Nikole Hannah-Jones Calls Backlash to Her Public-School Regret Essay 'Pretty Brutal,' and a School Choice Advocate Fires Back
In a New York Times interview she says she wondered whether she should have written it, then concludes she is fine and the essay forced New York's mayor to promise a plan. Heritage's Corey DeAngelis says critics reacted to her using her child as a 'prop.'
New York Times journalist and 1619 Project creator Nikole Hannah-Jones says the reaction to her essay on sending her daughter to mostly Black public schools was "pretty brutal," Fox News reports.
The essay. In a September piece, Hannah-Jones wrote that she regretted aspects of a decision made a decade ago to send her daughter, now 16, to such schools to fight segregation. The daughter told her she had not received the education she wanted. "Now I felt overcome with regret. Najya deserved better," Hannah-Jones wrote.
What she said this week. In a Times interview Wednesday, she said "there was some online discourse that was pretty brutal," and it was hard because it was about her as a parent. She said she asked herself, "should I have written this?" and had never questioned a piece that way before. She also said, "I know it would sound crazy if I say none of the critique was valid, but I'm like, what is the critique?"
Where she landed. She said she is "fine," and that her "little bruised feelings" are meaningless next to what she called the power of a platform. She pointed out that New York's mayor has been pushed to respond and has promised to release a plan on the issue, which she said would not have happened without the essay.
The counterpoint. Corey DeAngelis, a Heritage Foundation research fellow and school choice advocate, told Fox News Digital, "People reacted because she publicly used her child as a prop for a political experiment, and the results were horrible." He argued that school choice exists so parents can leave schools that do not work, and said families should get "the money and the freedom to leave."
Note for readers: Fox says Hannah-Jones did not respond to its request for comment. The quotes from her come from the Times interview as quoted by Fox. DeAngelis' view is advocacy, and we did not read the essay or the interview.