This article is certainly a valiant defense of what CRT gets right, but it still seems to miss the point of the attacks on CRT as a brand. The 1619 Project is too ambitious politically, whether or not it is accurate historically. Americans should not deny the place of racism in our history and present, but they should reject it as the national origin story, because that story needs to be aspirational. The nation we want to be was founded in 1789, which means that the one we live in must have been founded then, too. To suggest otherwise is simply a bridge too far.

Politics is a blunt instrument. Black lives matter, and diverting some funding from police work to social work to deal with the same incidents makes some sense. But Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization, and "Defund the Police" is a moronic slogan. All the explaining in the world won't overcome those facts. Likewise, CRT offers important insights about life in the USA, but it cannot swagger its way into becoming the only prism through which our history is viewed.

The 1619 Project seems to elevate CRT above the aspirational national mythos. That can't happen, and it should not come as a surprise that some of the arguments against its happening are specious. White people are not going to fight racism. They may get out of Black people's way enough for Black people to prosper, but that is all they are going to do, regardless of what justice might demand they do. As every decent problem-solver worthy of the label knows, ya gotta work with the shit ya got. Those who would push CRT beyond the walls of academia don't know shit.