77 Comments

And I do think this kind of approach to education is not going to end up necessarily being a muddle. I think it has a real potential in developing distorted and destructive thinking that doesn't promote a healthy psychological/spiritual mindset in young people or anyone else.

Expand full comment

I agree and don’t share the author’s optimism on this point. I think similar content has already resulted in that kind of thinking. While it can be hard to ascertain how widespread and deep the impact, the effects seem to have manifested across the country and negatively influenced our discourse both on and off campus.

Expand full comment

Kathy I completely agree.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Chandra, I appreciate your comment and understand why you have your perspective, thinking as you do that people like me and others on this thread oppose teaching black and women's history, banning books and censorship. I can't speak for others on this thread, but I can tell you that description does not accurately reflect my views, concerns or motives, and that I believe similar allegations are often made against people who don't deserve to have their views, concerns or motives characterized in that way.

The following excerpts from the article resonated with me:

----------

"Ethnic and racial histories—the experiences and contributions of different ethnic and racial groups in the US, the rivalries among them, the especially egregious injustices inflicted on some of them, the struggles to overcome those injustices, and instances of injustice and racism today— are taught in schools throughout the country. The best version of these classes teach ethnic and racial histories through multiple lenses, giving students a rich understanding of how these histories are connected to different ideas today.

"Ethnic studies, on the other hand, is the lens....Pointing out the origins and political aims of ethnic studies doesn’t discredit its point of view. But it does remind us that it is a point of view. Despite proponents’ claims, ethnic studies does not promote the teaching of multiple perspectives. It applies a single perspective to teaching about multiple ethnic groups. It is not just social conservatives who object to it. The ethnic studies perspective is contested by reputable scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and rejected by many members of the ethnic and racial groups for whom ethnic studies claims to speak.

"Requiring the ethnic studies lens across K-12 learning standards is therefore akin to requiring a feminist or libertarian lens. Those ideologies and others should be taught somewhere in the school curriculum, but they should be taught as rival interpretive frameworks and objects of analysis. None should be enshrined in state learning standards or local curricula as settled doctrine."

----------

I am open to considering the perspectives of those who believe that the content of what we are teaching in black and women's history courses is insufficient. Indeed, I am curious to know how you would want to supplement the current content of such courses, and would be grateful if you shared your thoughts on that question. Whatever the right depth and breadth of content is, though, I agree with the author that teachers and students should consider that content through a range of perspectives.

Thank you for your consideration of this comment.

Rick

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Chandra,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. We are in agreement that U.S. history needs to be taught, "warts and all," as is often said. In that regard, model curricula developed by FAIR and 1776 Unites attempt to contribute to such an outcome.

We are also in agreement that schools and other organizations benefit from a diversity of perspectives and thought, and I support efforts -- including those of FAIR, as well as others like FIRE and the Heterodox Academy -- to generate such outcomes. While there are DEI initiatives that encourage a diversity of perspectives and thought, one of my concerns -- which I believe is likely shared by others who have commented, as well as FAIR itself -- is that DEI programs often effect and even impose conformity of thought, which either results in self-censorship on the part of those who disagree, or material consequences for those who openly dissent or even just question. When that happens, the result mitigates against a diversity of perspectives, which is the point I understood the author of the article to be making.

I think one of the problems with the discourse in our country is that we often use the same words or terms and mean different things. In addition, we often assess people with opposing views based on caricatures created by people who are trying to divide us and/or don't understand the countervailing perspectives and how good, well-meaning people might come to have them. As a result, I believe conversations like the one we're having are critical, as such direct, good-faith communication can enable people with different perspectives to better understand each other, see the humanity in each other, and find common ground. So, thank you again for your willingness to engage.

In that regard, I hope you won't mind, if I can throw one more organization at you: Braver Angels (www.braverangels.org). Braver Angels is trying to bring Americans together across differences, not to change anyone's values or views, but to change how we treat those with whom we disagree, so that we can lower the temperature and toxicity in our discourse, bridge our political divide, work together to better understand and address our problems, and encourage elected officials to do the same. You might appreciate the heterodox engagement we have there, and you might also find it to have useful (and free) resources for you to leverage with your students. If you're interested in learning more, the website is full of information and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Best,

Rick

Expand full comment

Historians were certainly white men initially in the US. They have been far from that since the 60s in the West.

Also, teaching an incessant gripe story of black/female history does not produce balanced, healthy, informed, happy citizens. Its another form of biased history and I have little doubt it produces miserable illinformed p/t activists.

Expand full comment

Right on! My sentiments exactly

Expand full comment

We have been teaching black and women's history for forty years now, in blue states more than any traditional history in fact. I have students who are sick of these fields. I myself studied this way more than any Eurocentric history.

In red states, different sure, but as a whole, its such a myth we don't teach these fields. High school teachers are so diverse, black and female that I doubt any student since 1999 has heard of Copernicus or Adam Smith.

Expand full comment

This isn't about refusing to teach history, it's about putting everything under a lens to reimagine historical perspectives in a divisive and revisionist way, and for what? Where in the world has that worked out? Under Mao's China? Stalin's Russia, or the French Revolution, where these nations eradicated their historical past and re-created a new one? I'm all for teaching historical facts, as is this author. In fact the more, the better. What's at issue here, is how constructivist mannerisms and new age progressivism is hellbent on teaching history under a different lens, and that is destructive to kids when they don't first know their own history, first and foremost. How do you build on a foundation when nothing is there? A house of cards simply falls in the wind. I'd also say that when putting a reimagined history in front of teachers systemswide, does anyone have confidence it will be taught well?

Expand full comment

Thank you for covering this. I have covered the dangers of ethnic studies on my Substack, with particular attention to its embrace of anti-Jewish tropes. The leading ES advocacy orgs in Washington openly state their vision of overturning enlightenment ideals in favor of intersectionality and oppressor/victim paradigms. They blame Jews (code name: “Zionists”) for ruining the first California curriculum, and one leader here has stated on the record that Jews claim “people of color status” and don’t recognize their white privilege, and they act as “barriers and gatekeepers to the work of people of color.”

These groups are actively doing professional development with school districts around Seattle and Olympia.

Expand full comment

Of course it embraces anti-Jewish tropes. The whole thing is simply a careful rebranding of what the National Socialists and their predecessors were doing in the 1920s and beyond. Race essentialism is one of the core tenants of National Socialism...calling this stuff Marxist or whatever just gives it a veneer of possible academic respectability it doesn't deserve.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I'd suggest you actually read and understand my comment. The DEI people are the ones reusing National Socialist methods and tropes...right down to the race essentialist labels and tactics. They also target educators quite effectively. Many like to forget National Socialism had strong proponents within the German university system (as did its precursors in the more pan-German nationalist movements). In fact, many of the mid- and upper-level leaders in the SD were professors and lawyers (many of whom were considered quite successful academically). Methods migrate, as do the targets of those methods.

Expand full comment

This is a really good point. All hate groups share a persecution complex, victimhood mentality and complete self-assurance in their groups' own moral superiority. In this sense both the far left and far right are exactly the same, but the far left is doing even more to solidify in-group thinking and racialize our identities. I could just as easily imagine pogroms under the left as the right. Both groups are equally dangerous. Just look at The Terror of the French Revolution.

Expand full comment

And that's why I like to stress that many of the tactics and methods being used by what's loosely considered the left these days are lifted from the National Socialist playbook almost verbatim. They also share the same obsession with race and identify as being immutable and easily generalized/stereotyped. And if you want left-wing pogroms, you don't need to look much further than Cambodia, China, or Stalin's USSR. Power-mad zealots all tend to be quite similar regardless of their ideological trappings.

Expand full comment

That's a good point. How could I forget about the Pol Pot regime? I do think that socialism itself is not to blame, but rather the ignorant, militant interpretation of Marxism that inspired "critical theory." Inspired is the key word, because aside from vaguely Marxist-sounding terminology, CRT/CT has nothing in common with real socialism, nor does DEI. They just imitate some of the rhetoric to lend their own bunk arguments some badly-needed credibility. As DEI activists themselves are fond of pointing out, "equity" has nothing in common with equality. Rather than "leveling the playing field" (which is what I felt and hoped for back when I identified as a liberal), theirs is a robber baron mentality that's much more oriented towards vengeance, segregation and retaliation than "social justice." If anyone on the left still actually believed in equality, justice, democratic processes, or bridging differences, I would still be a liberal, but its devolved into pure narcissism and power grabs. They decided to become what they claimed to hate.

Expand full comment

I don't think most of it has much of anything to do with socialism, honestly. I use the more formal name for the Nazi party so people don't skip over it when they see it. Interestingly, there was a faction of the NSDAP (the Berlin or Strasser faction) that had more socialist trappings than Hitler's Munich faction. But at the end of the day they were race essentialist robber barons as you say (just look at Robert Ley for one example). Payback for wrongs real and imagined was as much a part of the NSDAP's DNA as it is their more modern ideological fellow travelers.

Expand full comment

I totally understand what you're saying, as well as the shorthand. And while Nazi analogies are often overused in this day and age, your analysis is spot on, sadly. The only real difference between National Socialism and DEI is who the perceived victims and villains are. The Nazis also has a victim/persecution complex at the heart of their mythology. They were the only group more obsessed with race than the DEI movement, and you're right, the victimhood mentality is just a façade for grabbing power and enacting revenge fantasies. It has nothing at all to do with creating concord between people, or even righting past wrongs.

Expand full comment

Exactly. The similarities are very disturbing. But too many people are buying the whole "it's Marxism" line without actually bothering to look and what's being said and, perhaps more importantly, how it's being said.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Clearly you lack the ability to understand historical comparisons. Can you even explain why you feel so strongly compelled to slap ideological labels on anyone with whom you might have a point of disagreement? Since rational discourse seems to elude you, I'll leave you to your rant.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Hey Chandra. Thanks for sharing this article. I think it does a pretty good job of showing how Jews are both white and non-white, depending on circumstances.

The reasons many of us here are critical of ethnic studies is because it's not what it sounds like. It is a political ideology rooted in the 1960s Third World Liberation Front (and it does share many characteristics with Marxism and Maoism, hence Steve's comment above). It's not about "teaching history accurately" - we actually all agree that schools should teach black history, native history, women's history. The thing is, they already mostly do this. We like this, because it's about our shared humanity as Americans and part of our national quest to form a more perfect union. Ethnic studies - specifically, Liberated Ethnic Studies - demonstrates that it wants the opposite of this. Its leaders here on the West Coast are basically training students to resent the system and become political adversaries. When someone says "race essentialist," that means that we are assigning characteristics (often stereotypes) to racial groups and pitting them against each other in a power complex rather than seeing our struggles and identities as intertwined as human Americans. There is also very little evidence ethnic studies as a lens will improve educational outcomes.

As for Jews, what I have uncovered is a flattening of our identities and a resurgence of tropes. Jews in this intersectional framework are almost always white - whiteness being power. And so when we push back on that narrative, we are called out for shutting down people of color. This is directly related to anti-Jewish tropes of the powerful Jew controlling the narrative (usually the media). We are stuck in a loop where we can't have any voice - as soon as we speak up, we are accused of controlling the conversation.

I want to put myself out there for conversation if you'd like - my email is thecholentseattle@gmail.com.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I see you are not really interested in engaging with the conversation and documentation on this. Literally, these messages are on ES orgs' social media pages. It's easier to engage in character assassination I suppose.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

If you want credibility as a creator on Substack and as some sort of intellectual you shouldn't just straw man everyone you disagree with but actually engage with the arguments. My offer to continue on email stands.

Expand full comment

Emily, that was kind of you to reach out to her. It's clear that the Chandras of the world exist to make instant enemies of everyone who disagrees (or agrees) with their rapid paranoia and one-dimensional understanding of the world. Woe to any of us offering a slightly more nuanced (or thoughtful) approach. You aren't the only one here who got Chandra'ed. :) It's a great case study in why demagoguery is SO harmful to intelligent, civil discourse.

Expand full comment

Oh wow, you really went down the rabbit hole! I love how the response to a conversation IRL always ends with a proclamation of victimhood.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Ha! Please do be sure that all World Chandras get your memo to be offended! I'm sure they will welcome you as their savior! (Wow has this "discussion" become surreal or what?). Thank you for the free entertainment.

Expand full comment

This is an excellent piece, and well expressed, making crucial distinctions. Thank you. It is essential that we wake up to educational distortions and especially education being replaced by indoctrination which looks at everything through one particular (distorted) lens. As an educator, I want students to look at a wide variety of perspectives and opinions, and use their real critical thinking skills, not so-called "critical inquiry" or "critical analysis" (always on the basis of a whole political philosophy) which invariably winds up with the same buzz words or their equivalent in its findings. This is no way to educate children or anyone else.

Expand full comment

And you might wonder why homeschooling and the charter school movements are booming....

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

In NYC, there are 50k minority kids on charter school waiting lists because the public schools are failing to teach them how to read and write. What good is ethnic studies if you have no skills. Others don’t want their kids sexualized or even ‘groomed’ by school officials who are ‘way over their skis’ as they say. And if the public school system is not adequately preparing kids in basics (reading & writing) who needs ‘ethnic studies’ which are intended to demonize white children? The so-called 1619 Project which is being taught in thousands of schools has been called out for being historically inaccurate. And we know that these courses are very circumscribed as they probably don’t teach that slavery has existed throughout history and even today 2 million Uighers are enslaved in China. I’m betting that these courses won’t cover the fact that 2/3 of whites that arrived in the USA were indentured servants. Nor will it cover the fact that throughout the history of the formation of the USA most people fled to the USA because of persecution elsewhere- the Irish famine in the 19th century, wars & conflicts - and even my own family fled Latvia once their farm was confiscated by Russians in the early 1900’s - my husband’s family left The Levant area for the same reason. Today, Americans know these so-called ethnic studies courses are not being taught in a balanced fashion. That said, in general though, people are fleeing the public education system for a variety of reasons- because in their area, town or city has just failed to educate for whatever reason. It’s good to have a choice. Public education isn’t what it used to be.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

You love repeating the words "data and facts" as you insult everyone you disagree with, but these magic words don't lend credence (or coherence) to your arguments. Your pretense to defending intellectual rigor ring a bit hollow as your only response to those you disagree with is to hide behind words like "deflection" and "denialism." It must be a rather lonely life, shouting at everyone you meet, not listening to a word they say to you, instead opting to personally both those who agree and disagree with you. Phrases like "white flight" are not merely dismissive, they're racist, and it's just this sort of divisive garbage they teach in modern ethnic studies courses that render them toxic to both intellectual rigor, objectivity or constructive dialogue. It's a cult, plain and simple.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Thanks Chandra, but unlike brilliant teachers like yourself, wikipedia is not my primary source for serious scholarship. But being such a busy teacher, with an actual teaching job and actual students and not just a lonely crank with nothing better to do with your life but troll people ceaselessly...you would know that. :)

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 5, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Good morning, stalker.

Expand full comment

Blacks think, like any adolescent that, it’s all about them. I can’t wait for the massive amounts of Latinos and Asians that the Biden Administration is encouraging to come across the border to create such a mass in inner cities that they’ll overwhelm dysfunctional black communities. New immigration is the only event that will cleanse the rot. That will be one for the Ethnic Studies classes.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 5, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Chandra, do yourself a favor and give it a rest.

Expand full comment

I don't think she can. The Chandras of the world have a mental age of about seven or eight. Did she order you to "define your terms" yet? Another one of her favorite stock phrases is "data and facts." "She" claims she's a teacher, but I think she's more likely a Russian troll working out of a troll farm.

Expand full comment

😂🤪😂🙄🤣

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 5, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Keep it coming Chandy. I can report your comments all day long. Nobody is fooled by your lies and BS about being a victim. Nobody, not even you. No one here cares about you, your dead mother, your granddaddy or where you come from. All we care about is where you're going: away. I've now warned you several times to leave me alone. Better quit while you're ahead, kiddo.

Expand full comment

Thank you for this well-argued, cogent piece. This is a little beyond the scope of your piece, but I wonder why schools are opting to teach ethnic studies, whose focus is highly specific, and includes an ideological bent, instead of cultural anthropology. Anthropology has its own flaws, of course, but it at least aims at reaching broader and more generally applicable understandings of human behavior. And while aspects of cultural anthropology overlap with the humanities and other traditions, anthropologists are usually expected to at least try to adhere to norms for scientific methodology. In my mind, this puts anthropology head and shoulders above other disciplines seeking to understand human cultural diversity through an political ideological lens. Of course, mainstream anthropology has been tainted by the same social forces that seek to warp every corner of our society with an fixation on race. But at least, in principle, cultural anthropology represents a wider understanding of human nature than the dogmatism of ethic studies.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 5, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

You are not any kind of teacher. You are a troll and a stalker who gets their jollies from harassing people you disagree with. I hope that you get the help you need. Of course you're "back." You never go away. You probably stayed up all night trolling.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 5, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Only a narcissist would think their empty comments on an obscure social media post who gets her "history lessons" from wikipedia and CNN would think there is a place for herself in the history books, lol. Your granddaddy was white? Good to know you hate yourself more than you do the rest of us. Good luck cultivating your victimhood. The Catholic Church loves martyrs. Maybe you should reach out to them and tell them your story.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I'm not looking for unbiased perspective. Any good student of social science knows it does not exist. Funny that "bias" is the worst possible thing to the woke. Thumping on anthro with the "all anthropologist are racist white men" stick is a trope, not a truth, even if you hate white men. In fact, it's a very old saw. And while, as in all disciplines and fields of study there were some jerks, there are also many good people doing good work. That I even need to say that reflects how low the maturity level has sunk in public discourse. To condemn an entire field because of its complex history or a few bad apples is a very woke approach to social change. It lacks nuance, subtly or practical application. Condemning others is also not constructive or productive, as many young SJW's like to think. It just adds more noise and detracts from the hard conversations that the adults need to have. I pray that by the end of my life this disease will have run its course and we can once again have intelligent conversations about complex topics.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Better to be "boring" than a jerk, Chandy. But I know trolls like you often disagree on that! Good luck winning friends with your winning personality.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I agree with you 100%. I took ethnic studies classes along with anthro coursework and benefited from both. They both have their place. But I do think anthropology should be taught more widely than ethnic studies for the valid reasons I've already articulated. Ethnic studies is one peoples' story; anthropology is better equipped to explore broader understandings of how we all fit together. That's an important distinction. We need those understandings if we are to transcend the entrenched tribalism that threatens to destroy us. Ethnic studies perpetuates (or at best, doesn't help people transcend) tribalism, and hence, it is not the appropriate vehicle for bridging misunderstandings and conflict between groups. From an intellectual standpoint, it's easy and lazy to condemn an entire field of study based on a few bad apples, particularly when no better alternative is being offered. While woke "historians" look backward through time, on an eternal quest to find and cancel everything that doesn't fit their victims and villains worldview, I look back to glean understand from both the failures and the successes of our forebears, who all had something to teach regardless of their imperfections.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I don't understand why you feel the need to school me about what I've already said I agree with you on. I've already clearly stated that I agree with you about the right's destructive influence, so no need to belabor the point any further. But where we seem to part ways is in your binary thinking that right wing extremism does anything to justify left wing extremism (and racism). Both right and left wing ideologues are equally corrosive to the aims of an enlightened society. Both are equally detrimental to intelligent discourse. Both use bans, censorship and intimidation to force compliance with their equally paranoid and infantile view of people, race, gender and the world. Which one wins the contest for "worst" is not my concern, because they both use the same methods. You say "heroes and villains come in all colors..." I'm glad to hear you say so now, because it seems to contradict your earlier statements where you introduced those terms into multiple sets of comments. I am, merely responding to the false-dichotomy that you and so many others adhere to.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I pity Florida and would never live there, but my interest is in the bigger picture. You have a (literally) one-sided view. Mine is more expansive. Labels, identity politics, and tribalism are threats to continued human existence, and both the right and left practice these antisocial behaviors. Inferior minds can grumble and debate over which one is worse, but in that contest whoever holds the moral high ground is still just as misguided, tainted and corrupt as that which they claim superiority over. If you want to be one of the masses tilting at windmills and fighting paper tigers, be my guest. I have more important ideas to consider. In your shrill and rigid thinking, you have truly missed the forest for the trees.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

When do you find time to teach, with all the lecturing you do? ...And stalking, my god.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I don't know who you're having this discourse with, but it isn't me, but some imaginary foe. As I've already said ad nauseum: I. AGREE. WITH. YOU. And I've loudly and publicly voiced my support of teachers facing the right's ridiculously homophobic censorship and iron-fisted attempts to ban LGBTQ people and others from a place at the table. But as I also said, one think I hate about wokism is that it exists to call-out/tear down/destroy without offering any meaningful or intelligent alternative. That's all it knows how to do: destroy. And while you may be satisfied with taking easy shots at right wing bigots, I'd rather go a little further, and thus I won't be intimidated into not offering both critique of ethnic studies and a viable alternative that has a proven track-record of rising above tribalistic interpretations of human groups. Finding common ground has nothing to do with "singing kumbaya" but its easy for woke cynics to dismiss any attempt to forge intercultural common ground, because just like the right they don't want people to live in mutually respectful peaceful harmony. They only thrive in strife, anger and conflict, so they perpetuate the delusion that we are all oppressors or oppressed. They create jibberish, the product of irrational and paranoid "thinking." Phrases like "erasing blackness" deploy the exact same mentality of hate groups and how they create solidarity by crafting an ontology where a small group of the elect are under attack from invisible threatening forces. It's a great move for cult leaders or others seeking to create solidarity in order to control and inspire mobs to do their bidding. It's a chapter right out of the Jim Jones playbook (along with the GOP). Since the right has been at it a little longer, their verbiage is a bit more sophisticated than the left, but leftist ideologues are learning fast.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

People sometimes laugh at me when I say fiction is the most important source of truth. That's because they lack the vision to understand how much fiction has to teach us about ourselves. Another important function of fiction is the contrast it makes, helping us distinguish the literal from the metaphorical. We are now living in an ignorant age where people are unable to perceive the difference between metaphor and reality. Thus, some fool's inconsequential complaint becomes "erasing blackness" as if such a thing was possible. You do realize how much power you are giving your enemies, right? You take them more seriously than they take themselves. Your fantasyland is one that creates existential threats out of mere annoyances while ignoring real threats that aren't embodied by your favorite targets. This is another gift from the new left, the hyper-exaggerated inflation of differences and the weaponization of words. It's good for creating drama and stirring the pot, but it also weakens us and creates new hurdles to understanding. Being offended by someone's ignorant opinion is not "erasure." It's just a sign that you're taking an imaginary threat too seriously and giving your enemies the ability to hurt you every time they say something you dislike.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Good luck on your journey of victimhood! Let us know what you learn...when you learn something.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

I am happy to oblige, even though you are obviously baiting me rather than attempting to have a dialogue, which is completely predictable. "Woke" is a perfect term to epitomize the irony behind demagoguery masquerading as enlightenment. "SJW" or social justice warrior refers to people whose pretenses toward making the world a better place are tempered by their abuse of power, which is limited to bullying, trolling, and ending conversations and careers. They are similar to the Catholic Church during The Inquisition, though they fancy themselves to be saviors wielding the sword of justice. They are not labels I created, but they certainly apply in some instances. Does these definitions help you, or will they just serve as inspiration for your next attack?

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

It's interesting to see you copying and reposting your comments in multiple places. Interesting as well that you choose to see the world as one full of heroes and victims. It strikes me as odd that a teacher decrying anti-intellectualism makes such anti-intellectual statements, and chooses broad, sweeping generalizations, moral absolutism and applies confirmation bias to her statements. I would expect this level of maturity from a student, not a professor. It's also a students' error to think that because they use words like "data" or "facts" that whatever follows is a valid claim. A teacher would know that decontextualized "facts" are meaningless. I'm sorry the truth hurts you; it strengthens me, including the complex and sometimes ugly truths of the history of anthropology. But condemning something (or someone) because of its flaws is not "truth." It is a great way to fail to understand what many aspects of life have to teach. In this sense, woke ideology is even more anti-intellectual than right wing Christian theology as applied to education. It fixates on race to the exclusion of all other ideas (and race IS an idea, a construct), filtering all information from history to math through a lens where only victims and villains dwell, where all phenomena are reduced to "colonization". Everyone else is a saint/martyr/victim (the closest woke has to actual heroic qualities). It's not only untrue, but it's a very depressing, disempowering narrative, and one that infantilizes black people. It's almost childlike in it's simplistic, one-dimensional understanding of human nature. Self-righteous ideologues make great proto-fascists. Their constant hang-wringing over perceived injustice is the ideological engine behind numerous hate groups, including Christian identity, the Klan and others. And indeed, when they rail against woke ideology is IS hypocritical, as is the reverse. The far right and the woke left are exactly the same. They're both wolves in (they think) sheep's clothing, pretending to be on a holy crusade in order to mask their real intensions to seize power for themselves.

Expand full comment

You may have misread my comment, which is on CT, not CRT, which is only one of CT's children, or in this case, grandchildren, through CLS.

Unlike you, I don't know what you know and don't know, so I don't know if you know much about CT or anything at all. CT was the neo-Communism that gained intellectual predominance in the Left in my generation.

One suggestion: I understand the need some people have to feel superior and talk down to others, but it might be better if you'd try to talk with people instead.

Expand full comment

We need courses that will teach critically ABOUT "Critical Theory": explain what it is, who developed it, how they developed it as an extension of Leninism with its theme of moving beyond the working class to achieve a more total social-cultural revolution, and its methods for cultural revolution in light of those used in Russia and China under the same name. Also, its points of continuity and contradiction to the methodological norm of true public education, which is critical thinking.

Only teaching honestly about this can stop the indoctrination. No ban can stop it.

In the absence of this teaching, the field is left to those who do not teach ABOUT Critical Theory, but instead preach Critical Theory as a form of indoctrination. They also teach its activism, often by providing a kind of training in CT methods of intolerance, abuse, silencing of disagreement, and instantiation of social hegemony for its adherents. Their ideological impetus is unimpeded by any objective learning.

Where are the scholars who will develop the honest courses that are needed?

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

You may have misread my comment, which is about CT, not CRT.

Unlike you, I don't know what you know and don't know, so I don't know if you know much about CT. For what it is worth CT was the neo-Communism that gained intellectual predominance in the Left in my generation. CRT is one of CT's children, or grandchildren, through CLS.

One suggestion: I understand the need some people have to feel superior and talk down to others, but it might be better if you'd try to talk with people as equals instead. Reading your comments, I don't get an impression of actual superiority in knowledge or thinking; the rudeness gives me an impression, instead, of overcompensation. But that's just my impression; only you, looking inside yourself, could possibly know whether that's there.

Expand full comment

I think this person is unhinged and looking for a (or multiple) punching bag(s) to take out her frustrations on over being upset by living in Florida, lol. It's easier than listening or working towards constructive change and civil dialogue, I guess. Your comments are spot on.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Your lecture has been received. Thank you for "educating" us about morality, sexism, racism and the evils of white men (did I miss any "isms"?). You've won many hearts and minds with your sane arguments, concise claims and winning personality. I'm sure your students find you delightful, if you really have any... I get it. I would go nuts too if I lived in Florida, but that wasn't my choice (though I must admit, I'm glad you're there and I'm not...). Good luck with your holy crusade.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

No point to go on trying to talk with you. Intelligent readers can draw their own conclusions.

Expand full comment

It's the three Ds in action.

Expand full comment

Is it just poor word choice? You write "It is not just social conservatives who object to it. The ethnic studies perspective is contested by reputable scholars" - as if those two categories were mutually incompatible and mutually exclusive.

Expand full comment

Does the author think we are all morons? Once the conduit is in place, the content will flow. The battle is to keep the camel's nose out of the tent in the first place. Amazing that an educated educationalist can't see this. Oh, and I love the "college ready" rationale (excuse) for infecting high schools with CRT. In short order (4 years, right?), you can expect to see "high school preparation" used to flood elementary and middle schools with this tripe. God save us all from being "educated."

Expand full comment

to R Bicker: That's sadly realistic on your part. But the other reality is that the nose is already under the tent. Stuff inevitably filters in, and bans only make stuff more tempting. That makes it important to teach ABOUT it, honestly. If only so students won't be blindsided when other teachers "teach it" as dogma, and when still others train them to practice it methods, and use it as a way of establishing a superior position in an ideological social hierarchy.

Expand full comment

Good points, and well-taken.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

You are so obsessed with forcing everyone to love ethnic studies you're trolling everyone here! How do you have so much time on your hands if you are a teacher??? Why not try engaging with opposing views rather than shouting down and insulting every person who commented and copying and pasting your own comments ad nauseum? Is that what good teachers do?

Expand full comment

It's the three Ds in action: Disparage, Deflect, Deny.

Expand full comment

Earning potential may not be ALL that matters but it is pretty darn important to anyone with tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt. If they must work multiple jobs just to pay rent and pay off the loan then they won't have much time for literary pursuits - or even a family. These student loans cannot be shed by filing bankruptcy - they lock students into positions of "involuntary servitude" for their early adult and middle age years.

Higher Ed has known this for decades and yet they still churn out bachelor's in social sciences when there are virtually no jobs for social scientists without Ph.D.s - the same goes for most of the Liberal Arts degrees: their primary value is as a stepping stone to post-graduate studies (more school & more debt). Even the old excuse that they learn to write better is suspect because students in these majors learn to write in academese - which is only useful in Academia.

When Higher Ed only served the scions of privilege issuing degrees with low market value was fine - in fact, having a useless education was a sign of status. However, now that Colleges & Universities market themselves as a way out of poverty they should be more upfront about how well each degree serves that purpose. This is especially important when you look at how much student loan debt is accrued by underserved students compared with middle class students.

Some keep parroting vague lines about the value of Higher Ed without seeing that lifting people out of poverty with college degrees is a sales pitch.

Tragic.

Expand full comment

These ethnic studies programs are just make-work for students who were duped into majoring in ethnic studies and then discovered that such degrees provide a marginal boost in earning potential over a solid High School diploma. (Plus, having a degree in a 'Social Activism Major' may send up a red flag for prospective employers who do not want to have zealot-induced drama in the workplace).

It is amusing they want to educate humans into being better angels - they think some book-learnin' will change human nature. It would be funny if it were not so wasteful.

Expand full comment

Huge waste of money, time and effort. But that's woke education.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

It's so disappointing seeing people ignoring reality and behaving like ostriches with their head in the sand.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

You're ignoring all the huge number of woke cancelations and censorings.

Murdered children? That's incoherent.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

When you recognize reality, you might hear better.

Expand full comment

She demanded I define "woke" as well (demanding people define words she already understands seems to be her calling card). When I responded, she just kept up the paranoid rants and insults. Most of her comments are cut, copied and re-pasted throughout this thread as a means to bully anyone she disagrees with (i.e. everyone). I'm beginning to wonder if "she" is a paid troll working out of a troll farm or similar operation.

Expand full comment

History is one thing. A de facto Marxist interpretation of it is another (everything boils down to oppressors vs. the oppressed, and a particular solution) is another.

Expand full comment
Comment removed
Apr 4, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Maybe look in the mirror before concluding everyone you deliberately alienated is racist. You're the only person here bandying racist stereotypes about.

Expand full comment
Error