Has Nikole Hannah-Jones just written a new version of 'The Jungle'?

 by Monica Showalter

Writer Peachy Keenan has pointed out something important about New York Times commentator Nikole Hannah Jones's long piece about how she failed her daughter by forcing her to attend bottom-of-the-barrel public schools in New York City to prove that America is racist.

Much to her surprise, all she proved was that she could stiff her daughter out of a decent education, leaving her unprepared for college -- and quite angry at her parents for doing this to her.

And Peachy lists the ugly details:

As Keenan noted, Hannah-Jones buried the lede.

She could have been writing for years, and for the New York Times, no less, on the outrageous state of public education in New York City -- schools that don't teach, teachers who don't show up, principals who have better things to do than be at school, cafeteria workers who stand around and do nothing as children fight, homework that never gets graded, emails that never get answered, and kids who can't read, do fractions, or master long division, yet take home straight A's.

That was the lede, and Hannah-Jones sat on it, for years, possibly thinking of how to protect her AFT union buddies who were out promoting her error-filled 1619 Project, while at the same time, forcing that kid to go to those bad schools for eight long years. Just the first year ought to have been enough to pull the kid and put her in a decent learning environment. Instead, she had eight years of notes which could have become some exceptional news-making.

Now the Manhattan Institute is using the interest drawn in this piece to shine a big spotlight on all the miserable failures of New York City's educational system, highlighting the exorbitant amount of money spent -- $52,000 per pupil and teachers on $100,000 a year salaries -- and comparing it unfavorably to nearby charter schools:

Word is getting around, and people are looking around now, the focus is on the schools.

So, congratulations, Nikole Hannah-Jones.

You're a regular Nick Shirley, exposing the outrageous fraud of public school education in New York City, even as you think you are promoting DEI or rage over racism or something.

Or more specifically, you are becoming the new Upton Sinclair.

Sinclair, recall, was a progressive-era muckraker who wrote 'The Jungle' in 1906, with the express aim of converting America to socialism.

His book described the filthy meat-packing plants of Chicago and the terrible labor conditions experienced by America's Lithuanian and other immigrant workers in a wrenching, emotionally engaging book that became a massive bestseller.

But much to his surprise, he didn't convert anyone to socialism.

People read about those filthy meat-packing plants where chemicals and spoilage were present, and absolutely shuddered at the thought that they were eating from them.

That prompted major legislation to reform food sanitation practices, including the Meat Inspection Act, and the Pure Food and Drug Act by Congress. 

Sinclair never quite knew what hit him, famously saying:

I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.

That's what Hannah-Jones just did: she shined a spotlight on the rotten meat of New York City's educational 'product,' and like Sinclair, drew huge attention.

It's kind of ironic, because she likes to use the name 'Ida Bae Wells' -- another famous muckraker and contemporary of Sinclair's -- on her X and Bluesky handles. 

She is a muckraker indeed with this education piece, which is a very good one about what goes on in New York City's union-controlled public schools.

Which is kind of funny: She may be triggering big educational reform waves from this piece, when what she wanted to do was hammer America a little harder on her tired old racism claims.

She's just like Sinclair, aiming for the heart of America with her ideology, and hitting it in the brains.

Dollars to donuts, reform comparable to Sinclair's will come of this, hopefully, in more charter schools, more school choice, the rooting out of fraud, more actual work required for the big salaries, and defunded boondoggles.

The disgusting specter has been exposed now, and everyone is paying attention. Reform is likely to draw bipartisan support to end the lunacy in public school education -- including all the arguments about how being punctual is 'white,' disciplining troublemakers is 'racist,' fleeing bad schools is 'white,' again, giving grades that matter is bad for self-esteem, and opposing union dominance is Trump.

How ironic that it comes from her when all she wanted to do was preach DEI.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/09/has-nikole-hannah-jones-just-written-a-new-version-of-the-jungle/