Challenging America’s Origin Story

What White Backlash Against the 1619 Project Reveals About America's Ethnocultural Identity

In 2019 the New York Times published the 1619 Project to highlight how race and racism have been entangled within American history. The Project and its writers sought to create a more inclusive public memory of the history of the United States, which has previously centred around the achievements of white men. Shortly after, many schools used the Project as inspiration for an updated school curriculum that includes discussions on race, racism, and systems still influenced by America’s racial past and critically engages with the legacy of its founding fathers. The inclusion of a more nuanced curriculum sparked a public outcry by conservative politicians, conservative news outlets, and conservative personalities, such as TV show host Tucker Carlson and then President Donald Trump. This led to policies aimed at suppressing history, which unfavourably references the deeds of white ‘patriots’ by Republican politicians. The Trump White House launched the 1776 Commission and published the 1776 Report in response to focus on a narrative which aims to glorify US history, its founding fathers, and its past presidents.1 The 1619 Project is not the first instance where conservative white Americans voiced their disagreement with movements questioning the US’ racial hegemony. This phenomenon of backlash reverberates throughout history, as every win made by movements or organisations striving for racial equality was met with backlash from America’s white population.

To illustrate, first and foremost, the Civil Rights movement was met with fierce backlash, especially in the South, by arch-segregationist George Wallace, who was among the first modern politicians to oppose desegregation efforts in his infamous speech “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” in the 1960s.2 Richard Nixon consequently solidified white identity within federal politics by targeting ‘forgotten Americans’ during his presidential bid in 1968. In his ' Southern Strategy, ' Nixon pandered to white non-progressive middle- and working-class voters, making the Republican Party the Party of white identity. Multiple variations of backlash followed in every decade. The most recent instance of white backlash happened when Obama became the first biracial President of the United States. Shortly after his election, the “Birther Movement” was born, questioning President Obama’s citizenship and subsequently challenging his election. The latest version of white backlash centres around themes in the classroom, such as the opposition to the 1619 Project or the banning of books spotlighting LGBTQIA+ topics. White backlash has found a new focus around education and the supposed ‘indoctrination’ of children. It appears that this form of backlash is closely linked to white identity. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer why the 1619 Project and an attempt to update the history curriculum are met with backlash and what white backlash tells us about white identity.

This paper argues that the 1619 Project received backlash from conservatives because it criticises the origin story of the US and, by extension, the American political identity. It also highlights white backlash as a tool white identity politics use to maintain an ethnocultural American national identity.