How is this different from Dubois’ notion of the “Talented Tenth”?

…rue; I know that it is true because it is essentially what we have been doing since Reconstruction. We’ve actually been running the 1776 Project playbook for generations — respectability politics, integration at the cost of self-sufficiency, the Black church as a civic agent. In the world of Black Exceptionalism, you don’t need to save a whole neighborhood so long as you can cherry-pick the Black people who deserve to be saved. And the results are in: Every negative metric of Black life in the U.S. has increased since the civ…

If You’re Going to Challenge the 1619 Project, Don’t Do It This Way

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