Do you want a heartfelt, hair-on-fire example of an expert’s slobbery apology? The truth is out!being demonized later by the rabid Culture-Cancel left and then folding up like an embarrassing suit as soon as possible You can buckle your seatbelt and continue reading, President of American Historical Association (AHA). apologizes for citing Historical facts
In an author’s note attached to his August 17 column titled, History or History?, AHA president James H. Street profusely apologized for a September article in which he criticized certain incorrect narratives about slavery, including Nikole Hannah-Jones’ widely-discredited 1619 Project, Before he was finished, Street NearlyThis made Roger Goodell’s epic knee-jerkness look almost like a rookie.
Street, part of:
September, My Historical Perspectives column has generated anger and dismay among many of our colleagues and members. It did not communicate what I meant and caused harm.
I had hoped to open a conversation on how we “do” history in our current politically charged environment. This was not what I wanted, as it caused damage to many colleagues, the discipline and the Association.
[…]
Sincere regret for the ways I’ve alienated Black friends and colleagues. Deeply sorry. I am deeply sorry for my inept attempts to highlight methodological errors in teleological presentationism.
This is completely false. It wasn’t my intention to leave that impression, but my provocation completely missed the mark.
Again, I am sorry for any harm I did to historians and AHA members. In future discussions with you, I will try to be righteous. I’m listening and learning.
What was Sweet’s effusive excuse for? As transcribed by College Fix, the following three excerpts encapsulate Sweet’s “offending” September column.
Take a look at: an accurate critique of the 1619 Project.
“This new history often ignores the values and mores of people in their own times. This is not history; it is dilettantism.”
“The present has been creeping up on our discipline for a long time. To do history with integrity, we must interpret historical elements not only through the lenses of the present but in the context of historical actors. […]”
“When we foreshorten or shape history to justify rather than inform contemporary political positions, we not only undermine the discipline but threaten its very integrity.”
Precisely.
Aside from the reality that Street’s September column was historically spot-on, not unlike how Roger Goodell was right when he came down on Anthem-kneeling Colin Kaepernick, only to later grovel at the altar of Black Lives Matter, Street — again like Goodell — cowardly caved to the cancel-culture insanity.
As noted by College Fix, Sweet in his September column also wrote about a trip to an old slave depot in Ghana, where he said: “American influence was everywhere.” The tour’s guide “claimed that ‘Ghanaians’ sent their ‘servants’ into chattel slavery unknowingly, yet made no reference to “warfare or Indigenous slavery, [or] histories that interrupt assumptions of ancestral connection between modern-day Ghanaians and visitors from the diaspora.”
Sweet was also present in the film 2022. The woman is the King, which strongly suggests the west African kingdom of Dahomey was opposed to the European slave trade — but in fact “promoted it.”
Nonetheless, two days after Sweet’s August 17 column was published, he wrote the groveling apology.
“A president’s monthly column, one of the privileges of elected office,” he wrote near the end, “provides a megaphone to the membership and the discipline. The views and opinions expressed in that column are not those of the Association.”
This is obviously factual, given that the cowardly AHA brought the hammer down on Sweet for his original “views and opinions” stating Both historical and contemporary facts. Yet, Street continued, “If my ham-fisted attempt at provocation has proven anything, it is that the AHA membership is as vocal and robust as ever.”
Let’s get to the bottom of it:
You are wrong, Mr. Green. America has been ravaged by the members of cancel-culture who want to take it all down. It is possible to know it, as well — you wrote about it — Their insidious plan for a total rewrite American includes their perverse plans HistoryAs we Make sure you do it correctly learned it.
James H. Sweet, as was the case with Roger Goodell, NBA Commissioner Nate Silver, and other “influencers” like them, sold their souls to the rabid left when the pressure came.