Dominant historical narratives persist because wealth and learning serve the powerful.

Evidence

As Frederick Douglass wrote in his 1892 autobiography, “The story of the master never wanted for narrators. The masters, to tell their story, had at call all the talent and genius that wealth and influence could command. They have had their full day in court. Literature, theology, philosophy, law and learning have come willingly to their service, and if condemned, they have not been condemned unheard.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 54

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s frame that the 1619 Project is a counter-narrative against the long-standing master narrative of American exceptionalism; also pairs with the Wilentz objection that the project got factual details wrong - Douglass’s point that masters had ‘their full day in court’ anticipates the rebuttal. — connects to: Media-disseminated crises like the oil shock are simulations maintaining historical investment. — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 139; Taken-for-granted cultural narratives exert the most power — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 143
• CANDY: A quotable, self-contained Douglass passage about how the powerful always get to tell their own story first and best.