Critical race theory comes to my backyard [With Comment by John]

Thomas Pyle Middle School is in my backyard. Not literally. Literally, it’s a five minute walk from my house.

Both of my daughters attended Pyle. Neither liked it much. But who likes middle school?

Whatever the school’s shortcomings, my daughters got through it largely unscathed and without being indoctrinated. There was a liberal slant to some of the instruction, but nothing shocking. Certainly, they were not taught that we aren’t “one human family” and that it’s racist to think we are, or that America is a white supremacist enterprise intent on bringing about the demise of Blacks.

But that was then — 20 years ago. This is now.

Judicial Watch reports:

In Thomas Pyle Middle School’s “social justice” class course curriculum, there is a slide titled “What is systemic racism?” in which students are shown a pyramid slide depicting “Differences between overt and covert hateful white supremacy.” According to the pyramid, “Make America Great Again” is an example of “covert white supremacy” that is “socially unacceptable.” The phrase is ranked on a pyramid just below “racial slurs.”

Examples of other unacceptable covert “white supremacy” include thinking “but we’re just one human family,” “colorblindness,” “cultural appropriation,” “celebration of Columbus Day,” “police murdering POC [people of color],” and “bootstrap theory.”

It might be worth taking the class just to discover how “colorblindness” can amount to “white supremacy.” But I doubt there’s any coherent attempt to explain this rhetorical sleight of hand.

As for “bootstrap theory,” I assume this means that people should try to pull themselves up, rather than relying on others — especially the government — to do it for them. It has worked for generation after generation of Americans, including immigrants, many of whom were discriminated against when they arrived here.

But left-wing activists aren’t satisfied with the extent to which it’s working for Blacks these days. Thus, the concept of self-reliance is deemed unacceptable.

There’s more:

A class slide titled “Implicit Bias, Structural Racism” states:

*Race is created to justify enslaving people from Africa (economic engine of country).

*National narrative (ideology, belief system) about people of color being ‘less than’ human (and less than white) justifies mistreatment and inequality (white supremacy).

*Dominant narratives about race (family, media, society) coupled with racialized structural arrangements and differential outcomes by race all prime us to believe that people of color are inferior to white people …

I don’t think it ever occurred to my daughters that “people of color” are inferior to white people. Maybe it would have occurred to them if they had taken a class in middle school that insisted this is what we are “primed to believe.”

The insanity continues:

The students are asked: “What is White Privilege?” and are instructed that white privilege includes, among other things: having “a positive relationship with the police, generally;” . . .

The class is provided “definitions” created by www.racialequitytools.org. The terms that are defined include:

“Black Lives Matter,” which is defined as “A political movement to address systemic and state violence against African Americans.” It claims that “Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise.”

“Power,” defined among other things as: “Wealth, whiteness, citizenship, patriarchy, heterosexism, and education are a few key social mechanisms through which power operates.”

“Racist policies,” is defined with the statement, “There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy.”

“White Privilege,” which is defined as “to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white.” And “Structure white privilege” is described as “A system of white domination that creates and maintains belief systems that make current racial advantages and disadvantages seem normal.”

Under the heading “White Supremacy,” “White supremacy culture,” is defined as referring, “to the dominant, unquestioned standards of behavior and ways of functioning embodied by the vast majority of institutions in the United States.” White supremacy culture is further defined as “the glue that binds together white-controlled institutions into systems and white-controlled systems into the global white supremacy system.”

(Emphasis added)

Students are advised to view a Ted Talk interview with Patrisse Cullors, a founder of Black Lives Matter. Maybe they should also review her high-priced properties to learn about the privileges associated with race hustling and promoting divisions among Americans.

Mercifully, this class is not yet part of the required curriculum at Pyle. The County describes it as one-week “Summer Boost” class. An awful lot of jargon-laden claptrap is being crammed into one week. Much more, one hopes, than the students can absorb.

The County also noted that “no grades were given and no actual work [was] due.” The course thus represents a perfect match of form and content.

But while the class apparently involved no required work, there was a recommended assignment. Students were encouraged to fill out a form letter with contact information addressed to federal, state, and county education officials asking for more critical race theory classes in schools.

“Action civics” at work.

Unfortunately, students may not need to ask to be subjected to this exercise in self-hating, race-baiting, and America-bashing. The left is pushing hard to impose just these sort of teachings — the class taught at Pyle isn’t an outlier — in classrooms all across America. The Biden administration is poised to assist.

Unless we fight back, critical race theory will be coming to all of our backyards, and with a vengeance.

JOHN adds: Paul is right, critical race theory is coming to all of our backyards. It has already arrived in many of them. My organization is about to launch a 16-stop tour of the State of Minnesota, informing parents, and citizens generally, about the hateful doctrines of critical race theory, and how we can fight them.

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