Tipping is racist, America. Stop it.

In 2019, “The 1619 Project” was thrust into the American conscious as a reframing of our nation’s founding. It was an effort by the New York Times and its author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, to rewrite history.  When it appeared in the New York Times, it was originally presented as the “true founding” of America — America exists only because of slavery.

Hannah-Jones’s America started in 1619 — when the first slave was brought to the new world, not when the founders debated and signed the Declaration of Independence, or ratified the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. She also asserted that the Revolution was fought, not for freedom from British tyranny, but to preserve slavery.

The 1619 Project was widely praised by pundits, but not historians. Actual historians eviscerated the historical falsehoods asserted by Hannah-Jones, beginning with the claim by Hannah-Jones that 1619 was our “true founding.” The New York Times quietly changed that lede, removing the reference to “understanding 1619 as our true founding.”

Although Hannah-Jones’ opus was widely critiqued as  inaccurate, at best, less-than-accurate, or an outright political hit-piece, it won a Pulitzer.

Since winning a Pulitzer, and being rewarded for historically bad history-telling, Hannah-Jones has been emboldened. She’s been active on Twitter, posting more nonsense and semi-nonsense, making outrageous feckless claims on the semi-literate site. Last November, she accused America of nuking Japan because America had spent a lot of cash on the bomb. According to Hannah-Jones, Japan was about to surrender but America dropped a nuke on Hiroshima anyway. Why? We built an expensive tool (A-Bomb), so why not use it?

“You’re the only one who poorly understands history,” she tweeted. “They dropped the bomb when they knew surrender was coming because they’d spent all this money developing it and to prove it was worth it.”

The New York Times’ favorite pseudo-historian deleted her tweet, but not before she was raked over the coals for her historic ineptitude. Even 1619 supporters called her out.

At Hannah-Jones’s core is the belief that everything can be traced to racism, in general, and American slavery, in particular. Every aspect of human existence can be traced to America and not just racism but white racism because it’s the only racism that exists. The only reason anyone cares about Ukraine is — Ukrainians are white.

Now, Hannah-Jones wants you to know tipping a waiter or the dude delivering your new fridge is racist. At the very least, it’s traced back to American slavery and that, of course, makes it racist.

Wait, what? pic.twitter.com/ylpH1UigLe

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) March 22, 2022

Hannah-Jones has a habit of posting, then deleting tweets. But the internet is forever.

In summary, is the claim true? Of course not. No more than 1619 is the starting point of America, or that the Revolution was fought to preserve slavery.

The Twitter responses to an actual historian (Phil Magness) are legend. No amount of evidence is enough for the Kool-Aid drinkers and Hannah-Jones cultists. She makes outrageous fact-free claims and her acolytes will cite “fact-checks” that are no better than tabloid trolls.

Bottom line, if you’re a jerk and don’t tip, you have an out. In fact, you’re an anti-racist hero.

“Sorry I can’t tip you, it’s racist”.