Who knew that demanding that our schools teach liberty instead of victimhood and equity would lead to an internet uprising worthy of Jonestown? None of this was unexpected. In a society obsessed with race the parabolic reaction to twist my words—words that included thoughts penned by two black social scientists—into an essay about ethnicity was inevitable. Those with savior complexes crowded the pew of the Church of Wokeness, waved their DeAngelo manifestos in the air, and immediately turned to insults, even calling into question my ability to raise my daughter.
It was both humorous and disconcerting.
Humorous in the sense that people completely missed the point of the essay. You would think we were living in 1692 Salem with this type of misplaced hysteria.
Disconcerting in that only two people—TWO—dared to reach out to me. One was a Board of Ed. member. The other, Mr. S, a father of four, shared an exchange of emails. He was both pleasant and engaging. As a society once based on the sharing of ideas how far we have fallen.
None of the woke congregation noted that the column didn’t mention race. They were simply projecting their grievances. Or maybe they aren’t comfortable with someone shining the light on their propaganda. Maybe they don’t like the path of illumination.
I believe in honesty. This is the way.
So, let me say this one more time: Social Justice is an insidious curriculum that must be extracted for the public school system. I make no apologies for this statement. Equity is dangerous. It is an absolute gateway to communism.
However, some would argue, including AACPS, that the term “equity” means “equality of opportunity,” not “equality of outcomes.” This is predicated on some other notion, some idea that all is not fair in the United States. Maybe that idea comes from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance (now rebranded Learning for Justice). More on that later.
(Notice how everyone ends up in the same place?)
Unlike modern-day book burners, I want every child to succeed. Every single one of them. But that’s not what is being taught. The truth is not being taught. Equity, regardless of the definition, is being taught. And underlying equity is this idea that a minority or someone of lower-social status doesn’t have the tools necessary to succeed because of racism or classism. Because of this, they must be given extra tools. Seeds of communism. Marxism.
It concerns me that the smallest of our children are being indoctrinated into believing that the color of their skin or social station in life would prevent them from achieving success. Or that the color of their skin or social status should make them feel guilty because of their “privilege.”
How insulting. How damned insulting.
Rather than fill their young minds with this type of poison, they should be taught about liberty.
History is filled with countless stories of people who weren’t necessarily born with a silver spoon but ended up succeeding, regardless of their ethnicity or class. America is not the exception nor was it ever intended to be. America was about opportunity. Early immigrants knew this. After an exhausting trip across the Atlantic, some with nothing more than a few pieces of foreign currency (if that) in their pockets, these immigrants confronted the American Dream. And many of these European immigrants were discriminated against.
The Scots, including Adam Smith, faced terrible treatment from the Brits. What did Scotts do? Ingratiated themselves in the British culture, learned King’s English, educated themselves, and rose the ranks of prominence.
Black communities in America who experienced an 85% poverty level in the early 20th Century halved that in a decade to 40%. That number is now at historic lows of 19%. That number is 6.4% for married black couples. For context, the poverty level in Europe is 17.6%.
And more recently, immigrants from the West Indies have succeeded despite having no roots in America. West Indian families out-earned the national average income by 15%. Did I fail to mention that individuals from the West Indies are black? Those same immigrants out-earned American black families by 58%. Two-thirds of Harvard’s black students were either from the West Indies or immigrated from Africa.
My wife’s awesome OBGYN who we insisted deliver our last two children immigrated from Nigeria. I would encourage the congregation to read Professor Van C. Tran’s paper about the success of this population. Again, these individuals who now call (and should call) themselves American did not embrace victimhood simply because of the color of their skin.
But this idea of victimhood persists.
In the work I quoted from Dr. Walter E. Williams that so many the congregation rushed to ignore, an earlier paragraph sums up my thoughts about the congregations’ idea of history:
“Throughout American history, we have been recognized as the beacon and hope of the world’s freedom- cherishing people. This reputation was not earned because somehow Americans are congenitally morally superior people. On the contrary, our cultural-ethnic-religious mosaic consists of descendants of French, English, German, Irish, Jews, Greeks, Italians, Japanese, Chinese, Africans, Protestants, Catholics, and a host of other divisions of people who have been slaughtering one another in their homelands for centuries.”
This is the truth. We are great at being terrible. While some Americans purposefully suggest that slavery began and ended here, if one would open their eyes to the history of slavery, they would realize it runs the panacea of ethnic groups. Romans enslaved the Celts, North Africans enslaved European Christians, Western African Tribes enslaved each other. The only place in the world where slavery didn’t exist in 1776 was Western Europe. And slavery still exists now, but this doesn’t seem to concern the congregation. I wrote about it three years ago in the Capital. Funny how these stories of success or the real history of civilization are being taught in school. None of it is.
But I digress.
The most important lesson I learned early in my life was that I wasn’t blessed with a rocket arm. I would never lead the Baltimore Orioles to a Game 7 World Series victory. I also failed many times since that brutal realization. I got over every failure. I was knocked down, but I got right back up. Eventually, I found my foothold. I continue to grow with my family while others of much more prominent social status drink away their lives, waiting for their livers to fail. Tell me, who has the “privilege” in this scenario?
Equity is insulting to the majority of people—regardless of their ethnic group—who simply want their kids to succeed, to perhaps achieve a certain goal. And to say they cannot because they are of a certain economic background or racial background is absurd. Along with my previous facts, I encourage you to read about American soldiers in Germany; specifically, black military members who married German women. Their kids went to school with other military kids. A funny thing happened. There was no education gap. Nothing. Makes you wonder why. Maybe…culture.
But equity doesn’t teach you that. Equity whitewashes solutions and plays the blame game for failure. You should get that trophy that everyone else gets, simply by birthright. And if you don’t, it’s because of racism or classicism. It ignores that every one of us is unique.
It doesn’t teach work ethic. It teaches privilege.
It doesn’t teach causation. It teaches victimhood.
It doesn’t teach unity. It teaches guilt.
One of the man snake oil salesmen of this nonsense is the Southern Poverty Law Center. SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance AKA Learning for Justice Curriculum has made its way into our schools.
As I stated, I am honest. I had a conversation with a higher-up at AACPS (the article made it to Arlotto’s desk). That individual adamantly denied that they were using SPCL’s curriculum. Instead, he insisted they were using it as a “guide.” I’m not sure what is meant by a guide, but it does mean they’re using some material. Like this slide pulled from my daughter’s lesson:
So much for a “guide”
MSEA also seems important to project the Teaching Tolerance curriculum as a “guide”
Along with AACPS Board of Ed members:
Now, what is the Southern Poverty Law Center? To be fair, I will include opinion pieces that use hard facts about this hate-filled group from a former employee and a critic. As one can see (if they elect to read) SPLC isn’t exactly the paragon of virtue. They profiteer off of hate. And yet, AACPS wants to use this organization as a “guide?” What does that say about AACPS’s decision-making? Maybe there’s an agenda. Maybe there’s agenda of using SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance/Learning for Justice curriculum as a guide. What is this Teaching Tolerance/Learning for Justice Curriculum? Let’s review some of these principles that “guide” AACPS.
Again, the obsession with race. It pushes Black Lives Matter—a pro-communist organization that wants to destroy the nuclear family. Do I dare mention the causal relationship between crime and single motherhood? Do I dare mention that the leading cause of death for young black males is homicide?
This curriculum also pushes “whiteness.” What exactly is “whiteness” considering Europeans from different cultures were discriminated against on their passage to America? Why is “whiteness” okay to say? Why would AACPS trust an organization to “guide” them that has weaponized race?
As far as the anti-police rhetoric, more on that later.
How could we allow this dogma to influence our children’s learning?
But that’s not all.
SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance/Learning for Justice pushes sexual identity and anti-science “sex assigned at birth” nonsense at a young age. This, my friends, is indoctrination.
Regardless of AACPS’s excuse of using this is as a “guide,” one has to question its decision to use this hate-filled organization’s materials at all. It’s heavily left-leaning. It’s obvious SPLC is corrupt.
There is, of course, more. Teaching Tolerance has adopted this new Teaching Hard History Lesson plan for K-12. Yes, this includes Kindergarteners. Here’s a sample of what this institution wants our young ones to learn.
Encourage students to talk about “fairness, equality, and equity” just like the lesson plan that my daughter was exposed to on her “Justice” Unity Day. Equity is what “they need to be successful.” How about liberty, a drive to learn, and a good work ethic. John McWhorter’s Losing the Race is just one work among many that provide proof that it’s a person’s work ethic, their family, their values that dictate success. Factors like race are rarely a barrier.
Do some people have more freedoms than others? Only if you are talking about human trafficking. Otherwise, give me a break. In McWhorter’s follow-up Still Losing the Race? he cites that even minority populations aren’t buying this garbage anymore. They appreciate merit, not equity. Maybe that’s why institutions like the SPLC are pushing this nonsense. As previously cited, how does SPLC fund its mechanism? Through hate. How do we get hate? Through divisiveness. Sacrificing the youth to make money.
Maybe that’s why SPLC employs race-baiters to help push this devastating propaganda. People like Hasan Jeffries.
Hasan Jeffries, brother of Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D) of Brooklyn. Hasan Jeffries noted purveyor on Twitter. Hasan Jeffries, someone who doesn’t necessarily believe in unity.
Hasan Jeffries, the man who paints all Republicans as white supremacists:
Hasan Jeffries, someone who has issues with “whiteness”:
Hasan Jeffries, an individual who doesn’t care for the police:
Killing more black people than the Klan? Hasan is influencing our children and cannot read basic statistics.
It’s more than obvious that Hasan feeds off of hate.
There are others. This includes pro-reparations, pro-wokeness, pro-1619 Project Dr. Kate Shuster.
She’s also part of the SPLC Teaching Hard History indoctrination. She wants our children to learn slavery through children’s books.
Why are we allowing left-wing politically charged individuals to help mold our children? Even if we are to believe AACPS’s excuse of using SPLC’s Teaching Tolerance curriculum as only a “guide,” what type of people are involved in choosing this hateful organization’s propaganda as a guide?
AACPS must divorce itself entirely from the SPLC and its adoption of some aspects of its curriculum.
I understand that our society is at war with each other right now. We are quick to attach stereotypes without learning about the individual. We are a society of moral rot and social decay. Some have resorted to posting lurid pictures online for cash. We’re addicted to porn. We’re addicted to sensationalized news.
I refuse to sacrifice my kids to your cult. I refuse to let them grow up in a society where it’ “you can’t unless” but rather a society that “you can because.” Equity is dangerous. We should be demanding more for our students. We should allow those who can excel to excel. We should believe in our children. We should not manufacture excuses for their failures, especially when it’s those people weaponizing those excuses who are to blame.
Well said sir!