‘Parents wary of critical race theory’

[This is the second in a three-part series of articles on CRT by Ms McLaughlin.  The first was posted here on 16 June 2021.  This column appeared here in the 1jul21 edition of The Union.  gjr]

Terry McLaughlin

California residents may be familiar with euphemisms for critical race theory, such as “ethnic studies,” “educational equity” and “culturally responsive teaching,” but may not understand the philosophical premise, which is to divide all people into oppressors and oppressed.

My last column sought to describe examples of critical race theory curriculum our children may be exposed to, but parents who are speaking up all around the country tell the more authoritative story from their firsthand experience.

One such parent is Andrew Gutmann, who made the decision to remove his daughter from New York’s elite Brearley School after seven years of enrollment because he “no longer believes that Brearley’s administration and board of trustees have any of our children’s best interests at heart.”

Gutmann wrote a 2,000-word letter to fellow Brearley parents explaining his decision, based upon his personal observations. The first-person words of his open letter are descriptive and compelling, and worth sharing here:

“I cannot tolerate a school that not only judges my daughter by the color of her skin, but encourages and instructs her to prejudge others by theirs.

“I object to the charge of systemic racism in this country and at our school. Systemic racism, properly understood, is segregated schools and separate lunch counters. It is the interning of Japanese and the exterminating of Jews. … We have not had systemic racism … since the civil rights reforms of the 1960s. … To state otherwise is a flat-out misrepresentation of our country’s history and adds no understanding to any of today’s societal issues.

“I object to a definition of systemic racism … that any educational, professional, or societal outcome where Blacks are underrepresented is prima facie evidence of … white supremacy and oppression. Facile and unsupported beliefs such as these are the polar opposite to the intellectual and scientific truth for which Brearley claims to stand.

“I object to the idea that Blacks are unable to succeed in this country without aid from government or from whites. Brearley, by adopting critical race theory, is advocating the abhorrent viewpoint that Blacks should forever be regarded as helpless victims, and are incapable of success regardless of their skills, talents, or hard work. What Brearley is teaching our children is precisely the true and correct definition of racism.

“I object to Brearley’s vacuous, inappropriate and fanatical use of words such as ‘equity,’ ‘diversity,’ and ‘inclusiveness.’ If Brearley’s administration was truly concerned about so-called ‘equity,’ it would be discussing the cessation of admissions preferences for legacies, siblings, and those families with especially deep pockets. If the administration were genuinely serious about ‘diversity,’ it would not insist on the indoctrination of its students and their families, to a single mindset. … Instead, the school would foster an environment of intellectual openness and freedom of thought. And if Brearley really cared about ‘inclusiveness,’ the school would return to the concepts encapsulated in the motto ‘One Brearley,’ instead of teaching the extraordinarily divisive idea that there are only, and always, two groups in this country: victims and oppressors.

“I object to the gutting of the history, civics, and classical literature curriculums. I object to the censorship of books that have been taught for generations. … I object to the erosion of rigor in classwork and the escalation of grade inflation.

“We have today in our country, from both political parties, and at all levels of government, the most unwise and unvirtuous leaders in our nation’s history. Schools like Brearley are supposed to be the training ground for those leaders. Our nation will not survive a generation of leadership even more poorly educated than we have now, nor will we survive a generation of students taught to hate its own country and despise its history.

“Lastly, I object … that Brearley has begun to teach what to think, instead of how to think. I object that the school is now fostering an environment where our daughters and our daughters’ teachers are afraid to speak their minds in class for fear of ‘consequences.’ … Brearley is fostering a divisive community where families of different races, which until recently were part of the same community, are now segregated into two.

“It is abundantly clear that the majority of parents believe that Brearley’s antiracism policies are misguided, divisive, counterproductive and cancerous. Many believe, as I do, that these policies will ultimately destroy what was until recently, a wonderful educational institution. But given the insidious cancel culture that has of late permeated our society, most parents are too fearful to speak up.

“But speak up you must. There is strength in numbers, and I assure you, the numbers are there. Contact the administration and the Board of Trustees and demand an end to the destructive and anti-intellectual claptrap. … For the sake of our community, our city, our country, and most of all, our children, silence is no longer an option.”

Andrew Gutmann’s sentiments are being echoed by other concerned parents in Virginia, Florida, Connecticut, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, California and other states throughout our nation. As they are awakening to the attitudes and concepts buried within critical race theory curriculum, the voices of more parents, from all ethnic groups, are growing louder and stronger every day. For them, silence is no longer an option.

Comments

[Gregory]

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-nea-adopts-motion-to-promote-critical-race-theory-in-americas-schools

[scenes]

re: Gregory@5:13AM

The real deal.
https://ra.nea.org/business-items/?type=nbi&yr=2021&pg=all

https://ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/

"B. Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project."

They really are all-in for The Revolution. To some extent, I admire the sheer gall of the whole thing after all the bitching about some Trump Guys In Pickup Trucks and the couple of hundred people let into the Capitol. Team Blue has the bit in their teeth and they are going for it. Any time you can seize power, which is what this is about after all, under a fig leaf of righteousness, the foot soldiers will propel it along.

If Western Civilization is going to save itself it needs to gin up an emotionally strong alternative, and in a hurry. Dabbling with a personality cult was obviously insufficient.

[Bill Tozer]

Might be on topic.

‘Robin DiAngelo Cashes In On Her Audience’s White Guilt, Calls Them All Racist Again In New Book’
Infamous author Robin DiAngelo is yet again seeking to profit off of white guilt, this time even calling her own audience of white progressives racist in hopes they will buy her 'cure.'

“Whiteness is perhaps the premier target of critical race theorists, with psychoanalyst Donald Moss calling it a “parasitic condition” and a “pathology” without a “permanent cure,” while deceased historian, Harvard lecturer, and member of the Communist Party Noel Ignatiev wrote “Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity” in a journal he founded titled “Race Traitor.”

While “whiteness” has frequently been targeted by critical race theorists, DiAngelo pushes the line even farther into dangerous absurdity. By deeming “well-meaning” whiteness as problematic, DiAngelo leads the honest reader to only two possible conclusions.

Either whiteness, and therefore white people, are irredeemably evil regardless of their individual intentions or behavior, a claim that appears to offer a post-modern, moralistic twist to the incredibly dangerous claims of innate racial inferiority that historically ungirds oppression, or well-intentioned white people simply need to unquestioningly cough up their money and guzzle the venomous snake oil that DiAngelo sells in order to finally break free from the sin that taints the circumstance of their very existence.

Neither outcome is suitable for any self-respecting person of any race, but unfortunately DiAngelo has correctly identified her audience. She’s well-prepared to cash in on the guilt of white progressives who iwill almost certainly line up, wallet in hand, as the high priestess of anti-racism teaches her servile laypeople how to root out their “nice racism.”

The real tragedy isn’t merely that DiAngelo is resorting to such a perverse way to make money. What’s truly startling is just how effective it is.

Apparently, the guilt complex of woke white progressives is so intense that many of them will pay to read DiAngelo, a far-left white person, malign the whiteness of far-left white white people in a 224-page audit of the internalized white supremacy that allegedly resides in the collective psyches of woke white progressives.”

https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/30/robin-diangelo-cashes-in-on-her-audiences-white-guilt-calls-them-all-racist-again-in-new-book/

[🐠]

Posted by: Bill Tozer | 05 July 2021 at 09:06 AM

I know of at least one white girl who would call pigeon chested Robin a.....grifter.....grifter.....grifter.

[Bill Tozer]

Teachers Union President Falsely Claims CRT Critics Want To Ban Schools From ‘Teaching History,’ ‘Discussing Racism’

“One must inevitably ask: Why do Weingarten and other Leftists have to lie in order to get CRT taught in schools? The reason may have something to do with the fact that CRT and similar ideologies are angering parents of all races. Also, only Democrats support CRT, while the rest of Americans reject its teachings.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-president-falsely-claims-crt-critics-want-to-ban-schools-from-teaching-history-discussing-racism
———————-
Old news to us, but now has been made public

Largest teachers union says critical race theory is 'reasonable and appropriate' for kids
The National Education Association has contradicted the progressive argument that CRT is too complicated to teach to K-12 students

https://www.foxnews.com/us/largest-teachers-union-critical-race-theory-reasonable-and-appropriate
—————————-
Nation’s Largest Teachers Union Moves Forward With Resolution That Dubs Israel ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’

The NEA is not the only teachers union making comments about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. According to the Washington Free Beacon, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten criticized Jews as being “part of the ownership class” in an interview.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-largest-teachers-union-moves-forward-with-resolution-that-dubs-israel-occupied-palestinian-territory

[Bill Tozer]

‘Nation’s Largest Teachers Union Says It Will Teach Critical Race Theory In All 50 States, 14,000 School Districts’

The resolution flies in the face of some Democrats and many in the mainstream media who claim that critical race theory doesn’t exist.

The former Virginia Governor and current gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said that critical race theory is “another right-wing conspiracy theory” that was “totally made up by Donald Trump.” MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd called critical race theory “manufactured.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-largest-teachers-union-says-it-will-teach-critical-race-theory-in-all-50-states-1400-school-districts

[Bill Tozer]

One man’s opinion

‘Why America needs to ban critical race theory in schools’

https://nypost.com/2021/07/04/why-america-needs-to-ban-critical-race-theory-in-schools/

[Bill Tozer]

Meanwhile, the NEA is busy scrubbing it’s website like a busy Biden appointee to delete references that they just pushed for CRT to be taught in schools, Kindergarten and up. Reminds me of what BLM leadership did about being trained Marxists and rather blatant calls for the destruction of the new clear family. Man, is the CRT crowd, the BLM crowd. and the intersectionality crowd are hung up on transgenders or what?? Like, obsession.

Did like the video of a black man standing up at school board meeting and told the board that they are teaching his daughter to hate her mother. I can’t believe how articulate and sharp those educated parents are.

In another place...on a weekday school board meeting, like on a Tuesday at 2:00 pm, about two hundred to two hundred fifty people stood waiting in the 100 degree sun for the meeting to start. Many never publicly protested anything in their life whole lives, or been involved politics. Don’t sound like Astro-turf to me.

Wipe the server with a cloth. Scrub, scrub, scrub.

[George Rebane]

A correspondent (No Labels member) sent me a link to a WaPo report on CRT doings in Loudon County, Virginia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/loudoun-critical-race-theory-transgender-rights/2021/07/05/3dab01b8-d4eb-11eb-ae54-515e2f63d37d_story.html

This was his attempt to show that the lamestream also gives complete reports of what's happening in the country. Well, no. Unfortunately, the content of the piece does not tell the paper’s regular readers what are the race-based specifics that are now being mandated by AFT and NEA for the nation’s classrooms, and citations of the materials that are actually being taught across the land. On the leftwing media neither are shown the actual videos of parents testifying at the various school board meetings both in Virginia and elsewhere, and the quoted responses of the pro-CRT school board members.

It is clear that if one only watches approved media, then he gets a very jaundiced and one-sided view of what’s going on. This is definitely not the case with conservative media which includes in its reporting video segments from CNN, MSNBC, et al, and direct quotes plus audios of Democrat supporters of CRT education.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-education/2021/07/06/teacher-unions-push-back-on-debate-over-critical-race-theory-796311
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teachers-unions-vow-to-defend-members-in-critical-race-theory-fight/2021/07
https://www.ilctr.org/generation-z-diversity-and-fake-news/

Especially useful to follow the links on the last URL to find out what’s actually taught. And the obvious hanky-panky conducted by CRT-promoting politicians and institutions in their attempts to deny the actual neo-Marxist content of their new classroom curricula.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/national-education-association-takes-down-pages-crt-anti-racism-mandatory-vaccine-assembly-proposals

But all this aside, I am forever puzzled by my liberal friends who agree with me, when I outline why large, centrally planned/controlled institutions (public and private) inevitably reach what might be called the bureaucratic performance limit (BPL), and then in their next breath approve policy proposals that will further enlarge an already over-bloated and dysfunctional government that has years of demonstrated incompetency. When I ask them about the dichotomy, they remain speechless and just repeat why the next government ‘investment’ will be for the greater good. BTW, when a private business reaches its BPL, then the classical and very effective response is to become a corporatist, and use its wealth to buy government guns to guarantee its markets and limit competitors.

[scenes]

"Meanwhile, the NEA is busy scrubbing it’s website like a busy Biden appointee to delete references that they just pushed for CRT to be taught in schools,"

roflmao. My links from several posts up are gone gone gone. A quick search on their site tells me that the docs are gone gone gone.

We've always been at war with Eastasia.

Luckily the Website in the High Castle never forgets.
">https://ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/">
https://web.archive.org/web/20210702133611/https://ra.nea.org/business-item/2021-nbi-039/

[scenes]

note: you'll have to cut 'n past the archive link since typepad is the worst software ever written.

[Bill Tozer]

Try this.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/how-radical-are-the-teachers-unions-2.php

[scenes]

"...The war over “Critical Race Theory” in this sense has become a political marketing campaign that’s uniquely double-edged in its cynicism. Democrats are pretending they don’t know what the fuss is all about. Republicans are pretending there isn’t a dog whistle in their backlash campaign. At the center of it all is the concept itself, which does exist but is much broader, and both more interesting and more frightening, than the narrow race theory that has Republican politicians in maximum wig-out mode...."

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/is-critical-race-theory-the-wrong-836

[George Rebane]

re scenes 216pm - For the links to be live in most text editors like the one here for comments, their URLs must have their own lines - i.e. I'm not aware of any text editor that will parse run-together URLs into individual live links. I have corrected scenes 214pm to illustrate this.

[scenes]

re: GeorgeR@10:22AM

I believe that it still doesn't work as a clickable link.

I'll just try this.

http://alturl.com/gd4mr

[Gregory]

Scenes 745am

No to Successor ideology, implies success.

KenDiAngeloism has a ring to it...

[Bill Tozer]

Nothing new.

VIDEO: The Media Are Lying About Critical Race Theory

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/bill-dagostino/2021/07/13/video-media-are-lying-about-critical-race-theory

[Bill Tozer]

The People v. Critical Race Theory
Lawsuits are a vital tool in the struggle against race-based programming in public schools

https://www.city-journal.org/evanston-illinois-teacher-lawsuit-over-critical-race-theory