"... and education consultants seem risible.... The right-wing caricature of progressive public schools as pampered re-education camps is extremely far from my own family’s experience, but if any kids are being bullied and shamed for refusing to espouse social justice principles, even principles I agree with, that’s wrong. However, the claim that the right’s war on critical race theory doesn’t threaten academic freedom is also wrong. Consider what just happened in Idaho, where last week Boise State University suspended dozens of classes, online and in person, dealing with different aspects of diversity. This week, they were reinstated, but online only and 'asynchronously,' without any live discussions.... Some of the facts behind the class suspensions are unclear. In an email to the campus, university leaders described 'a series of concerns, culminating in allegations that a student or students have been humiliated and degraded in class on our campus for their beliefs and values.' An English professor at the university tweeted that the allegation concerned a taped Zoom discussion of white privilege that had been handed over to the Legislature, but so far it hasn’t emerged publicly. (The tweets have since been deleted.) It’s obviously impossible to evaluate the allegations without knowing what they are. If a student was humiliated, that’s serious and should be addressed. But it’s hard to see how whatever happened implicated 52 different classes, and the political pressure the university is under is undeniable."
Michelle Goldberg writes carefully in a column with the inflammatory headline "The Social Justice Purge at Idaho Colleges/Republican lawmakers try to cancel diversity programs" (NYT).
We can't "Consider what just happened in Idaho" unless we know just what happened, and Goldberg acknowledges that. She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value and that it shouldn't be foisted on people.
Those who want to teach and learn about it should be free to pursue their intellectual interests, but even if they decide — in their freedom — that they believe it's something that they must compel others to believe, they don't have the right to act on that belief and apply coercion within a government institution.
I don't know what, exactly, happened in Idaho, but seems as though the CRT believers adopted oppressive educational techniques, the legislature responded in an effort to protect students from coercion, the colleges took steps to follow the legislation, and the CRT believers now feel intimidated about pursuing their intellectual interests. Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that this is an intellectual field that entails deep beliefs about how other people think, critiques the freedom of others, and demands action to restructure their minds.
From the comments at the NYT: "The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people."
But here's the highest-rated comment (by a lot):
"The right likes to pretend that social justice-inflected academic disciplines are full of ideological commissars browbeating conservative students."
Oh come on. I'm a center-left academic and it's as obvious as dirt that academic environments, including my RI university, are tilted against conservative perspectives, especially for students in the classroom, and that the problem has gotten intensely worse in the last few years. Surely MG must know this is not something "the right likes to pretend." It's a fact that is helping to drive social and political polarization, and that needs to be honestly reckoned with by people on the center/left, not pooh-poohed and dismissed.
And I like this comment, which is very straightforward:
The backlash was/is inevitable. Proponents of CRT and social justice inquisitors have overplayed their hand. I for one am happy to see the push back.
Posts
157 comments:
She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value . . .
Assumes facts not in evidence.
"CRT has some intellectual value"
No. It doesn't. Most especially if in it's current form, which is completely one directional. Saying it has intellectual value is intellectually dishonest.
CRT is marxism by race. There’s no value. It’s just wrong.
The commenter is happy to see the pushback but not brave enough to lead it.
She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value . . .
A negative amount is still an amount.
As Perry Como taught us,
It's impossible
Tell the dew to not be moist
It's just impossible
It's impossible
Ask a foister not to foist
It's just impossible
critical race theory as it developed in the academy is intellectually rich
"Intellectually rich" (LOL) is Newspeak for "convoluted because it's false and misleading."
What would Michelle Goldberg know about how conservative students feel?
Perhaps Anne (or Michelle Goldberg) could explain to us exactly what parts of CRT have "intellectual value."
CRT isn’t intellectually rich. It is a tool of totalitarianism which does not allow for diverse opinions and ideas. As usual a NYT employee is writing drivel.
We are headed towards a race war.
Correction! Weren’t the BLM riots of last summer a race war?
CRT is obsolete nowdays. I mean, who uses Cathode Ray Tubes when you can get a nice LCD monitor for cheap.
If engendering rage was proof of legitimacy what does that mean for Scientology, Nazism, radical Islamsism? If it is met with rage therefore is has value? Only a sucker from the White Fragility cult would think opposition to something proves the predicate. The government really ought to be doing more to protect these vulnerable people from the manipulation to which they've fallen victim.
Fritz said...“She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value . . .”
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Nailed it, right out of the gate. CRT proponents wouldn’t need to rely solely on coercive measures if there were any real world value in it.
Enraging White people is generally not a desirable outcome.
When things swing too far in any one direction, there will always be pushback from the other side. Workplaces and universities need to finesse CRT, not force feed to it and expect the end result to be foie gras.
Critical race theory is vicious, racist bullshit.
It has zero intellectual value.
Hate Whitey layered over erotic attraction to black gangsterism is all there is. It’s a re-run of the 60s with the Black Muslim gangs raking in the loot.
Taxpayer money should not pay for indoctrination in this racist bullshit at state schools on any level. Not a cent of public money should go to the black gangs, which includes the Black Muslims and BLM. CRT is a cover for funneling government money to black gangs.
No one expects the Idaho Legislature.
This anti-intellectual garbage started in the late 1990's. I recall a professor associated with mathematics teaching reading a dissertation filled with nothing but idiot buzzwords and asking me if it made any sense. It didn't. It's Sokal all the way down.
Universities, outside of the hard sciences and technology, are intellectually poor nowadays. CRT is productive. It gives people something to write about and a way to write about it. But like any often used technique or approach or perspective, the more it's used the less of value it yields. I'm not entirely sure what it is, but it doesn't sound like a very good thing to indulge in when we have to worry about China becoming the world's number one superpower.
This is such bullshit. So Goldberg is okay with teaching white supremacy?
Glenn Reynolds is right. The people pushing CRT are bad people and need to be treated as bad people.
Goldberg can go piss up a rope with her racist professor friends and colleagues.
Weren’t the BLM riots of last summer a race war?
Much of what was going on in Portland and Seattle was white-on-white. Much of the Black involvement was opportunistic, even in St. Louis and Minneapolis. Not really a a race war if people want to take advantage of the chaos to get free stuff.
The left is re-running Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers in its entirely.
Just throwing exponentially more government dough at the Mau-Mauers.
Imagine a campus where, instead of diversity oligarchs forcing CRT struggle sessions on all whites, the guiding ideology was “science education,” and the dean’s offices were staffed with dozens of extra science educators eagerly propagating scientific knowledge throughout the curriculum. Or a humanities campus that hired an additional 50 Classics professors to revive the study of Western Civilization. Or an engineering focus, where the President mandated that every student and faculty member would examine engineering as it applied to their lives and disciplines.
Nope. We get Ohio University with its 150 employees dedicated to so-called diversity, really CRT, with fifty new academic positions being created for the “study” of race and diversity(CRT). Plus all the other professors and administrators who babble this racist screed throughout the campus.
This isn’t really about diversity: CRT programs are designed to increasingly shift to focusing on and shaming “whiteness.” The “diversity” part was just the camel’s nose.
not force feed it and expect the end result to be foie gras.
I prefer my Commies/Fascists to be out and proud.
"Intellectually rich" is Newspeak for "convoluted because it's false and misleading."
No wait! They were using 'rich' definition #18:
a) highly amusing.
b) ridiculous; absurd.
Althouse said...
I don't know what, exactly, happened in Idaho, but seems as though the CRT believers adopted oppressive educational techniques, the legislature responded in an effort to protect students from coercion...
The laudable approach of the Trump executive order was it dealt with CRT under already existing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment law.
CRT should be taught the way religion can be taught in public schools: a belief system to be studied and understood, not as an official catechism.
CRT is scientific racism, good to know the Professor thinks scientific racism has intellectual value.
CRT is blatantly un-Constitutional and should not be coerced in any way, shape or form. Understand it from the perspective of the need to understand an enemy's value system.
Critical Race Theory is a lot like Liberation Theology. Neither has any intellectual basis other than a grab for power over others.
When even the loyal horde that is The NY Times comment section is taking you to task, you might have jumped the shark. Think Ms Goldberg will learn?
An analysis of a system by somebody who doesn't like that system is unlikely to have a single insight. An analysis by somebody who likes it is likely to have multiple insights.
CRT is by people who don't like the system.
"Perhaps Anne (or Michelle Goldberg) could explain to us exactly what parts of CRT have "intellectual value.""
It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. With respect to anything that exists — including on-campus CRT training — go through the exercise of asking is this the way it is because white people are reinforcing their power. Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!
"The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people."
When I was a kid, we once put a bag of shit on someone's doorstep and set it on fire. We rang the doorbell and ran. As expected, the mean old guy in the house came out and stomped on the little fire to put it out. His enraged reaction is proof that a bag of shit has as much legitimacy as Critical Race Theory.
the comments at the NYT: "The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people."
This is true but not according to the superficial meeaning. It's revealing the commenter doesn't recognize the inadvertent admission there is no evidence much less proof CRT is legitimate. Remember left wingers claim the right is offensive because they seem only to want to enrage the left. Yet left wingers created an entire movement with this sole goal and celebrate its success. Exactly zero left wingers criticize this similarly to how they criticize the right for being all about "owning the libs".
Fake liberals like Goldberg are frustrating. They pretend liberal principles shape their beliefs but never apply these principles to the left. Even here she engages in tactical ignorance so her refusal to do so is less obvious. Is it really credible a NYT commenter couldn't find out? Is it credible the entire left-media couldn't?. Or are they not interested in publicizing the details because it would reflect poorly on Dems and leftists?
Further she claims political pressure is the problem without noting the political pressure is being applied to those initiating political pressure. She protects the initiators with ignorance and minimizations but fully attacks their opponents. This is how allies function.
The great conceit of CRT is that we are all part of the structural racism machine -- except some of the people who do not benefit from it, and, of course, highly educated bourgeois college profs & business leaders.
And how can this "structural racism be defeated?
By the college profs & the other bourgeois punishing bad thought!
What a shitty excuse for intellectuals these people are.
Workplaces and universities need to finesse CRT, not force feed to it and expect the end result to be foie gras.
Right. If our racism were only more subtle and incremental it would be easier to delegitimate objections to it. Then we could have a more racist society which would then be easier to implement further racism.
Mind arson, derrick bell, obamas mentor was one of the pioneers.
Another view:
Link
“Much of what was going on in Portland and Seattle was white-on-white. Much of the Black involvement was opportunistic, even in St. Louis and Minneapolis. Not really a a race war if people want to take advantage of the chaos to get free stuff.”
Opportunistic, yes. But far from spontaneous. There were a number of cases where AntiFA agents would be the only whites in a crowd. They are the ones who would throw the bricks through the windows to get the looting going, then saunter off themselves, without doing any of the real looting, their job accomplished. Maybe do a bit of arson too. And it very much appears that they did the same thing at the Capital on Jan 6. Known AntiFA were seen and recorded breaking windows, as they tried to exhort Trump supporters to violence. It worked, as it did this summer - the Dems now have their bogus narrative of White Supremest violence. It may be completely fabricated, but there was enough violence (though much of it was AntiFA) that the FBI can now swing away from investigating Dem shock troop (AntiFA) violence and concentrate on intimidating Trump supporters. They are evil people, as are the Dems and Deep Staters who enable and protect them.
Keep that in mind. AntiFA last summer appears to have instigated much of the community destructive behavior engaged in by Blacks last summer. They got enticed to loot and burn down a lot of the key businesses in their black communities. A bunch of White instigators repeatedly got Blacks to burn down their grocery stores, etc, to the extent that a lot of the burned out Black communities are now food deserts. No skin off of AntiFA’s noses - they just go home to their parents’ basements in suburbia, which communities continue to have plenty of food, liquor, etc stores. Evil people, protected and orchestrated by even more evil people.
I said the other day that the Democrats have been the racist party for better than 200 years now. Nothing has changed. They protected the KKK before the Republicans passed the Civil Rights Acts in the 1960s. Now they espouse CRT and protect BLM riot inciting AntiFA. Little difference, little has changed, except that the Democrats supporting the Klan, could at least pretend to be patriotic. Not anymore.
"overplayed their hand" - 3 words that describe most of politics these days.
In the 2020 election we were given the choice of Joe Biden or Donald Trump for president.
One was portrayed as an egotistical, narcissistic, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, corrupt, ignorant, racist, privileged white guy.
The other one walks on water.
Congressman Henry Cuellar and I have many differences of opinions on politics and public policy. Because we are not from the same state, it is unlikely that I would ever have the choice to vote for him or not.
Despite all of that baggage, I have been impressed with his actions and statements concerning the border. He has been trying for months to warn of an impeding problem that has since became a nightmare for just about everyone including the immigrants themselves.
We need our public officials to stop treating this like "its our team against yours" and instead trying to resolve this issue.
The little Maoists are now upset and feeling oppressed?
Good.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
I believe the flaw in this view is "white people" seeing themselves or acting as a group. Although, what's going on now is going to bring this about. That's what is so disgusting about it.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
Omit the word "white" and you'd be less of a racist.
That Goldberg could possibly write this after what happened to Professor Weinstein at Evergreen State in 2017 is ridiculous. I love his podcasts.
Workplaces and universities need to finesse CRT, not force feed to it and expect the end result to be foie gras.
And if the baker would just have lied to the gay couple, told them he wasn't taking any custom orders right now, then he wouldn't be in this pickle - another comment from one of the left-leaning Althouse commenters. Obfuscation is often the easy road to your goal, whatever your goal is.
Instead, how about this: CRT proponents need to defend their case with reason, logic, and verifiable facts, in order to have a place in workplaces and universities. If they can't, then their "discipline" has no more credibility or utility than phrenology.
I am sure that a number of the Dems and other progressives that are pushing CRT aren’t really trying to start a race war. They just know that their party thrives on segregation, and withers with integration. But many seem to want that race war, in order to destroy this country from within. I think that there are two groups - the destroyers, often Marxists, and the dupes, whom they lead. The entire purpose of CRT is to destroy the fabric of this country through instigating racial strife. That is evil, and those who developed CRT and pushed it mainstream in the Dem party are evil. They are working with our geopolitical enemies to destroy this country. They are evil.
Ann Althouse said...
“It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves.”
That’s fine - go ahead and make that hypothesis and explore it. That’s the university’s function. But at the same time, a myriad of other hypotheses need to be considered. That’s the part that never happens in today’s university environment, or if it does, the person(s) making the hypotheses is cancelled. Instead, the hypothesis of CRT is taken as a matter of faith, no real discussion is allowed, and it is adopted as iron-clad truth to be followed by every student/professor on pain of expulsion.
Here’s just one alternate hypothesis to the one stated above: It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because PEOPLE have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. Information backing this hypothesis is, now that minority races in the US have ‘garnered’ power through extreme racial shaming, they are using their power not to heal race relation, but to exacerbate them in order to gain more power. In other words, whoever has power for whatever reason, tends towards using that power to enhance their position of power further. TL;DR - not the golden rule, but rather ‘turn-about is fair play’.
CRT demands that you renounce the concept of individuals. Individual rights, liberty, and thought. And believe that we are not individuals at all, but a steaming, heaping mass of tribes. All of us a part of a tribe. And as a tribe, we think like a tribe, react like a tribe, and are born with a certain evil or purity based on our tribe. If anyone in that tribe says something evil, the entire tribe is suspect.
CRT does not accept (nor does it even seem to have crossed the minds of any CRT proponents) that without individual rights, there can be no rights for anyone. Period. You like your minorities? The smallest minority is the individual. Protect those rights. See people as individuals and behave as if we all have the same rights to live for our own sake as long as those rights do not trample on the rights of others to live for their own sake...and we'd all be fine.
I’d agree that CRT has some ‘intellectual value’. In the same way that Marxism, Naziism, Communism, et.al. have intellectual value. It is important to study what we a a society did wrong as well as what we did right. Suppressing and destroying any evidence of wrongdoings, if they are even wrongdoings (for example, desecration of confederate statues and graves) rises to the point of equivalence.
When it spills over to the Real World (tm) problems arise. Uneducated rubes are not as ignorant and unintelligent as you think they are.
“It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves.”
Maybe, but only if credit is given to “white people” for conceding musical entertainment, sports and street crime.
He has been trying for months to warn of an impeding problem that has since became a nightmare for just about everyone including the immigrants themselves.
Dems created this circumstance because it helped them call their enemies racist and win elections. A few immigrants died and many suffered but they turn that into a political attack as well. This is who they are.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
There have been many such "hypotheses" over the years, substituting (for example) "Jewish people" or "the elite." CRT is just a retread of these old tropes. Really the only somewhat newish thing in it is the idea that you can never not be a racist if you are white. Worth a paragraph or two in the syllabus, maybe.
How are CRT advocates and administrators different from religious proselytizers? Answer: they aren't.
So, the reactionary science-deniers are still trying to pretend that race exists, even though it's known for absolute fact that there is more genetic diversity in the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa than in all of the rest of humanity combined, that the Emperor of Japan and the Queen of England have greater genetic commonality with each other than a random Nigerian and Kenyan have with each other.
You write “carefully” about CRT and give it far too much respect. It is an ugly divisive “theory” that projects thoughts and feelings on people, people our culture and tradition as Americans officially “presumes innocent” of crimes are accused of thought crimes. That’s stupid and verges on child abuse to tell children that they have hate and guilt they inherited from their parents and society. I can think of few things stupider than heaping such mental illness-inspired bullshit on little kids. If the idiotic overreaction by teachers didn’t kill public ed then the madness that is CRT will. It also has the unfortunate feature of being wholly incompatible with Christianity, which always makes the kool kids swoon but tends to dampen enthusiasm among people who actually believe their faith.
CRT has made a few peopler a lot of money. Other than that, is another extraordinary delusion. Affirmative action failed to solve the blacks' problems and this won't either but it could lead to chaos and losing a war.
The right-wing caricature of progressive public schools as pampered re-education camps is extremely far from my own family’s experience,
I am a product of 70's public education in small rural America.
My experience was that of a re-education camp. The hip cool teachers,fresh out of UNI were intent on mocking our christian agrarian culture. as isolated and out of touch with the real world. More than one teacher took me aside and encouraged me to go to college and not "waste" myself on the farm. Those teachers were not locals and had no idea what happened on the farm. They also told us repeatedly, to ignore our parents. Parents just lacked real world experiences, being cloistered in Iowa. WWII in Europe, didn't count.
Today it's much worse.
"Perhaps Anne (or Michelle Goldberg) could explain to us exactly what parts of CRT have "intellectual value.""
“It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. With respect to anything that exists — including on-campus CRT training — go through the exercise of asking is this the way it is because white people are reinforcing their power. Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!”
You’ve lived too long in the People’s Republic of Madison to be the least bit objective. Of course white people have used their power to advantage themselves. As have black, brown, yellow, and red people. You work hard to give your kids the best chances in life. But it isn’t because they are white, that they have more power, but because they were the ones who built much, if not most, of this country, and as a result of 400 years of hard, often dangerous, work, have built a power base for themselves and their families. That is why they have the power. But no matter how much the left denies it - not for their race. The left here is trying to make it racial, because that is how the Democrats have gained and maintained their power for over two centuries. It isn’t racial. It’s family and friends.
My kid has a privileged life ahead of them. They went to a good prep school (which was not always easy to afford), private college (again, hard to afford), and a STEM PhD from a research university. They earned their part of it - good SATs and HS grades, Summa cum Laude in Physics and Math, two summers in college spent on research, then 5 years of not much more than minimum wage for the PhD. I haven’t had a new car since 1987 - my money went to giving my kid the best upbringing I could, instead. My parents did the same for the five of us, and their parents for them. It’s not that we are White, but because we worked hard, and instilled that in our kids. Indeed, my kid was happy that they weren’t East Asian, where the parents are even more ruthless driving their kids to be the best that they can. Best friend in grades 3-8 was Vietnamese, and they often compared notes. Ended up Stanford undergrad, then medical school. Duh.
The funny thing here is that so much of CRT seems explicitly designed to reignite racial strife at a time when the younger generations are less and less racist themselves. I have watched how things have changed between my parents’ generation, my own, and my kid’s. Overall we are becoming less and less racist as a society, as the different races and cultures continue to mix. My parents had no non White, and few non Protestant friends. In the bridal party of my kid’s upcoming nuptials, are White, Black, and Yellow, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Jewish women. That is what your precious CRT is trying to destroy.
She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value and that it shouldn't be foisted on people.
Bullshit. you don't really believe that. Tell you what. Switch the term "Black" when referring to people to the word "White", and then switch the word "White" when referring to people to the word "Black" and then tell me you still find it "has some intellectual value".
David Duke and Bedford Forrest would be happy if you did.
What’s “rich” is fabulist Goldberg’s take on nearly anything.
“It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves.
Any honest and objective examination would clearly prove that the exact opposite has happened. White people have used their power over the years to advantage everyone but White people. Affirmative Action is the obvious example of this.
Blogger Inga said...
When things swing too far in any one direction, there will always be pushback from the other side. Workplaces and universities need to finesse CRT, not force feed to it and expect the end result to be foie gras.
You need to “internalize” CRT, Inga, right where the sunlight gains no purchase.
I guess I need to find a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Whitey.
I am Laslo.
Instead, how about this: CRT proponents need to defend their case with reason, logic, and verifiable facts, in order to have a place in workplaces and universities. If they can't, then their "discipline" has no more credibility or utility than phrenology.
Jamie, you poor dear,
Reason, logic and verifiable facts are tools of the White Patriarchy used to oppress women and people of color. You have clearly been brain washed and oppressed. But don't worry, the treatment camps are on the way.
Omit the word "white" and you'd be less of a racist.
Come to think of it, in that case the subject would be called "history".
"The best proof that slavery and racism are legitimate is the enraged reaction they engender among Black people."
Also it’s always bullshit to play the “raising questions” game when you know damn well the people running these struggle sessions will not accept any answers from their victims except “yes by go I am a racist!” I refuse to bark like a seal for these Marxist kkklowns.
“CRT has made a few peopler a lot of money. Other than that, is another extraordinary delusion. Affirmative action failed to solve the blacks' problems and this won't either but it could lead to chaos and losing a war.”
It’s not a war that I am worried about, but the country. CRT appears intentionally designed to destroy the internal cohesion that is part of why we became such a successful country. It has Marxist roots, which shouldn’t surprise anyone here, since our major geopolitical enemies throughout the lives of all except the oldest here have been Marxists. Who does CRT benefit the most? Right now, I would suggest the Communist Chinese, weakening their strongest enemy, from the inside. Clearly, the racial divisions being exacerbated by CRT probably hurt Blacks the most. That shouldn’t surprise any members of the party founded by slave owners. It hurts them, because the other races in this country more and more see Blacks as violent criminals of subpar intelligence, since they are effectively destroying their own communities at the behest of Democrats and their shock troops. Those who are pushing CRT seem to desperately want a race war, and will do whatever, it seems, necessary to creating one.
Whether CRT has intellectual value is beside the point. Whether, for example, Calvinism has intellectual value wouldn’t really the point if the government were foisting Calvinism on us. Arguing about that is a distraction, and it’s exactly what they want. Argue about the foisting.
Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!
They can't, because the theory and ideology don't stand up to honest debate.
This thread is an object lesson in how the woke conquer. Nearly all comments are about the unimportant issue, which is precisely the issue the woke want you focused on, rather than on the power grab.
Blogger Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Also it’s always bullshit to play the “raising questions” game when you know damn well the people running these struggle sessions will not accept any answers from their victims except “yes by go I am a racist!”
There's a key distinction in this. Apologists like to pretend CRT and the anti-white trainings and education are different and the latter is some sort of corruption of the pure core. But we can easily test this.
If this were true then those who developed the pure core would oppose how it is being deployed and outline the limits. This has literally never happened. In fact the opposite is true. The most lauded CRT proponents are exactly the people who support the most divisive and hateful implementations of CRT. So this fact supports the conclusion that far from being a corruption these elements are in fact the true purpose of CRT.
Let's call CRT what it really is, the third attempt by the Democrat Party to establish a race-based enforcement arm. Only difference is, now with control of the press and social media, they don't have to wear hoods. But they certainly burn crosses.
CRT, like all the other varieties of egalitarian Utopianism, should be studied in school - under a microscope, dissected and analyzed, deconstructed - but should not, ever, be taught as a philosophy or mode of analysis that has any meaning, let alone as the revealed truth.
Ken don’t overlook the great answers easily delivered upthread here. It will be HR not academics that try to preach the badnews gospel of CRT and so we may all be asked to participate and being able to articulate that wittily could be handy. Simply stating that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” easily replaces all the racially charged marxy BS in CRT. Laughing at these idiots is good medicine for all involved. Civilization is not a white collective act it a people thing.
All this stupid crap occurs because the average 'murican refuses to understand/state what higher education is for. Are we just giving people skills to be Doctors and business executives? Are we just training scientists so they can cure cancer and develop high tech weapons?
what is the purpose of "The liberal Arts"? Is college just an expression of class privilege so the people with $$ can get the lock on the positions of power and good jobs?
Why do we even have the liberal arts? What is their purpose? why are paying money for them? Personally, i think we should just extend HS for an extra year, teach all that stuff there, and have college be a 2 year program devoted solely to your major. Buiness/Eng/Scientist etc. could just go directly to the courses teaching that.
One reason the Left has triumphed is because the Center-right REFUSES To think. Like, how do we benefit from subsidizing a bunch of left-wing college professors? But hey lets NOT talk about that, lets talk "Guns" and that cabin in the woods you're going to run off to. Or repealing the 17th Amendment.
"The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people."
The best proof that torturing puppies is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders ...
HEre's another thought. Whey are we giving tax breaks to people who give $$ to wealthy Private colleges. Harvard has like $50 Billion and many of the other ivy leagues are just as rich. Why give them tax breaks? But hey, not change that. Because we love rich people. Like Bezos - the friend of the Center-right.
Oh yeah:
"Intellectually rich" might be true.
After all many self styled intellectuals are getting rich off of CRT.
"this is an intellectual field that entails deep beliefs about how other people think"
This is a field that generates a lot of baseless BS beliefs to denigrate how deplorably other people think.
The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people
The best proof that using the n-word is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among black people
In other words, as far as proof goes, it is crap. And I agree that this is the best proof they have that CRT is legitimate.
"intellectually rich".
Part of the problem, it seems to me, is that this is an intellectual field that entails deep beliefs about how other people think while insisting that even the idea of "objective" knowledge is racist and therefore illegitimate, critiques the freedom of others, and demands action to restructure their minds.
Added the emboldened section to improve accuracy.
Althouse said:
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
For that we have ordinary social science and history. CRT doesn't "explore." It is progs' way of preventing exploration.
"Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!"
You are very nice. Of course, in the real world, the POINT of CRT is to enforce the assumption, particularly in workplaces, and pressure everyone into becoming greengrocers.
The dishonesty is baked in, and progs revel in their power to make it stick. Which it does, as long as the nice women of America stand by and occasionally act offended.
"She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value and that it shouldn't be foisted on people."
"This is an intellectual field that entails deep beliefs about how other people think, critiques the freedom of others, and demands action to restructure their minds."
These statements are contradictory.
Bruce Hayden said…"The funny thing here is that so much of CRT seems explicitly designed to reignite racial strife at a time when the younger generations are less and less racist themselves."
It seems that way because it is. It's so sad.
Glad to see even NYT writers and readers see a problem with CRT. At my work, we had several posts by key employees about "Anti-Asian Hate" and attacks. We haven't had any at work, but some thought they needed to make a statement in the office after the shooting in Georgia. I think it should be embarrassing that Anti-Asian Hate should only become an issue when a guy shoots up massage parlors. Nobody said a thing when Ivy League schools failed to treat Asians equally.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
Nice hypothesis that can be tested in the negative. Perhaps political, economic, and social relations are the way they are because non-white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. Maybe that's why the US, as a cultural melting pot, has advantaged all races and cultures as compared to other more monolithic racial countries that have been around for millennia.
Temujin (9:05), very well said. Especially:
You like your minorities? The smallest minority is the individual. Protect those rights. See people as individuals and behave as if we all have the same rights to live for our own sake as long as those rights do not trample on the rights of others to live for their own sake...and we'd all be fine.
"The smallest minority is the individual" is right. I don't think there's another person in this country with exactly the mix of aspirations and interests and loves and dislikes that I have . . . and the same goes for every other person in this thread, and every other person in this country.
When I watched the news last year and saw it was mostly young white people doing much of the protesting / rioting on behalf of BLM, I was trying to figure how the Floyd incident tripped a switch to change these people from being functioning members of society to being rabidly “anti-white”. With the CRT stories coming to the forefront since then, I am starting to believe that these same young people were being indoctrinated in this BS since a young age in the public schools by teachers who themselves had been taught this BS in colleges. I am wondering if the white parents (even if they are liberals) seeing their children’s behavior last year were shocked to find out that their Johnny and Janey were against their own race and were the shock troops of the Left in those riots.
Jamie, you poor dear,
Reason, logic and verifiable facts are tools of the White Patriarchy used to oppress women and people of color.
I believe I have been mansplained to. Well, I never!
Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?
Back in the old days, CRT was just called "racism", and it was largely pushed by white Democrats. Oh wait, that bit didn't change...
Doesn't CRT strongly suggest that White people value being White more than anything else?
That is fascinating because in my (Chicago 60's) urban generation, being Black was a whole lot cooler. To this day, White hipsters try to emulate cool Black guys.
She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value
There's no intellectual value in stoking resentment against classes of people. And it's kind of insane to expect taxpayers to want to pay for "classes" that stoke resentment against the people paying the taxes. Fuck that.
It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. With respect to anything that exists — including on-campus CRT training — go through the exercise of asking is this the way it is because white people are reinforcing their power. Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!
True, but a lot of people can only handle one idea at a time. They latch on to it as truth and ignore other reasons why things are the way they are. It's not that easy for people to reconcile the idea that we are all individuals with free will and the idea that we are members of groups and subject to the hierarchies and limitations that go along with belonging to one group or another.
Critical Race Theory.....it's a plot device left over from a REALLY bad Star Trek episode.
Jamie, you poor dear,
Reason, logic and verifiable facts are tools of the White Patriarchy used to oppress women and people of color.
I believe I have been mansplained to. Well, I never!
Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?
Bloody peasant.
"The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people"
But it doesn't, there are a lot of white people who love it. And that's the proof it's a crock.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
Okay, yes it makes sense. But, there's an assumption built into that hypothesis: white people are monolithic. "We all" think, feel, and act the same. The US experience from the beginning to the present day quickly and easily refutes that assumption. Hence the hypothesis as stated is falsified. We need another hypothesis.
"The smallest minority is the individual" CRT is tied to so-called "social justice". I believe there is no such thing as social justice. Justice can only be applied to individuals. Are a disproportionate number of blacks being jailed in this country? Than exam each case individually and release those who are innocent. Or, if you think it's because whites are given all the breaks, exam those cases and jail those who are guilty. Reducing or increasing incarceration rates based solely on racial categories just perpetuates injustice by either releasing those who should be incarcerated or incarcerating those who should be released.
Those who want to teach and learn about it should be free to pursue their intellectual interests
But if a professor spends more than an hour learning about it without realizing ths it’s a load of crap then every cliche about the fundamental foolishness of liberal professors is confirmed.
We can't "Consider what just happened in Idaho" unless we know just what happened, and Goldberg acknowledges that. She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value and that it shouldn't be foisted on people.
Please tell us what bits of "intellectual value" are contained within CRT
Those who want to teach and learn about it should be free to pursue their intellectual interests
So long as the Left does not grant that to the Right, there is absolutely no reason for that to be granted to the Left.
Cancel culture is about destroying people's academic and intellectual freedom.
Are schools teaching anti-CRT classes? No?
Then there's no intellectual and academic freedom there. It's just a power issue. And in that case, it's entirely correct for Republicans to use any power they have to crush CRT and its proponents.
There is no "yes but". Any place where teh Right is not given full freedom, the Left deserves none.
"CRT is a cover for funneling government money to black gangs."
Shouting Thomas, as he is often wont to do, has made his point a bit more bluntly than is necessary.
But I do agree that CRT is a cover to accommodate (mostly) black people who are unable or unwilling to earn their livings the old fashioned way.
Birches said...
What would Michelle Goldberg know about how conservative students feel?
Nothing, but she's probably feeling more sympathetic to them than normal since she's probably figured out that it's only a matter of time before the CRT armed NYT wokies come after her and her job.
It hurts them, because the other races in this country more and more see Blacks as violent criminals of subpar intelligence, since they are effectively destroying their own communities at the behest of Democrats and their shock troops.
It is a puzzle that blacks don't see this. The white Antifa types broke the windows in Minneapolis and blacks, like a reflex, began to loot. Certainly there is a large urban underclass that wants free stuff and does not care much about anything else. Yet there are intelligent and middle class blacks that must know this hurts them the worst. Why do they do nothing to stop it or at least disown this anarchy?
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
No, it doesn't.
Because it makes no sense to talk about "white people" as some sort of monolithic group.
For that matter, who are "white people"? Are people from the parts of Europe bordering on the Mediterranean "white"?
They aren't WASPs, most aren't even Protestant and they most certainly weren't considered "white" in 1800s America.
Neither were the Irish, who lacked that "P" part, as as such it was "no dogs or Irish" (yes, those signs did exist).
How about the Nordics? Have we ever had a Norwegian, Swedish, of Finn President?
Now, let's consider "blacks". What % of modern America "blacks" have one or more ancestor who was a slave owning rapist? If we're going to punish people for the crimes of their ancestors, they'd better all be paying reparations.
The rapist slave owners said "if your mother was black, you are black, nothing else matters." Are we going to carry forward their disgusting racist ideas? Why?
“CRT, like all the other varieties of egalitarian Utopianism, should be studied in school - under a microscope, dissected and analyzed, deconstructed - but should not, ever, be taught as a philosophy or mode of analysis that has any meaning, let alone as the revealed truth.”
This most clearly a concisely states my own position regarding CRT. In addition, unless the degree program is specific to Theory, Race Studies or Critique, a class in CRT should never be forced as a requirement but only offered as an elective.
Those who want to teach and learn about it should be free to pursue their intellectual interests
Provided they can convince some sucker - oops, of course I mean some investor or patron that their banana-taped-to-a-wall has value, then I suppose maybe so.
Of course, I believe the banana taped to a wall is pointless but does no harm (the fruit flies are only annoying). CRT is more like an "installation" that involves setting the gallery on fire and watching it burn. As such, I don't get why it "should" be supported in any academic setting, much less taxpayer-funded ones.
How about we explore the hypothesis that IQ matters to how well you do, as does whether or not your parents were married to each other before they had you, and stayed married to each other after they have you.
After we've explored the ramifications of said hypothesis, then we can consider what residue of racism is left over in 2021 America.
And then we can take a look at "black culture", compare it to "Asian culture" (heck, let's make it better. Let's compare it to the culture of Vietnamese boat people who made it to America), and see how much of the remaining difference is caused by that
there's also african immigrants in this country, that don't seem burdened by this, whereas asian americans are considered 'white adjacent' thanks to the latest guru, henry rodgers, aka ibrahim x kendi,
Re: "The individual," CRT is certainly determined to erase individuality, but that isn't new exactly. ISTR a George Will column from maybe three decades ago in which a student's letter to his university provost -- about a claim of anti-conservative discrimination, which is also not new -- was sent back to him with the word "individual" circled and a note appended that this is a "red flag" word and can be presumed to be "RACIST." The idea, it went on to explain is that positions stressing individuality give more power to the "individuals" who are "part of the dominant group."
Back then, it struck me as obvious bollocks. Now, too, but it's become so common as to seem all but invisible now.
I was dismayed when the left started pushing their "multiculturalism" crap decades ago. It has turned out exactly as I expected.
Michael K said... Certainly there is a large urban underclass that wants free stuff and does not care much about anything else. Yet there are intelligent and middle class blacks that must know this hurts them the worst. Why do they do nothing to stop it or at least disown this anarchy?
The middle class Blacks that you refer to are trying to live their lives, make a living, educate their kids and pay their bills. They have no obligation to even speak about racial issues. In other words, they are guilty of acting White.
Critical race theory is bigoted philosophy. Diversity [dogma], not limited to racism, is a color judgment that denies individual dignity, individual conscience, intrinsic value, and normalizes color blocs (e.g. people of color), color quotas, and affirmative discrimination. One step forward, twos steps backward.
That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one. #HateLovesAbortion
Religion (i.e. behavioral protocol) has three relationships: morality in a universal frame of reference, it's relativistic sibling "ethics", and its politically congruent cousin "law". CRT philosophy falls under the Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, politically congruent quasi-religion. That said, social justice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
Let's stipulate that CRT is correct. (purely for the sake of argument)
If Western Civilization is founded on White racism, and built with institutional racism as a means of oppressing people of color and promoting White supremacy, and if race is a profoundly important aspect of an individual, and determinative of their behavior, and if every characteristic of success is labeled as "Whiteness" (by people of color)...
What possible reason and/or incentive is there for White people to change the system?
I've got three words for people who believe in CRT: "Zimbabwe" and "South Africa".
As Ann points out, a central belief of CRT is that the white race has exploited people of color for eons. But there another, more central, belief held by the CRTS that is far more sinister. And that is their claim that the fact of their "whiteness" (or more precisely, the particular arrangement of the atoms that creates their whiteness) means white people cannot do otherwise. It is a "Theory" like this, if not exposed as nonsense by the vast majority, will pit whites against people of color. And no good can from this.
Ann Althouse said...
"Perhaps Anne (or Michelle Goldberg) could explain to us exactly what parts of CRT have "intellectual value.""
It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves. With respect to anything that exists — including on-campus CRT training — go through the exercise of asking is this the way it is because white people are reinforcing their power. Be honest! Don't just ASSUME it's true and then pressure everyone else to say it is!
*********************
Bullshit, straight up. If whites are uniquely disposed to to advantage themselves, explain Genghis Khan. Explain the Incas, the Mayas, the Aztecs who all ruled empires. Explain the Tatars. Explain the Japanese from 1880 to 1945. Shit, explain the Chinese communist party right now!
because the logic of crt, is the civilization has to be torn down brick by brick, that includes freedom of speech, property rights, (see last spring and fall) personal self defense, see above, and they are doing a bang up job,
My problem with the "anti-racism" study is that it is mandatory and that it is taught by people who seem to have an Inquisition sort of mindset where the white students must confess their sin and repent or be forever condemned.
If you send your kid to anywhere other than a technical school or an explicitly conservative college, then you are a neglectful parent.
The only correct response to a CRT "facilitator" is to toss them out of the class room. Opening the door or window is optional.
I think that CRT is ideologically a subset of Post-Modernism, in particular, an applied, political version of Post-Modernism. Do I think CRT holds together as an ideology viewed from the outside? No, I don't. I think it's an unworkable melange of influences and that its primary political advantage is its dogmatic simplicity allied with its stoking of atavistic emotions in its followers. Even from within the ambit of Post-Modernism, I think CRT fails. PM rails against hierarchies, boundaries, firm distinctions & moral certainties. CRT replaces the pieties of the past with even more dogmatic pieties.
Post-modernism I believe makes many worthwhile critiques of human knowledge, which is, as many other skeptical philosophical traditions have argued (e.g. the ancient Epicureans & Phyrrhonians, medieval Nominalism, & classical & modern Empiricists), a devilishly difficult subject to nail down.
I think that CRT is an ideological failure as much as Bolshevism or Maoism were failures of Marxism, failures that exposed issues at the heart of Marxist theory that made it an open question as to whether Marxism could ever really run a modern economy & lead a modern state.
Comments like this: "The best proof that CRT is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among white people," are really perfect examples of how insanely ignorant and we've become as a species. It is literally no different than saying "The best proof that socialism is legitimate is the enraged reaction it engenders among free people." Or swap out whatever two things you like. How mindlessly ignorant must one be to claim that a reaction to something is proof of it's legitimacy or the opposite for that matter?
Blogger narciso said...
there's also african immigrants in this country, that don't seem burdened by this, whereas asian americans are considered 'white adjacent' thanks to the latest guru, henry rodgers, aka ibrahim x kendi,
I have previously posted my experience with African black medical students. The same applies to West Indian blacks. The latter do have a history of slavery but do not have the victim complex of American blacks. The few American black medical students I had struggled. One I thought might be schizophrenic for a while but it turned out his parents were Black Panthers from Oakland. He just had never talked to white people. I had to teach him to take a medical history. He finally turned out OK, I think, but he was really odd.
white students must confess their sin and repent or be forever condemned.
AND REMAIN forever condemned. There's no possibility of redemption, no sacramental cleansing - the original sin cannot be washed away. If you're white, you're white.
By extension, to be an "ally" is to be an "Uncle Tom," innit? To turn your back on your own "race" in favor of the one that can give you favors?
@mrrobertslaw,
And that is their claim that the fact of their "whiteness" (or more precisely, the particular arrangement of the atoms that creates their whiteness) means white people cannot do otherwise.
Yes, exactly so. Just as in Marxism, the bourgeoisie is trapped in bourgeois consciousness and can only be a hindrance to the proletariat (thus the need for "the dictatorship of the proletariat" to crush the inevitable counter-revolutionary drive of the bourgeoisie), for CRT, racial consciousness is a divide that cannot be overcome. The question of how useful "woke" whites can be to the racial struggle is no doubt an open one in CRT, but, ultimately, "white" consciousness and those who possess it, can only morally exist in subservience to POC consciousness, which alone can see the moral way forward.
Right now, the CRT followers are biding their time, but CRT is, just as was Bolshevism, Maoism, and all other practical applications of Marxism, an invitation to civil war.
God help us all if these people ever get the armed forces on their side. If they do, do not doubt for a minute that tens of millions will die because of it. Just like what happened with every dumbed-down version of Marxism that took over a state.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
This is a tautology. The idea that white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves is dependent on white people having political economic and social power over the years.
You could write this about any group that has an advantage over any other group.
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves."
A better way to ask the question is: How did small European countries gain the power to overthrow large empires such as the Chinese, Indian and Ottoman. The answer is that nineteenth century Europeans and their descendants developed breakthrough technologies: railways, powered machines for use in industry and on farms, control of electricity, telegraph and telephones, flying, underwater travel and, as a by-product, better weapons. No other nation or culture could be anything but a learner until it learned how to manufacture and use these technologies on its own. As they have. Is the American culture still expecting other cultures and descendants from other cultures who are American citizens to be "learners" of technological society from those of European descent? The group being insulted as "white privileged" is the group whose ancestors developed technological culture and they as a group understand that technological culture cannot be used and cannot progress without education and daily effort - privilege can't keep up. They make the effort. And plenty of others, not of European descent, understand this and do the same. The wrenching transition these words glide lightly over has left scars - historic angers, bitterness, humiliation. CRT makes a claim to deal with the cultural scars of the transition but is showing itself incapable of dealing with present-day issues such as the disproportionate number of abortions in minority communities, the disproportionately poor quality of education in minority communities, The indifference of teachers unions and their support for CRT in its place, the present disproportion in the number of vaccinations which are essential to being part of society, the present disproportion in the number of schools closed in big Dem cities in minority areas. All this leads to disproportionate failure in society, including poverty and crime. But CRT looks only at the effects after age 18, the failure to handle technological society without an education. It's the cultural failure that led to colonialism and it looks like colonialism. But there is an answer, the same that ended colonialism. education. And there is no other answer. CRT is like the ghost dancers, a bound-to-fail way of coping with technology, as shown by its radical utter, failure in coping with the present crises. Biden is its candidate and the man is too old to know what to do.
Correction! Weren’t the BLM riots of last summer a race war?
No. Because only one side was on the battlefield.
That's going to change if they keep pushing this crap.
When I worked at Boeing during the '90's, there was Total Quality Control (TQC). TQC was going to save us from ourselves, and everyone needs to be trained. Every organization had to re-evaluate themselves in terms of TQC. The outcome was an organizational mission statement that re-iterated all the bullet points from the TQC re-education materials.
Sound familiar??
"Gahrie said...
"What possible reason and/or incentive is there for White people to change the system?"
To be nice. To be fair. To be kind.
CRT (and Wokeness in general) parasitizes these noble impulses.
"Gahrie said...
"What possible reason and/or incentive is there for White people to change the system?"
To be nice. To be fair. To be kind.
CRT (and Wokeness in general) parasitizes these noble impulses.
Yes, but if White people are nice, fair and kind; and/or have noble impulses... doesn't that falsify CRT?
There is an old problem and a modern one with the history of color(white and black) yellow and red are never counted to any extent. Intellectuals seems to not want to weigh things impersonally. The old problem is one of all the worst types of cause and effect based on race thinking.
As a society since the 60's we've gone throw black pride, black soul, affirmative action, EEO, institutional racism, systemic racism, and now white privilege. None of it seems to have worked. Intellectuals should be evaluating that. CRT is not an intellectual pursuit. It's a repackaging of Marxism designed to tear down a society into anarchy and rebuilt. Intellectual avoid the root genesis of CRT. Like the Wuhan virus they labbed it and then released it into the world without any intellectual thought. Like they were too tired to be moral.
Persecuted by Democrats for years before WWII
Families destroyed by Democrats in the Johnson years.
Sculpted into perpetual victims with low self esteem in the decades since by Democrats.
Permanently then addicted to victimization by being cemented into drugs.
There is an easy chain of evidence there to suggest that blacks are still slaves to democrats. There is a fear of throwing those chains off. Thus we get these temper tantrums based on CRT.
Democrats are all about projecting this as a Republican problem. Intellectuals are gullible and insincere.
Well, I tell you what- because she made the effort to write this essay warning about some of the little problems with wokeism, when the woke mob cancels Goldberg I promise to only laugh my ass off for 15-20 minutes.
CRT is obsolete nowdays. I mean, who uses Cathode Ray Tubes when you can get a nice LCD monitor for cheap.
I read dozens of mentions of CRT before my brain finally recognized immediately that they meant Critical Race Theory instead of reading it as cathode ray tube.
She's also right that CRT has some intellectual value and that it shouldn't be foisted on people.
Then she should be talking about what's happening at Cornell.
President Pollack issued a directive stating that “we must embed anti-racism across” all aspects of campus life.
This directive, with specifics to be developed by the Faculty Senate, also called for new requirements for students and faculty, including the “creation and implementation of a for-credit, educational requirement on racism, bias and equity for all Cornell students” and a “systematic review of the curriculum in each of our colleges and schools to ensure that courses reflect, represent and include the contributions of all people.” It also demanded “a new set of programs focusing on the history of race, racism and colonialism in the United States,” and “[a]ll faculty would be expected to participate in this programming and follow-on discussions.”
It would be a good time for some conservative media to start ranking the "woke" schools, so that smart kids can avoid that shit. And it would be handy for employers to know what schools with historical pedigrees have turned into indoctrination factories.
"What possible reason and/or incentive is there for White people to change the system?"
The people pushing this don't want to solve anything. They want the cudgel.
Russia Collusion Dead Ender Truther Inga: "When things swing too far in any one direction, there will always be pushback from the other side. Workplaces and universities need to finesse CRT, not force feed to it and expect the end result to be foie gras."
Inga, who called every Trump voter a treasonous traitor and a nazi and accysed Kavanaugh of multiple rapes and lauded Avenatti every day for months, believes "finesse" can be a useful tactic.
Discuss.
@Mary Beth
Twenty six cubed isn't as big as we thought it was.
We're running out of three letter strings.
Bureau of Land Management?
My Little Kitty?
mtrobertslaw said...
As Ann points out, a central belief of CRT is that the white race has exploited people of color for eons.
I've got a fix for that:
1: Every single "person of color" who believes this is invited to move to Africa
2: Every single "white" who believes this is encouraged to fund the moves.
By all means, let's end the "oppression"
The end goal is to take all of Whitney's stuff and make them slaves.
They'll call it equity.
Students are required to take this course.
Nearly 82 percent of Idaho residents are non-Hispanic white; .9 percent are black.
Here's the big problem with CRT.
Say it's true. The people in power, in this case, white people, rig the system for their own benefit because that's what people in power do.
Why on earth would white people give up power when the exact same theory predicts that power will be used against them?
CRT encourages racism in self-defense!
Unless you believe that the new bosses will become the enlightened rulers history has been waiting for (cough never happened yet cough), there's no reason to ever give up any power. If CRT is correct.
Fortunately, it's not.
Other than power structures run by whites, what others voluntarily freed so many when they could have continued to suppressed them with power if they preferred? Other than Whites, who has sacrificed so much and let go of so much in the name of freedom, morality, and autonomy around the world. Whites essentially dominated the entire globe, yet eventually freed most voluntarily or in preference to extreme violence and suppression. Power structures not run by Whites have almost always held and even today hold on to whatever oppression they can get away with. People of all races fight to get into countries run by Whites with White values while doing all they can to escape the others. Everybody knows this, which is much of the basis for racist hatred of Whites today. It's a combination of shame and and envy, and an attempt to displace blame for failure. If Whites are so oppressive, why does everyone want to live in places run by them?
CRT has no positive value, and if it did, it would take a lot to outweigh the blatant racism and hatred it produces, not to mention the normalizing of lies and fake science it trades in.
OK, check this out...I'm in 8th grade. My teacher was Miss Partridge. She taught ENGLISH. That was her raison d'Etre. English.
My friend, unnamed, made the foolish choice of uttering the word...'ain't'. Seriously, he said 'ain't'. Listen. Don't discount this.
Miss Partridge lashed into that kid with all the fury of a thousand suns. All who witnessed the spectacle were mouths agape. It wasn't a simple correction. Screaming.
It was brutal. It was as if Miss Partridge was trying to eradicate not only the current usage of 'ain't', but any past usage, and any future usage...by anyone...ever!
Anyway, last I heard, Miss Partridge got married and became Mrs. Troutman. She mellowed.
Still...to this day, I choose my words carefully.
It's a shame that the values that have lifted so many from poverty and oppression and even those essential to success are assigned to Whites when they were once just universal goods. People are being robbed of some the most important gifts civilization has given us, and all for the sake of racism. It's tragic and wrong, and good people who love other people as human beings should stand up to it.
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
In Idaho, we saw the CRT cancer that Progressives were infiltrating into our colleges and into our childrens' minds. We excised it.
It's a losing battle though. Our Capitol City is solid Blue now. Progressives are like an invasive species. They sacrifice to come and seek employment in our State Bureaucracies. They are pestering Progressive busybodies. They will not leave anyone alone.
Some think you can go up on a Mountain Ridge to be alone with your family. Just get away. Just...get away. Randy Weaver thought that. Go up on the Ridge. Don't bother nobody.
In God Bless Idaho.
Tried that. Ruby Ridge. The Progressives' sent their FBI to assassinate Randy's family...and his dog. Then Attorney General William Barr (ever hear of him) gave bonuses and promoted the assassins.
Not complaining. It is what it is.
OT - I get a kick out of seeing Joanne Jacobs poppin' in now and again. Used to read her in the San Jose Mercury News. Good writer.
Anti-white bigotry will eventually be exposed as the same kind of stupid mistake as all the other mindless bigotries. I suppose stupid people do stupid things until they are eventually shamed by history.
I'm White in my late 70's. During my life I've seen and heard a lot of actions and statements by White people about Black people that make me cringe (and in many cases made me cringe then). I've lived in the North, the Middle Atlantic, the subtropics, and now in (what many are no longer comfortable calling} Dixie. If Critical Race Theory were correct none of the changes I have observed could have happened. They didn't happen because Black people took over the US or State Governments. (Altough Black political activism was an important factor.) They happened because a lot of White people changed their minds. As a group, White people are NOT the enemy of Black progress. Maybe we're too slow. Maybe what some Black activists want is too much, too soon, or just wrong. Critical Race Theory is NOT a way forward.
Hercules, not that one though,
I agree about Joanne Jacobs! I didn't really read her in the SJMN (no subscription), but on her blog. I'm very glad she is here.
Mary Beth said...
“CRT is obsolete nowdays. I mean, who uses Cathode Ray Tubes when you can get a nice LCD monitor for cheap. “
I read dozens of mentions of CRT before my brain finally recognized immediately that they meant Critical Race Theory instead of reading it as cathode ray tube.
3/27/21, 2:53 PM
Imagine having a name which blesses you with the initials SJW...
Liz Warren stepped into the cesspool, deliberately, not knowing what she was doing, thinking she was "safe".
"It makes sense to explore the hypothesis that political and economic and social relations are the way they are because white people have used their power over the years to advantage themselves..."--Ann Althouse
This is true for every ruling class in every country on earth, irrespective of race or color. Every group, be it white, black, blue or orange will use their power to advantage themselves. People reinforce their power.
Humans are self-serving. Humans are tribal.
One of the grand experiments in human governance was the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to return free and former enslaved black people to Africa, specifically an area that is now Liberia.
Known as Americo-Liberians, these repatriated Africans established a colony and became the ruling class-- "The Americo-Liberian elite’s historical faults are sizeable: denying citizenship to indigenous Liberians until 1904, denying full voting rights until well into the 20th century; one-party oligarchic rule for 133 years; lack of property rights, and forced labor..."
According to the website The Grio, "A national holiday in Liberia, Pioneers Day is controversial because of the historically tense relationship between the so-called “Congoes” (Americo-Liberians, who are 2.5 – 5 percent of Liberia’s total population of 3.5 million) and “country people” (indigenous Liberians)."
In 1980 a coup put an end to the Americo-Liberian power. A resulting civil war from 1989-2003 cost the country hundreds of thousands dead, and impoverished the entire country.
It's the human condition.
While not perfect, America has forged a society that allows anyone to transcend class, given perseverance and ability.
https://thegrio.com/2010/02/01/former-american-slaves-played-oppressive-role-in-liberias-past/
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