Architects of Woke: The 1619 Project’s Fake History

Released May 4, 2020

The Architects of Woke series takes aim at far-left post-modernist and Marxist thinkers and activists responsible for the spread of identity politics from college campuses to society at large.

The sixth episode, “The 1619 Project’s Fake History”, covers the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. Directed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project attempts to reframe our understanding of American history by alleging the central event in the founding of the United States was the first importation of enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619 and not the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The project has been notably criticized by esteemed historians for its factual errors. Despite this, schools across the nation have embedded the 1619 Project into their curriculums, perhaps endangering our nation’s understanding of its founding for generations to come…

To learn more about the 1619 Project, check out the following links:
InfluenceWatch Entry: https://www.influencewatch.org/movement/1619-project/
The New York Times’ 1619 Project: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
The Pulitzer Center’s 1619 Project Educational Programming: https://pulitzercenter.org/projects/1619-project-pulitzer-center-education-programming
Historian Nell Irvin Painter on the indentured servants, not slaves, who arrived in 1619: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/14/slavery-in-america-1619-first-ships-jamestown
Criticism by historian Gordon Wood: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/11/28/wood-n28.html
Historians’ letter to the editor & The New York Times’ response: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/magazine/we-respond-to-the-historians-who-critiqued-the-1619-project.html

The Architects of Woke is hosted and directed by filmmaker Rob Montz. Montz is the co-founder and CEO of Good Kid Productions. His online documentary work has attracted millions of views and coverage in major outlets, including The Economist, USA Today, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Adam Carolla Podcast. His 2017 documentary “Silence U. PT 2: What Has Yale Become?,” published on We the Internet TV, won the 2018 Reason Video Prize.

You can view previous episodes of the Architects of Woke at the following links:
Judith Butler’s War on Science: https://youtu.be/yus0cmyRZWM
Slavoj Žižek & the Romance of Revolutionary Terror: https://youtu.be/mcS7jggHGCI
Chapo Trap House & the Marxist Vanguards for Alienated Millennials: https://youtu.be/l4knok5jf4Q
Stokely Carmichael & Racism Without Racists: https://youtu.be/SRC2qyn4pyg
Howard Zinn, Hollywood, & the Fairy Tale of American Evil: https://youtu.be/2nyNJVNrh_Q

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Cast & Crew

  • Host/Director Rob Montz
  • Producer Joseph (Jake) Klein
  • Executive Producer Scott Walter
  • Motion Graphics Distant Moon
  • Assistant Editor Dan Quattro