The very liberal UNC has just rescinded their offer of tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 project. Clearly academic integrity is important and the university has a reputation to protect:
DAILY MAIL – The University of North Carolina has rescinded its offer of a tenured journalism professor position to the author of the New York Times ‘1619 Project’ after an intense backlash.
Instead, UNC officials confirmed this week that Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the 2019 series which ‘reframed’ American history to focus on when the first Africans arrived to Virginia as slaves, will join its faculty this summer with a five-year contract.
That means one of the New York Times’s most vaunted reporters who the newspaper has doggedly stood by even as the project has come under withering criticism by historians for its inaccuracies didn’t qualify for a permanent appointment.
THE BACKLASH
The university’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media had announced late last month that Hannah-Jones had been tapped for its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, a tenured professorship.
The news was swiftly condemned by conservative political groups with links to the UNC Board of Governors which oversees the state university’s 16-campus system, according to NC Policy Watch.
Among the loudest critics was the The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, which argued that Hannah-Jones is unqualified for the position because her 1619 Project was ‘unfactual and biased’.
The conservative watchdog group said her hiring signaled ‘a degradation of journalistic standards, which should deter any serious student from applying to the journalism school’.
The 1619 Project proved a cultural lightening rod, drawing criticism from some historians who said it was a cynical view of American history – and also contained inaccuracies and generalizations.
The backlash over Hannah-Jones’ hiring proved fierce enough to cause UNC to dramatically reduce its offer to a mere five-year contract – with the possibility of tenure after that but no guarantee.
UNC should have just dumped her completely in my opinion, but this was a solid move in the right direction. But you wouldn’t know it from Woke Twitter’s reaction. They are ANGRY:
UNC's decision to deny tenure to @nhannahjones is absurd & a reminder of how hard some work to deny the hard truth that is Nikole's life work & the 1619 Project. She is a Pulitzer Prizer winner & a MacArthur genius. What more needs to be said?
Read: https://t.co/8aX9cPU7uK
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 19, 2021
Telling the truth about racism always inspires backlash. This absurd decision speaks to the profound power of Nikole’s work. https://t.co/k9yZvNPpQO
— John Eligon (@jeligon) May 19, 2021
Denying the author of the 1619 Project tenure when without enslaved and free Black people, the institution in question wouldn't have been possible, a couple of years after the former chancellor "apologized."
Just sit with the levels here, if you will.https://t.co/DExb8QfxkL
— Ebony Elizabeth Thomas (@Ebonyteach) May 19, 2021
Utterly shameful.
UNC pursued Hannah-Jones for its Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism, “but following political pressure from conservatives who object to her work on “The 1619 Project” for NYT Magazine, the school changed its plan to offer her tenure” https://t.co/x0BaFSdSNK
— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) May 19, 2021
How long before UNC reverses their decision in the light of all the woke backlash?