Fighting for Our History & National Identity

A Voice of Reason in Chaos

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In 2020, the media, leftist politicians, corporate America, and America’s schools forced obedience to a new “woke” ideology that rejects America’s founding principles as a relic of “white privilege” and dismisses America’s institutions as fundamentally racist. Many Americans—under the spell of this false ideology—took to the streets in angry and often violent uprisings.

We revealed the ideology of those leading the uprisings. We called for law and order but also for respecting Americans’ right to peaceful protest. We explained how the left was using identity politics and critical race theory to set the stage for socialism. And we partnered with new allies across the country to stop the infusion of anti-American sentiment and leftist ideology into our nation’s schools.

Exposing Critical Race Theory

In September, the Trump administration instructed federal agencies to “cease and desist” from conducting taxpayer-funded employee training sessions based on critical race theory, in which many were forced to confess their racism and “white privilege.”

Critical race theory in the workplace is a problem that was well documented by Heritage in 2020. In July, for example, Heritage convened a panel event titled “Wokeism at Work: How ‘Critical Theory’ and Anti-Racism Training Divide America.” The event kicked off a meaningful, strategy-focused conversation among conservative allies on how to stand up to critical race theory in the workplace.

The Biden administration was quick to restore the trainings via executive order, but to some extent, it’s too late. The seeds of victory were planted: Millions of Americans now know that their tax dollars are paying for an unjust, divisive, punitive, ideological work environment for many Americans.

Critical race theory now permeates government, corporations, Hollywood, schools, and even the military. In 2020, we empowered people across America to stand up to critical race theory.

Allies across the country used our fact sheet on critical race theory, whether to talk to an employer, a teacher, a neighbor, or a legislator.

Our Oct. 25 “Heritage Explains” podcast, “How Critical Race Theory is Dividing America,” was our second most popular of the year.

Heritage’s Angeles T. Arredondo Fellow Mike Gonzalez exposed identity politics with the book “The Plot to Change America: How Identity Politics Is Dividing the Land of the Free.”

We briefed more than 50 coalition partners on critical race theory and held strategy calls with hundreds of Heritage Action’s Sentinels.

Our strategy event with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on critical race theory drew 75 attendees from 15 states, including key state legislators.

The Link to Socialism

Critical race theory is a Marxist framework that rejects equality under law, neutral legal principles, meritocracy, and individual rights. The mainstream media refused to talk about the Marxist roots of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and its rejection of capitalism and the nuclear family.

We laid out the facts for the American people.

In September, Gonzalez was the first to uncover that the Chinese Progressive Association acts as fiscal agent for the Black Futures Lab, a venture of Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza. He shared his report on the “Sean Hannity Show.”

Another big win: In July, Gonzalez and Heritage Coalition Relations Director Andy Olivastro wrote a scathing op-ed in the New York Post titled “The Agenda of Black Lives Matter Is Far Different From the Slogan.” In it, they highlighted several Marxist proclamations made by BLM on its website, such as “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”

The op-ed was by far Heritage’s most read commentary of the year, with nearly 1 million views by the end of 2020. Shortly after it was published, there was a plunge in support for BLM, and the organization scrubbed its page of the offending language.

Of course, at Heritage, leading the fight against socialism is what we do.

It is the driving force behind nearly every one of our papers, events, congressional testimonies, op-eds, podcasts, and videos. On social media, where Heritage and The Daily Signal have a combined following of 3 million, we’re waging an information war against socialism. In 2020, we took our activities up a notch, running digital ads against socialism that ran on major cable TV networks. And a paper by Heritage’s Lee Edwards’ (“Three Nations That Tried Socialism and Rejected It”) was the second most read piece on heritage.org in 2020.

No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes.

Corporate America Goes “Woke”

Corporate America has become a place of leftists, by leftists, and for leftists—with strong weaponry to shut down opposition.

Throughout 2020, we exposed corporations’ efforts to cancel conservative voices. We supported employees who have come under fire for their beliefs. And we outed corporate supporters of Black Lives Matter and its offshoots.

• In June, Heritage President Kay C. James called out Amazon’s reliance on the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify and exclude “hate groups” from its Amazon Smile charitable donation program.
• We drew attention to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and his firm’s support of leftist environmental, social, and governance policies.
• We gave Daily Signal readers a look at 18 companies—from Amazon to DoorDash to Tinder—that direct financial support to Black Lives Matter.
• The Daily Signal called out the largest corporate CEO trade association and four Fortune 50 companies that support BLM.

Restoring Law and Order

State and local officials seemed incapable of stopping the mayhem and riots of 2020. We stepped in to provide a plan of action and timely solutions.

We condemned violent attacks on statues and memorials as not mere vandalism—but an assault on the U.S. itself and our values. As a result of our work, in July, President Trump issued an executive order directing greater protection of federal monuments, memorials, statues, and property.

In summer 2020, we launched an investigative series looking into a growing problem in major cities like Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia: elected rogue district attorneys who sabotage the rule of law, ignore victims, and raise crime rates. We connected the dots between the violence and riots and the malpractice committed by rogue prosecutors funded by billionaires like George Soros.

We looked at the data on police shootings and encouraged real reform. We made the point that there is no evidence to suggest that America’s local police forces are “systemically racist,” but that police misconduct must be punished. We called attention to the need to stop manipulation by police unions so that misconduct can be dealt with—not swept under the rug.

Backing the Blue

While Heritage provided the research and arguments against violent protest and defunding the police, Heritage Action put lawmakers on record through its Police Pledge, pro-police rallies across America, and pro-police billboards in Atlanta, Dallas, and New York City.

The Police Pledge got citizens and lawmakers on record as opposing any bill, resolution, or movement that defunds the police. Heritage Action unveiled the pledge at an event in Des Moines, Iowa, with Vice President Mike Pence. The pledge gained 225,217 signatures by the end of 2020, with 500 of them coming from elected officials and candidates.

Heritage Action’s Police Pledge even contributed to the victories of conservative congressional candidates, such as Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa. Miller-Meeks won her race by six votes after the local police union endorsed her when she publicly signed the Police Pledge.

That’s how they beat [...] us across the country, saying that we’re talking about defunding the police.

Righting History

The New York Times’ controversial, Pulitzer Prize-winning publication, the 1619 Project, rewrites America’s history and slanders our institutions as driven by racism and capitalist “greed.” As of December 2020, elements of the 1619 Project are being taught in more than 4,500 classrooms in all 50 states.

We’ve been fighting the 1619 Project and its curriculum since day one, and in February 2020, we launched the Restoring Civics Coalition. This coalition is convincing parents and teachers to reject inaccurate, anti-American curricula. While President Joe Biden may have disbanded his predecessor’s 1776 Commission and scrambled to hide its final report our coalition is one he can’t touch.

In 2020, our Restoring Civics Coalition doubled to 65 members. These include textbook publishers, education associations, teachers, think tank leaders, community influencers, and Heritage scholars.

Together, we sent revisionist history into retreat.

We forced the New York Times to correct reckless misrepresentations of history and publicly declare 1776 as the nation’s founding. In the face of pressure from Heritage and others, the 1619 Project’s author, Nikole Hannah-Jones, publicly admitted that “1619” isn’t history—it’s journalism.

In August, our visiting fellow Allen Guelzo discussed the 1619 Project on the popular “Ben Shapiro Show.” Guelzo served as a featured speaker for the White House Conference on American History. He was also featured historian on the History Channel’s miniseries on Ulysses S. Grant, which was watched by more than 3 million viewers.

President Trump’s 1776 Commission included Heritage Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez, Heritage alumni, and a Heritage trustee.

Reaching New Audiences

The Restoring Civics Coalition is an effort of our Edwin J. Feulner Institute. In 2020, we engaged 5 million Americans with an accurate, pro-American narrative. We analyzed curricula, produced a video debunking the 1619 Project, and trained community influencers—including parents and teachers—to reject “woke” history. We even distributed examples and standards for outstanding civics content (along with a critique of the 1619 Project curriculum) to 1,787 constituents, 27 governors, and 400 congressional staffers who work on education policies.

The Feulner Institute’s webinar series on the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Compact—celebrating religious liberty, the rule of law, and property rights—was streamed to more than 100 million viewers of CSPAN’s “American History TV.”