Recent interview comparing wife to MLK likened to hostage video recorded under duress
Many people are talking about Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times essay she wrote about why sending her daughter to a failing public school for political reasons was a major whoopsie.
Practically no one is talking about the husband who (allegedly) cosigned the decision.
That’s a shame. Men have feelings, too, and Faraji Hannah-Jones—yes, that’s actually his name—needs our compassion more than ever.
Mr. Hannah-Jones, an IT specialist at the ACLU, is neither mentioned nor pictured in the “Biography” section of his wife’s website. It does, however, list every single award or recognition she has ever received, including an honorary doctorate from Chicago State University.
Some of us are worried about him.
Faraji gave a bizarre interview to the New York Post last week. Some experts likened his comments to a hostage video recorded under duress. He described his wife as “one of the greatest writers of our time,” and predicted she would be remembered alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and other titans of the civil-rights movement. “She’s a very important piece to our American story,” Mr. Hannah-Jones said of Mrs. Hannah-Jones.
Faraji, who also serves on the governing body for New York City public schools, defended the couple’s decision to turn their daughter’s life into a botched political experiment. “We don’t regret the choice. I think as she gets older, I think she will appreciate it,” he said. “We knew that my daughter would be fine because she has parents who know how to advocate and intervene on her behalf.”
This was news to anyone who read the Times essay, in which Mrs. Hannah-Jones said she was “overcome with regret” about the decision, and acknowledged that her daughter deserved an apology because “I didn’t do the best for [her].”
Nikole has also flipped-flopped on the issue of regret. “The only reason I’m OK with my choice now is I’m like, you’re fine,” she told her daughter, Najya, on a recent episode of This American Life. “I felt this was important.”
Najya, now 16 and enrolled in one of the highly selective public schools her mother has consistently denounced as racist, does not necessarily agree. “I think I’m fine because I’m in the school I am now,” she said. “I feel like if I picked a different choice that you wanted me to, I don’t think I would be fine.”
What is really going on here?
In her 2016 essay congratulating herself for choosing a failing public school, Mrs. Hannah-Jones recalled how her husband thought it would be better to send their daughter to a school that wasn’t failing. Faraji’s “eyes widened” as she explained why a bad school was actually better.
“As I told Faraji my plan, he slowly shook his head no,” she wrote. “He wanted to look into parochial schools, or one of the ‘good’ public schools, or even private schools. So we argued, pleading our cases from the living room, up the steps to our office lined with books on slavery and civil rights, and back down, before we came to an impasse and retreated to our respective corners.”
Faraji “couldn’t believe” what his wife was asking him to do, and chafed at the thought of “experimenting with our child based on our idealism about public schools” in a way that would needlessly put her at a disadvantage.
Rarely in the course of human marriage has a husband ever been so vindicated.
Of course, Faraji (allegedly) changed his mind after his wife “persuaded” him to visit the bad school, where the walls were adorably “papered with the precocious musings of elementary children.” So that was the school they chose for Najya, who would go on to reach fourth grade believing she was a math genius because her teacher never checked her answers.
Mr. Hannah-Jones told the Post that “we” don’t regret the choice because “we” knew their daughter would be fine. His wife isn’t afraid to speak in the first person. He deserves a safe space to center his feelings. His recent behavior suggests a tormented soul crying out for help.
For example, Faraji was recently slapped with an ethics complaint for promoting the bookstore-themed bar “my wife and I are building” at an official meeting of the education board he serves on.
It’s not very dignified, is it?
Hang in there, man.
Read the full article here
