New York Times reporter and "1691 Project" creator Nikole Hannah-Jones echoed the sentiments of failed Democrat and 2021 gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe when it comes to the role of parents in a child's education.
During Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC, Hannah-Jones criticized parents who opposed critical race theory and her very own "1691 Project," which has come under controversy for seemingly influencing school curriculum.
When "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd asked if it was Hannah-Jones' intention to make "The 1691 Project" part of school curriculum on how to teach American history, the journalist answered that the endeavor was merely a "work of journalism" that "could be a great learning tool for students," Fox News reported. Hannah-Jones explained that The New York Times runs an education division in which journalism is used as curriculum just as The Pulitzer Center did. She claimed that the only reason why her work became controversial is because her critics decided to make it controversial.
When Todd addressed the controversy behind her work and critical race theory, Hannah-Jones argued that it was not a parents' place to decide what topics should be taught in school. She supported the view of McAuliffe, who recently said in a debate, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach," the Center Square reported.
"I don't really understand this idea that parents should decide what's being taught," Hannah-Jones said, as reported by Breitbart. "We send our children to school because we want them to be taught by people who have expertise in the subject area. And that is not my job."
Hannah-Jones added that McAuliffe was "panned" for his opinion, but "that's just the fact." She explained, "This is why we send our children to school and don't homeschool, because these are the professional educators who have the expertise to teach social studies, to teach history, to teach science, to teach literature."
Hannah-Jones argued further that while parents should have "some say," they must leave school curriculum to educators. She reasoned, "School is not about simply confirming our worldview. Schools should teach us to question. They should teach us how to think, not what to think."
Hannah-Jones further courted controversy last week during an interview with the Associated Press after "The 1619 Project" was made into a book. The interviewer with the media outlet remarked that critics would say the book was "an agenda-driven piece of work," to which Hannah-Jones replied, "And they'd be right."
"The agenda is to force a reckoning with who we are as a country. The agenda is to take the story of Black Americans in slavery, from being an asterisk to being marginal to being central to how we understand our country," Hannah-Jones explained.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Black journalist earlier this year had a conflict with her alma mater in North Carolina over her tenure. The dispute ended when she decided in July to work with a historically Black university instead. She explained that the fact that so many "powerful people" want to censor "The 1691 Project" meant that more people wanted "a more honest accounting of our history."
It's worth noting that Hannah-Jones recently touted socialist Cuba, which is dominated by a communist government, as a model country that freedom-loving and democratic America should follow.
