NYT Magazine - March 22 2020

Illustrations by Giacomo Gambineri 5

Photo illustration by Nix + Gerber Studio

The Thread

EDITOR’S NOTE

Last week we made a clarifi cation to a

passage in an essay from The 1619 Project

that has sparked a great deal of online

debate. The passage in question states

that a primary reason the colonists fought

the American Revolution was to protect

the institution of slavery. This assertion

has elicited criticism from some histori-

ans and support from others.

We stand behind the basic point,

which is that among the various moti-

vations that drove the patriots toward

independence was a concern that the

British would seek or were already

seeking to disrupt in various ways the

entrenched system of American slavery.

Versions of this interpretation can be

found in much of the scholarship into

the origins and character of the Revo-

lution that has marked the last 40 years

or so of early-American historiography

— in part because historians of the last

few decades have increasingly scruti-

nized the role of slavery and the agency

of enslaved people in driving events of

the Revolutionary period.

That accounting is itself part of a grow-

ing acceptance that the patriots repre-

sented a truly diverse coalition animated

by a variety of interests, which varied by

region, class, age, religion and a host of

other factors, a point succinctly demon-

strated in the title that the historian Alan

Taylor chose for his 2016 account of the

period: “American Revolutions.” If the

scholarship of the last several decades has

taught us anything, it is that we should

be careful not to assume unanimity on

the part of the colonists, as many previ-

ous interpretive histories of the patriot

cause did. We recognize that our original

language could be read to suggest that

Francesca Mari’s article depicts an Invi-

tation Homes we don’t recognize. We are

proud to off er high-quality homes in great

neighborhoods at market-competitive

rents for people who are not looking to

own. We are even more proud of our

more than 1,100 associates who work hard

every day to deliver superior service to

the 80,000 American families who call our

properties home. We measure that suc-

cess in resident satisfaction, underscored

by our 70 percent lease-renewal rate and

our 96 percent occupancy rate.

Dallas Tanner, Co-Founder, President

and C.E.O., Invitation Homes

RE: HIDEO KOJIMA

Adrian Chen profi led the enigmatic video-

game designer.

As a 48-year-old woman who literal-

ly hasn’t touched a video game since

the 1980s, I only clicked on this article

because it was included in my daily news

email from The Times. I fi gured I would

skim it but was so absorbed in the nar-

rative that I read every word.

Shira McKernan, Paris

RE: BLUED

Yi-Ling Liu wrote about one of the bigg est

gay dating apps in the world.

The writer has many good insights about

L.G.B.T.Q. dating culture in China. In this

era, however, it is incredible that the arti-

cle focuses almost entirely on gay men. It

gives little thought to lesbian or transgen-

der dating.

Jordan Schoenfeld, Hanover, N.H.

Send your thoughts to [email protected].

‘I only clicked

on this article

because it

was included

in my daily

news email from

The Times.’

THE STORY,

ON TWITTER

The huge

wealth transfer

from struggling

homeowners to

private-equity firms

is going about

as you’d expect.

@PennyWriter

protecting slavery was a primary motiva-

tion for all of the colonists. The passage

has been changed to make clear that this

was a primary motivation for some of the

colonists. A note has been appended to

the article as well.

Revision and clarifi cation are import-

ant parts of historical inquiry, and we

are grateful to the many scholars whose

insightful advice has helped us decide

to make this change, among them Dan-

ielle Allen, Carol Anderson, Christopher

L. Brown, Eric Foner, Nicholas Guyatt,

Leslie Harris, Woody Holton, Martha

S. Jones, Jack N. Rakove, James Brew-

er Stewart and David Waldstreicher.

Recently, The New York Times Magazine

also hosted a public conversation about

this very subject with the historians

Annette Gordon-Reed, Eliga H. Gould,

Gerald Horne, Alan Taylor and Karin

Wulf. These fi ve scholars also helped

deepen our sense of the period’s com-

plexity. (A video of the conversation can

be found online, as well as a list of sug-

gested readings on the topic prepared

by the Omohundro Institute of Early

American History & Culture.)

One outcome of The 1619 Project that

we are grateful for is how it has shown

all of us, historians and journalists alike,

how important it is to continue to work

together constructively to illuminate

the past.

Jake Silverstein

Editor in Chief

Readers respond to the 3.8.2020 issue.

RE: THE GREAT WALL STREET

HOUSING GRAB

Francesca Mari wrote about how thousands

of single-family homes are now in the hands

of private-equity companies.