Social Justice Hits Home
Equity. Social Justice. Fairness. Identity. We’ve heard a lot about these concepts lately in today’s blender society. It’s been used as a club to beat the guilt out of right-thinking individuals. It’s been used as the foundation to build a false narrative about the founding of this country in 1619. It’s even bled over to sports, where multi-millionaire athletes remind us about our “unjust” society. They’re joined by a hodgepodge of others: Politicians. Tech Companies. Celebrities. Bureaucrats. They’ve all embraced this insidious platform that continues to course through the lifeblood of America. They stand on their glorious ivory pulpit, talking down to us simple “Neanderthals.”
We can tune most of this nonsense out. Some of us have tuned out politics and sports altogether. Unfortunately, it’s poisoning an institution where we have little control. It’s an institution where bureaucrats, not parents, have the final say in what is taught. I’m referring to the public schools.
My daughter recently “entered” kindergarten at the same elementary school I attended. I dreamed of this day. It’s a great school in a great community, despite what the snake oil salesmen at the Washington Post might say.
A few days later, I learned about this concept called “Unity Day.” Like any devoted parent, I started to ask questions about this “Unity Day.” It turned out it was much more than peer pressuring students to wear orange on the same day as if they were part of the Bolshevik Revolution. During these four “Unity Days” my daughter was to learn concepts centered around “social justice.”
Wonderful.
The first two “Unity Days” made me curious about what Annapolis was thinking. The third day caused me serious pause. The concept of “Justice/Fairness” was to be taught. I reviewed the lesson. It wasn’t the “Justice/Fairness” you often think about. No courtrooms. No sharing guided by morality. None of that.
The lesson framed “fairness” in terms of “equity.” I knew we were lost. Equity is this in vogue nonsense that people should receive the same outcome regardless of internal and outside forces. Regardless of choices. Regardless of morality. This callous idea embraces warped notions of justice and fairness. It teaches students that they deserve an outcome not because of work ethic or choices they made but because of their simple existence.
To help convey this chicanery, the lesson used an example of pie. Two kids were at a table with different-sized slices of pie. Seems harmless enough, right? Wrong. The lesson handed down by AACPS’s Office of Equity forced the kindergarteners to discuss why it was unfair for one kid to have a bigger piece than the other. That was the extent of the discussion.
Again, what the hell? It focused on the outcome, not what caused the two different pieces of pie. This type of lesson is wrong and starts our children down the path of potentially brutal outcomes.
Take it from the late Walter Williams (from 1988)
"Indeed there is considerable unfairness in American society, but it cannot be detected, much less eliminated, by constant focus on outcomes. Instead, we need to focus our energies on examination of process and the rules of the game. Pursuit of the mirage of social justice, seen as being determined by outcomes, leads to gross human rights abuse. History is filled with episodes where social goals were set, and whenever the rights of individuals interfered with the attainment of the goals, those rights were brutally suppressed by an all-powerful state."
“Brutally suppressed by an all-powerful state.” Sound familiar? I’m sure the 3-5 million people who died during Stalin’s reign would have something to say about equity.
But let’s revisit this lesson. Two kids with different size pieces of pie. It focused on the outcome, not the reason—the process/rules as Williams discusses—why there were two different outcomes. What if one of the kids mowed the lawn to secure his bigger piece? What if one of the kids saved his piece of pie from the prior night? What if the one kids was bad? The lesson completely sacrificed the “why” for “everybody gets an equal share” concept of fairness. The real lesson should be the freedom to make choices and the results of those choices. I know, it’s only an alien concept our country was founded upon. You know, LIBERTY. But the schools want to teach equality of outcome over freedom, over liberty.
As we have seen from history and as Thomas Sowell eloquently states, sacrificing freedom for equality does not bode well for our society.
“A society that puts equality—in the sense of equality of outcome—ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.”
Once again, ask any individual from a country that controls equality of outcome how they feel about what our schools are teaching. Venezuela anyone?
It was no surprise when I learned where this poison was coming from: Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Teaching Tolerance’ coursework. AACPS has adopted this radical organization’s platform. The ‘Teaching Tolerance’ curriculum pushes nonsense like the School-To-Prison Pipeline (teachers shouldn’t discipline misbehaving kids), sexualized programs that run contrary to Christian households, and pushing discredited nonsense propaganda like the 1619 Project (that has already been shown to be factually inaccurate). Even if you agree, SPCL’s far-left agenda has no place in our schools. Don’t force your beliefs on my kids.
While other nations are surpassing us in educating their children in novel concepts like math and science, we’re teaching our kids about equity and social justice. But the almighty bureaucrats in education will argue that certain people have barriers to economic success because of class or ethnic status. This is also nonsense. Why do Nigerian immigrants, Indian immigrants, and Asian immigrants outperform our children in tests? Why do people who start in the bottom 20 percent of income earners rise out of their position? Why do the majority of those income earners find themselves in the top 20 percent rather than stay in the bottom 20 percent?
We are sacrificing our children in the name of progressive values that will ultimately unravel the fabric of our society. We’re doing this because those in power make us feel guilty for questioning their motives. They slap us in the face with notions of ‘privilege’ while our children suffer. Our children are falling behind in school, but damn are they feeling good about giving up opportunity in the name of Equity.
It’s time the parents stand up. It’s time to realize that we can have control. We need to extract this venom from our schools so our children can grow up understanding that it is a solid work ethic, not feelings, that breed success and results. Enough about feelings. Life doesn’t care about your feelings. Tell your kids to wear what they want to wear. Save the orange for the Orioles.