Poll shows support for teaching history of racism, prof claims it shows support for 1619 Project

A recent poll of American adults showed overwhelming support for teaching the history of American racism in school, regardless of parental consent. One of the survey’s sponsors interpreted this finding as support for pushing the 1619 Project and similar curricula based on critical race theory.

The survey— fielded by Professor Jonathan Collins of Brown University and Professor Sally Nuamah of Northwestern University — asked American adults with and without children whether they agreed or disagreed that “all schools should feature curricula that teaches kids about the history of racism in the United States.”

The overwhelming majority responded positively. Among parents, 81 percent either strongly agreed, agreed, or somewhat disagreed. The result hardly changed with the addition of a phrase stating that this education ought to be mandatory.

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In discussing the results of the survey, Collins assumed that the parents were thinking of the 1619 Project — or a similar curriculum based on critical race theory — when they answered this poll.
 
“President Trump also buttresses his criticisms of 1619 under the notion that students are being unfairly exposed to the curriculum without parental consent,’ said Collins in the article. “However, based on a recent survey that I fielded in partnership with Professor Sally Nuamah (Northwestern University), it appears that the kind of curriculum that the 1619 Project provides is welcomed and parental consent is not a concern.”

Collins told Campus Reform that the connection to the 1619 Project was “speculative” on his part as a researcher. 

His speculation is based “on the timing of the survey,” which was around “the apex of use of the 1619 Project in schools.”
 
“Again, while the question in the survey is not directly attached to the 1619 project, the framing of the question and the 1619 Project center on the same goal: infusing truth about racism in American history into history/social studies curricula,” explained Collins. He acknowledges that “it is possible that respondents had something else in mind,” but he expects that “survey participants are responding to either the 1619 Project itself or the idea that sits underneath, which is, again, infusing America’s truth into curricula.”
 
As Cornell University Professor William Jacobson, who runs the blog Legal Insurrection, explained to Campus Reform, “It is not surprising that teaching the ‘history of racism’ is favored by a large majority of parents — it is a part of history children should learn.” However, “such teaching of history should not be equated with teaching the 1619 Project or other critical race theory versions of history,” as Collins did in his article.

[RELATED: Math association says math ‘inherently carries human biases,’ citing Critical Race Theory]

Jacobson additionally pointed out that “the 1619 Project in particular has been shown to be agenda-driven and historically inaccurate.”

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft