and love American liberty so much would do well to listen to the resulting conversations.

What Libertarian Overreactions to the 1619 Project Say About America - FREOPP (2024)

FAQs

What is the main point of the 1619 project? ›

Through a series of essays, photos, and podcasts, The 1619 Project charts the impact of slavery on the country's founding principles, economy, health care system, racial segregation of neighborhoods and schools, popular music and visual representations.

What is the main thesis of the 1619 project? ›

The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by making explicit how slavery is the foundation on which the United States of America is built, and by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as the nation's birth year.

What is the libertarian theory in the United States? ›

Libertarianism is a "[t]heory upholding...[individual] rights...above all else" and seeks to "reduce" the power of a state or states, especially ones a libertarian lives in or is closely associated with, to "safeguard" and maintain individualism.

What is the teaching of the 1619 project? ›

ABOUT THE 1619 PROJECT

The project illuminates the legacy of slavery in the contemporary United States, and highlights the contributions of Black Americans to every aspect of American society.

What is the importance of 1619 in America? ›

In 1619, a Dutch ship with about 20 Africans on board entered a port at the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia. This event is known as the arrival of the first recorded Africans to English North America.

What is the difference between the 1776 project and The 1619 Project? ›

The 1619 Project is a bold interpretation that is faithful to the intent of the founding documents and faithful to the reality of America today where inequity reigns in defiance of our founding virtues. The 1776 Project is right to center Black achievement and to speak of America's unique ability for opportunity.

What happened to America in 1619? ›

The events of 1619 are well documented and the British became the major importers of African slaves to North America, so it has come to mark the start of the slave trade in what was to be the United States. But the facts are often over-stated, as “the beginning of slavery in North America,” for example.

What is the meaning of 1619? ›

The Times had just published the special 1619 edition of its magazine, which took its name from the year 20 Africans arrived in the colony of Virginia—a group believed to be the first enslaved Africans to arrive in British North America. Weeks before, I had received an email from a New York Times research editor.

What was the purpose of The 1619 Project quizlet? ›

What is the purpose of the New York Times 1619 Project? To create awareness about the true origins of America and slavery. Reframe the country's history and understanding that 1619 is our true founding.

What do us libertarians believe? ›

They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties".

Are libertarians left or right? ›

Libertarians are fond of explaining that they are neither left nor right wing, but rather libertarian as opposed to statist. They don't fit in the conventional political spectrum of Left versus Right, but rather are at right angles to it (See Figure 1). The political spectrum, as seen by the Libertarian Party.

What are the five beliefs of the Libertarian Party? ›

Its cultural policy positions include ending the prohibition of illegal drugs, advocating criminal justice reform, supporting same-sex marriage, ending capital punishment, and supporting gun ownership rights. As of May 2024, it is the third-largest political party in the United States by voter registration.

What is the point of the 1619 project? ›

The project dedicated an issue of the magazine to a re-examination of the legacy of slavery in America, at the anniversary of the 1619 arrival of the first enslaved people to Virginia.

What is the 1619 Project movie about? ›

The 1619 Project is an American documentary television miniseries created for Hulu. It is adapted from The 1619 Project, a New York Times Magazine journalism project focusing on slavery in the United States, which was later turned into the anthology The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.

Who is the publisher of the 1619 Project? ›

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is a 2021 anthology of essays and poetry, published by One World (an imprint of Random House) on November 16, 2021.

Who is Nikole Hannah-Jones' husband? ›

Personal life. Hannah-Jones lives in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn with her husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, and their daughter.

What is chattel slavery? ›

Traditional or Chattel Slavery

Such chattel slaves are used for their labor, sex, and breeding, and they are exchanged for camels, trucks, guns and money. Children of chattel slaves remain the property of their master.

Was the Civil war not fought over slavery? ›

That is not to say that the average Confederate soldier fought to preserve slavery or that the North went to war to end slavery. Soldiers fight for many reasons — notably to stay alive and support their comrades in arms — and the North's goal in the beginning was preservation of the Union, not emancipation.

What is the idea of America by Nikole Hannah-Jones about? ›

'” Her essay chronicles a history of policies enacted to profit from and disenfranchise black Americans, and the fight not only to claim black liberation, but also to make liberation possible for all Americans.

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