From 1619 To Kirk Truth Falls First

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times columnist, is best known for her forceful critiques of America’s past and present.

We don't generally critique an essay in the New York Times, idea by idea. Still, Hannah-Jones' Sunday article about Charlie Kirk, the MAGA youth leader who was mercilessly shot and killed on September 10, was so steeped in racial framing that not pointing it out would be negligent.

The article in question: What the Public Memory of Charlie Kirk Revealed. Its sub-head: For those who felt denigrated by his rhetoric, the bipartisan tributes to him as a champion of free speech augured something dangerous: the mainstreaming of formerly extremist views.

Our first observation was that the New York Times, which has an uncanny talent for timing its pieces, chose not to publish the essay last Sunday, September 21, when the MAGA world descended on Arizona to celebrate the life of a potential future presidential contender. Hannah-Jones is a distinguished and highly talented writer, and she had more than ten days to write her piece after Kirk was gunned down. Some may argue the delay reflected sensitivity. But to us, the Times’ decision to wait until memory faded felt like calculation, not courtesy.

In it, Hannah-Jones makes tired and boilerplate points repeatedly about racism in America. She finds Charlie Kirk's views extreme and charges that he espoused a long record of racist, anti-Black, anti-transgender, anti-Muslim, and White nationalist rhetoric.

She argues that his veneration normalizes bigotry once considered fringe, and voices anger and fear at seeing him elevated, warning that it signals a cultural shift legitimizing racism and intolerance. She concludes that excusing Kirk's rhetoric as "mere debate" dangerously reintroduces open white-supremacist racism into mainstream politics.

The truth about Charlie Kirk, as we editorialized in these pages, is that he was a youth leader with enormous charisma, a constant fixture on the college circuit engaging with students, addressing challenging questions, and participating in healthy debates.

Kirk perfected the art of retail politics by conducting his own version of town halls, often sitting in a tent with a microphone and handing out a roving microphone to anyone who came forward to ask him a question.

No one had ever mounted an intellectual challenge to a decade of DEI indoctrination with such finesse and authenticity. Kirk's fearless defense of free speech in an era of enforced conformity on college campuses, where conservatives felt silenced, should have been a moment of celebration for all Americans.

Millions of Americans shared Kirk's skepticism about DEI mandates, affirmative action, and radical gender policies—positions that are hardly "extremist". President Trump's resounding victory last November, when he became the first GOP candidate since Ronald Reagan to carry all the battleground states en route to a 312-vote Electoral College victory against a Black candidate, vindicated Kirk's beliefs and showed that Hannah-Jones is in some elite, academic dreamland that thrives on victimhood and suffering.

Besides, it is inconsistent for Hannah-Jones to label Kirk as extreme, given that she has gained notoriety for her views. Her 2019 "1619 Project," marking 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia, reframes U.S. history around slavery's enduring legacy, asserting her views as the nation's "true founding" and linking it to modern inequalities. During the Biden years, many school districts adopted her thesis into social studies classes, without subjecting it to the usual scholastic review.

Conservatives, including historians like Sean Wilentz and Gordon Wood, criticized it for factual errors, such as claiming the Revolution was fought to preserve slavery, and ideological bias that distorted events like the Civil War.

Despite the backlash, the Pulitzer Committee awarded her a prize for Commentary in 2020. The Pulitzer board praised her work for its "sweeping, provocative, and personal essay" that offered a new perspective on the nation's history.

Alarmed, President Trump responded by creating the 1776 Commission, decrying Hannah-Jones' work as "revisionist history" that was unfit for schools. The Commission released a report in 2021 that serves as an excellent treatise on our country's troubled history, while convincingly debunking many of the assertions made by Hannah-Jones.

Hannah-Jones didn't stop being a provocateur by just penning her views. She has been an avid activist for Black causes against white supremacy and wanted to take it to college campuses. In 2021, at the height of the Biden administration's program to make every aspect of American life conform to DEI, Hannah-Jones was hired as Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at UNC Chapel Hill, with faculty recommending tenure.

The conservative-majority Board of Trustees stalled approval, hesitating to associate an august Public Ivy League institution with the false claims of her "1619 Project."

Tenure positions at elite institutions are typically reserved for academics who have earned Ph.D.s and demonstrated years of sustained, high-quality research. Hannah-Jones never pursued a Ph.D., although she completed a Master's degree in 2003.

Still, Hannah-Jones persevered and filed a formal protest against her future employer, threatening to file a discrimination lawsuit with the assistance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Such legal recourse is rarely available to the average American, regardless of background.

The trustees, uncomfortable with the way the battle was unfolding in public, reluctantly offered her tenure, but she declined, citing viewpoint discrimination. Hannah-Jones had made her point and took her victory lap to Howard University, a historically Black college and university, where she founded a journalism center. UNC settled her lawsuit for under $75,000 in 2022, including committing funds to diversity training.

Charlie Kirk was a kind gentleman who never sued anyone. He promoted traditional values of marriage, family, children, and responsibility. Kirk's role in providing young conservatives with a platform through Turning Point USA is unparalleled in modern history. In the past two weeks, TPUSA has received over 121,000 requests from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing one. Kirk's dream was to establish 20,000 chapters.

Equating Kirk's mainstream messaging with bigotry reflects Hannah-Jones’s views.

🌀 TIPP Zeitgeist

Investors Chase Growth, Non-Investors Flock to Safety

This Zeitgeist captures a striking divide:

• Investors favor risk, with stocks (27%) and crypto (22%) leading their picks.
• Non-investors prefer security, ranking savings/cash (20%) and gold/silver (19%) as their best bets.

The result? America’s money mood reflects a classic split — risk-on for market players, caution for those on the sidelines.

📊 TIPP Zeitgeist appears periodically, decoding the spirit of the times through exclusive TIPP polling.

👉 Read the full article here

📊 Market Mood — Wednesday, October 1, 2025

🟢 Nike Delivers Turnaround Surprise
Shares rose after Nike posted stronger-than-expected Q1 revenue and profit, signaling early success in its reset strategy despite tariff headwinds.

🟡 Shutdown Clouds Growth & Data
The U.S. government entered its 15th shutdown since 1981, raising fears over growth, payroll delays, and extended political gridlock.

🟣 Gold Hits Fresh Records
Safe-haven flows drove gold and other precious metals to new highs as investors sought protection from political and economic uncertainty.

📅 Key Events Today

🟧 Wednesday, October 1
08:15 – ADP Nonfarm Employment Change (Sep)
Private payroll estimate ahead of official jobs data.
09:45 – S&P Global Manufacturing PMI (Sep)
Survey of manufacturing sector activity.
10:00 – ISM Manufacturing PMI (Sep)
Key measure of nationwide factory conditions.
10:00 – ISM Manufacturing Prices (Sep)
Input cost trends reported by manufacturers.
10:30 – Crude Oil Inventories
Weekly change in U.S. crude stockpiles.