Looks like the former slave state where in 1957 the National Guard had to be called out to protect a few Black kids from attending a white-only PUBLIC school is trying to pass a law to prohibit teaching the #1619Project because it says US was founded on slavery & oppression. 🧐 pic.twitter.com/nqMvwwNIYL
— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) January 22, 2021
Note that Nikole Hannah-Jones, lead developer of the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project on slavery, has taken note of the heartburn of white male Republican Arkansas legislators over the topic.
Zing!
It’s another plus for the Republican administration’s Arkansas marketing campaign, already distinguished by a recent pitch to lure business from other states with a tout for our COVID-19 policy. You know, business must be served, no matter how many people get sick and die.
I mean really.
Who wouldn’t rush to a state busily working to re-create 1957 Arkansas with legislative mandates against teaching diversity and slavery, even in college; laws encouraging school segregation through white flight transfers and other inducements; opposing hate crime legislation, and more.
Be of good cheer, fellow Arkies. The governor says a 4.9 percent top income tax rate for zillionaires will overcome all that. Just don’t tell prospects that the governor, whose signature initiative is computer education, regularly bonuses the head of a Commerce Department that can’t get the bugs out of the computer system that sends assistance checks to the desperate unemployed. And whatever you do, if you’re a law and order type, don’t ask about the Arkansans who joined the Trump march on the Capitol Jan. 6.
One other thing. You probably should NOT wave Hannah-Jones’ Twitter bio in front of a stand-your-ground-style Arkansas legislator. He (and some of the GOP shes) might claim to reasonably perceive harm from this “thuggish” Black woman.
