Obama’s mantle was picked up after his presidency by the thought-leaders of the New York Times, who declared in 2019 that America’s true founding had taken place not in 1776, but in 1619.33 As Adam Serwer correctly diagnosed at The Atlantic, “The most radical thread in the 1619 Project is not its contention that slavery’s legacy continues to shape American institutions; it’s the authors’ pessimism that a majority of white people will abandon racism and work with black Americans toward a more perfect union. Every essay tracing racial injustice from slavery to the present day speaks to the
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