On his first day in office, President Joe Biden axed the advisory committee on American history created by a panel of 18 scholars put together by President Donald Trump comprising the 1776 Commission. Biden dissolved the panel, arguing it “sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice.”
But the commission is not going away. They are planning on meeting next week on the Washington, D.C., campus of Michigan-based Hillsdale College, where they will directly challenge the “critical race theory” now being pushed by much of the media, academia, and secular progressive politicians.
The Biden administration has proposed prioritizing education programs that promote the so-called 1619 Project and critical race theory. Critical race theory is a branch of Marxist “critical theory,” which views society as a class struggle, asserting that there is an oppressor class and an oppressed class. As such, they put individuals into one of the two groups and pit them against each other. In the case of critical race theory, proponents attempt to stir up racial hatred against white people as a way of promoting the Marxist agenda.
The 1619 Project, promoted by the New York Times is in line with this Marxist theory, as it asserts that America was founded upon the institution of slavery and its entire history revolved around that ugly institution, including its founding documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
This agenda envisions the destruction of the institutions of American society, which they argue promote oppression.
Matthew Spalding, the executive director of the 1776 Commission, called for a reversal of the effort of the Biden administration to implement critical race theory in America’s public schools, and all other schools which receive federal funding. “The proposed rule should be withdrawn, just as individual states, which actually have the authority over the nation’s K-12 educational system, should oppose race-based pedagogy as part of their curricula and even if attempted to be imposed by the federal government,” Spalding said in his letter to the federal Department of Education.
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“On behalf of my fellow commissioners, I submit and draw your attention to Appendix XII of the 1776 Report.” In that appendix, the report argues that the 1619 Project and critical race theory are “fundamentally incompatible” with the principles of the Declaration of Independence, which connects liberty-loving Americans everywhere regardless of their race.”
The 1776 report states, “Proponents of identity politics rearrange Americans by group identities, rank them by how much oppression they have experienced at the hands of the majority culture, and then sow divisions among them.
Spalding told the Washington Examiner, “When we start going about dividing people by groups, by social identities, and especially by identities that deal with race, and we’re starting to make those kinds of divisions, all Americans should get very nervous. It’s a departure away from the historic grounding of civil rights in America, which is that we all are equal.”
Many critical race theory advocates dismiss the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s as making only marginal improvements for blacks. This is understandable when one realizes that the goal is not racial harmony, but rather racial division, with the end-game of scuttling the Constitution and the republic it established, and replacing it with a socialist country.
In George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel, 1984, the totalitarian socialist government understands how important it is to control the lessons of history. Biden said the 1776 Commission Report sought to “erase America’s history of racial Injustice,” but this is simply false. Instead, it presents a much more accurate picture of the country than is found in far too many universities, high schools, and the popular culture.
The report declared in its opening paragraph, “The Commission’s first responsibility is to produce a report summarizing the principles of the American founding and how those principles have shaped our country.” Rather than dwelling on every negative about the country, to the exclusion of those historical facts that should both make Americans proud and serve as an example to the rest of the world, the report is actually a balanced look at our nation’s history.
The danger of critical race theory and this gross distortion of American history is very real. As the report itself stated it so well, “All the good things we see around us — from the physical infrastructure, to our high standards of living, to our exceptional freedoms — are direct results of America’s unity, stability, and justice, all of which in turn rest on the bedrock of our founding principles. Yet today our country is in danger of throwing this inheritance away.”
This Commission was established to prevent throwing away our national inheritance, and it is fortunate that the 1776 Commission is prepared to continue to do intellectual battle with the Marxist enemies of our national heritage.
