Nikole Hannah-Jones pushes back against "disqualifying" 1619 Project criticism

Nikole Hannah-Jones Pushes Back Against "Disqualifying" 1619 Project Criticism | GZERO World

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has often had to defend her work as the creator of the 1619 Project, a piece of modern journalism that has gained as much praise on one end of the US political spectrum as it has sparked outrage on the other.

Hannah-Jones admits some of the criticism was fair game — and that's one reason she’s just published an extended version of the project in book form, entitled The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. But she rejects those who’ve tried to disqualify her and the project.

"People were saying these facts are wrong... [and] that this journalism needed to be discredited, and that's not normal," she explains. "And I don't agree with that type of criticism because... it's not true.”

According to Hannah-Jones, part of the problem is the mistaken perception that the 1619 Project claimed that slavery was uniquely American. It did not, she says, but did argue that the history of US slavery is quite exceptional in another way.

"There is something clearly unique about a country engaging in chattel slavery that says it was founded on ideas of individual rights and liberty. And that was not Brazil. That was not Jamaica. That was not any of the islands in the Caribbean. They didn't pretend to be a nation founded on God-given rights. We did."

Watch all of Hannah-Jones' interview with Ian Bremmer on the upcoming episode of GZERO World.

More from GZERO Media

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025.
REUTERS/Carlos Barria

During a speech in White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Donald Trump announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on US imports, with higher rates for countries that have a larger trade surplus with the United States – to the tune of 20% for the EU, 54% for China, and 46% for Vietnam, to name a few of the hardest-hit. Trump also confirmed that 25% levies on foreign-made cars and parts.

Palestinians travel in vehicles between the northern and southern Gaza Strip along the Rashid Road on April 2, 2025.

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel was seizing more territory in Gaza to “divide up” the besieged enclave. He spoke as Israeli forces increased the intensity of their assault on Hamas in Gaza, which resumed two weeks ago after phase one of the ceasefire agreed to in January ended.

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, tour the US military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland on March 28, 2025.
JIM WATSON/Pool via REUTERS

How much would it cost for the United States to maintain Greenland as its territory? And what are the revenue possibilities from the Arctic island’s natural resources? Those are two questions the White House is reportedly looking into in the surest sign yet that Trump’s interest in Greenland is genuine.

Protesters demanded the ouster of South Korean President Yoon in central Seoul on March 29, 2025.
Lee Jae-Won/AFLO via Reuters

South Korea’s Constitutional Court will tie the legal bow on what has been a tumultuous period for the country as it rules Friday on whether to formally dismiss or reinstate impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol.

After voters elected her to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, liberal candidate Judge Susan Crawford celebrates with Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge Ann Walsh Bradley at her election night headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 1, 2025.

REUTERS/Vincent Alban

Republicans expanded their lean House majority after a pair of special elections in Florida, but a conservative candidate lost badly in a Wisconsin judicial race — despite a huge cash injection from Elon Musk.