Nikole Hannah-Jones faced backlash from conservative school choice advocates over her decision. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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New York Times journalist and 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones reflected Wednesday on what she called the “pretty brutal” responses she received for her viral New York Times Magazine essay on sending her daughter to predominantly Black public schools.
A decade after defending her choice, Hannah-Jones admitted in an essay last month that she regretted aspects of her decision to send her now-16-year-old daughter to these schools in an effort to combat school segregation, after her child informed Hannah-Jones that she did not receive the education she wanted.
“Now I felt overcome with regret. Najya deserved better,” Hannah-Jones wrote in her September essay. “They all did. But she was mine. This girl, my only child, looked to me to protect her, to give her what she needed to thrive. And I had not chosen her.”
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Nikole Hannah-Jones, the controversial creator of the 1619 Project, published a viral essay regretting her decision to send her daughter to public schools. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)
Hannah-Jones’ admission sparked intense backlash from critics who accused her of sacrificing her daughter’s education for her progressive values. The pushback was strong enough for Hannah-Jones to question if she should have written the essay.
“I know it would sound crazy if I say none of the critique was valid, but I’m like, what is the critique?” Hannah-Jones told The New York Times during an interview on Wednesday.
“There was some online discourse that was pretty brutal. And, you know, I have experienced some brutal discourse through the years, but usually not about, like, me as a parent,” Hannah-Jones said. “That was hard. And for a minute I’m like, ‘Man, should I have written this?’ And I’ve actually never, ever, as a journalist, questioned, ‘Should I have written something?’ And there was a moment where I was just like, ‘I did not have to subject myself to this. Should I have done this?’”
However, Hannah-Jones concluded that she ultimately did not regret her actions despite the impact the essay had.
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“You know, in the end, I’m fine. I will be fine. My feelings got a little hurt because I’m a human being. But, in the end, like, people are talking about these kids who don’t have a platform, who don’t have a choice. The mayor of New York has been forced to respond. He’s now promised to release a plan to address it. That doesn’t happen without me writing a piece like this,” Hannah-Jones said.
She added, “And so, yeah, I have to remind myself that, like, my little bruised feelings in the end are meaningless. It is the power of what we can do with our platform, and what I would argue is our responsibility to do.”
Digital reached out to Hannah-Jones for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
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Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation and longtime school choice advocate, accused the journalist of minimizing education concerns.
“Calling the backlash ‘brutal discourse’ misses the point. People reacted because she publicly used her child as a prop for a political experiment, and the results were horrible,” DeAngelis told Digital.
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He added, “School choice exists so parents can leave schools that don’t work. You don’t fix these schools by trapping more kids inside them and hoping your presence changes the system. Hannah-Jones tried that. It didn’t work. Her daughter knows it. Parents across the country already knew it. Give families the money and the freedom to leave.”
