UNC Rescinds Tenure Offer to 1619 Project Author Nikole Hannah-Jones

New York Times writer and author of the divisive “1619 Project” Nikole Hannah-Jones has lost her tenure offer at the University of North Carolina  Hussman School of Journalism and Media following backlash over her “unfactual and biased” work.

The University of North Carolina is backing down from offering Hannah-Jones a tenured position at its journalism school, and will instead offer her a fixed five-year contract, according to a report by NC Policy Watch.

The change in plans comes three weeks after it was announced Hannah-Jones would have a tenured position at the university. Now, the “1619 Project” founder will begin a term as “Professor of the Practice” starting July 1, with the potential to be reviewed for tenure after five years.

“It’s disappointing,” said Susan King, dean of UNC’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media. “It’s not what we wanted and I am afraid it will have a chilling effect.”

King had previous described Hannah-Jones’ initial tenured position as “the story of a leader returning to a place that transformed her life and career trajectory.”

The “1619 Project,” of which Hannah-Jones is the author, claims the United States was founded on the institution of slavery, as well as the “legalized discrimination against black Americans,” and has been heavily scrutinized as a result.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has referred to the curriculum as “politicized” and “divisive,” and is leading a group of senators to call on the Biden administration to withdraw the project from federal grant programs. As noted by the Daily Mail,  The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal blasted Hannah-Jones as unqualified to be a tenured professor because her work is “unfactual and biased.”

The world of academia is currently under siege by a plague misinformation, as other, similar concepts transpire at schools across the country.

In Virginia, parents are fighting back against the Loudoun County School Board for seeking to implement “racist” CRT in schools — an academic movement teaching children that the U.S. is fundamentally racist, and that they must view every social interaction and person in terms of race or color in order to be “antiracist.”

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler at @alana, and on Instagram.