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Ruth King

Condoleezza Rice, Coleman Hughes & More on Black History Month A symposium on race, racism, excellence and America. Bari Weiss

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/condoleezza-rice-coleman-hughes-and?token=

Why does Condoleezza Rice celebrate Black History Month? Because, as the former Secretary of State told me last week during a wide-ranging interview: “When I was a little kid growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, in fourth grade, we had a book called ‘Know Alabama.’ And you would never have known that there were any black people as part of that history. So I think it’s important to call out.”

What is the meaning and purpose of Black History Month?

Does it risk emphasizing the false idea that black history is separate from American history? Or is it an acknowledgement of the essential black contribution toward creating a more perfect union? Does it allow us to step back and see, as Coleman Hughes writes below, not just what the country has done to black people but what black people have done for the country? Or does its existence reify the idea of race—and, in so doing, perpetuate the myth that we are somehow not all equally American?

In honor of Black History Month, we reached out not only to Coleman, but also to Daryl Davis, Eli Steele, Ronald Sullivan, Sheena Mason, Noah Harris and Brittany Talissa King.

Read their thoughtful contributions below. And you can listen to my whole conversation with Secretary Rice here: 

An unstoppable peaceful protest on 18 wheels By Jack Gleason

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/02/an_unstoppable_peaceful_protest_on_18_wheels.html

Americans are ticked off at the shenanigans going on in Canada.  Martial law for a few thousand truckers protesting mandates?  Seizing bank accounts?  Trampling peaceful protesters with horses?  All this to force people to get an injection that doesn’t work for an illness that causes less death than the seasonal flu?  This has gone too far.

U.S. truckers are even angrier.  They are the critical part of our transportation system that gets goods from the farms and factories to the stores, and they worked tirelessly during the darkest days of the pandemic.

Now they, too, are being forced to get the shots, despite the fact that they spend 95% of their time isolated in their trucks.  If unvaxxed truckers can’t cross into Canada, that will be another blow to our already failing supply chain and will weaken our economy.

I saw an idea online about a safe way for truckers to support their brethren in Canada, and protest similar overreaches in the U.S.  It’s called #12NoonTruckStop and makes a lot of sense.

The idea is for all truckers to safely pull to the side of the road every day at 12 noon and stop for 12 minutes.  Hundreds of trucks would line the highways, and people could honk their support.  At 12:12 P.M. they’re back on the road.

Podcast: The ‘Cry-Bully’ Phenomenon on College Campuses Author Richard Cravatts discusses his new ebook, “Jew Hatred Rising.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/podcast-cry-bully-phenomenon-college-campuses-stop-jew-hatred-campus/

https://americasvoice.news/video/VAqiiCevv1WSHeY/

Freedom Center Journalism Fellow and author Richard L. Cravatts, Ph.D., recently made an appearance on The Water Cooler podcast, which is hosted by journalist David Brody, to promote his new ebook, Jew Hatred Rising: The Perversities of the Campus War Against Israel and the Jews, which was published by the Freedom Center this month.

Host David Brody began the show by discussing the recent incident with actress and commentator Whoopi Goldberg, who was suspended from The View for two weeks after she inexcusably declared that the Holocaust was not about racism.

“The controversy with Whoopi Goldberg illuminates part of the problem that on university campuses there’s an obsession about race, and in Whoopi’s mind the Jews were white people,” Cravatts explained. “And on University campuses now, Jews are not considered to be a minority group that’s worthy or deserving of protection in the way that blacks, gays, Muslims, Hispanics and other minority and ethnic groups and identity groups are protected.”

Cravatts lays the blame for much of modern anti-Semitism squarely on anti-Israel hate groups like the Hamas-funded Students for Justice in Palestine. Instead of attacking Jews directly, Cravatts explained, SJP relies on “the substitution of Israel for the Jew so that people that authentically hate Jews or don’t like the idea of a Jewish sovereign nation are able to express their animus towards Jews by heaping criticism and obsessing about the many long and egregious list of faults about Israel.”

The Real Terrorist Attack Trudeau Ignored Too busy cracking down on the Freedom Convoy. Robert Spencer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/real-terrorist-attack-trudeau-ignored-robert-spencer/

In justifying his invocation of the Emergencies Act and turning Canada into a police state, Justin Trudeau falsely claimed that the Freedom Convoy was “not a peaceful protest” and asserted that “the blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety.” Unsurprisingly, however, Trudeau’s outrage was selective: on Thursday, Canada suffered a genuine terror attack that was not a peaceful protest and that undeniably hurt the Canadian economy and endangered public safety, yet Trudeau didn’t say a word. The terrorists in question were Leftists, so they got a pass.

The UK’s Daily Mail reported Thursday that “ax-wielding eco-terrorists attacked a British Columbia gas pipeline Thursday, shooting flare guns at frightened workers and causing millions in damage…About 20 attackers, wearing camouflage and masks, surrounded Costal [sic] Gaslink [sic] workers in the early morning hours of February 17 in what the company called a ‘highly planned and dangerous unprovoked assault.’”

Reportedly, only one person was hurt, but that was sheer serendipity. Coastal GasLink added: “In one of the most concerning acts, an attempt was made to set a vehicle on fire while workers were inside. The attackers also wielded axes, swinging them at vehicles and through a truck’s window. Flare guns were also fired at workers. Workers fled the site for their own safety and remain shaken by this violent incident.”

The Air Force Went Woke, Its Planes Won’t Fly Diversity was supposed to improve military readiness. It didn’t. Daniel Greenfield

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/02/air-force-went-woke-its-planes-wont-fly-daniel-greenfield/

Chief of Staff Charles Brown and Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright have made diversity and wokeness into the core of the Air Force’s mission. Meanwhile the planes won’t fly.

Brown has spent the past few years unleashing worthless diversity reviews to try and blame the Air Force for a supposed lack of diversity, even though it now has a black chief of staff and a black top enlisted leader. The military justification for their divisive shenanigans was that diversity equated somehow to military readiness. How is the Air Force’s readiness?

The latest numbers show that the Air Force has made no progress in improving the readiness of its planes with a rate of 71.5% or 7 out of 10 planes in 2021.

The United States Air  Force is supposed to have mission capable rates of 75% to 80%, but about the only aircraft that meet that criteria are the unmanned drones. The high ratings of the drones disguise the fact that the actual numbers, when broken down by aircraft, are worse.

The F-35As, the fifth generation fighters that would be crucial in countering any sizable aerial engagement with Communist China, dropped catastrophically from 76% to 68.8%.

Last year, the Biden administration boasted about the largest deployment of F-22 stealth fighters in the Pacific. Unfortunately their readiness hovers at around 50%.

Deploying fighters with the readiness rate of a coin flip won’t impress Communist China.

The Most Dangerous Speech of the Post–Cold War Era By Michael Brendan Dougherty

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-most-dangerous-speech-of-the-post-cold-war-era/

This address should make one question Putin’s sanity.

The Russian government has formally recognized Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, two sections of Ukraine that have been subjected to years of fighting between Russian- and Ukrainian-backed militias. This recognition amounts to the Russian government giving itself permission to intervene to protect these breakaway nations in an undisguised way.

But just as distressing was the speech Vladimir Putin gave to announce it to the world. Earlier today I wrote a piece that in one line offhandedly suggested that Putin was a rational actor. I repent of having written it. If that ranting, grandiose, aggrieved wreck of a speech was delivered sincerely, then Putin has addled himself with his own propaganda, is now unpredictable, and will likely drive his nation and others to a disaster. I grant that there may be insincerity in it as well. But reports of his meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron suggest that Macron was subjected to six hours of this same ranting and could never bring Putin down to what Europeans see as the brass tacks: the Minsk agreements, the withdrawal of Russian irregulars, and a series of next steps, including diplomatic talks on the long-term security arrangements of Europe.

His speech featured the Russian litany of post–Cold War grievances, namely the broken promise not to expand NATO. “They try to convince us over and over again that NATO is a peace-loving and purely defensive alliance, saying that there are no threats to Russia. Again they propose that we take them at their word. But we know the real value of such words,” he said. More disconcerting, he suggested that the expansion of NATO was meant to “serve as a forward springboard for the strike.”

Critical race theory-related ideas found in mandatory programs at 23 of top 25 US medical schools: report ‘The racialization of medical school education is troubling,’ William A. Jacobson said: Brian Flood

https://www.foxnews.com/media/critical-race-theory-related-mandatory-top-medical-schools-report

At least 23 of America’s 25 most prestigious medical colleges and universities have some form of mandatory student training or coursework on ideas related to critical race theory (CRT), according to CriticalRace.org, which monitors CRT curricula and training in higher education. 

“The racialization of medical school education is troubling. It’s one thing to recognize the health needs of different populations, it’s entirely different to inject racial politics into medical care. Demanding that medical school students become activists is dangerous,” William Jacobson told Fox News Digital. 

At least 23 of America’s 25 most prestigious medical colleges and universities have some form of mandatory student training of coursework on ideas related to critical race theory (CRT), according to CriticalRace.org. (iStock)

Jacobson, Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School and founder of the Legal Insurrection website, founded CriticalRace.org’s sprawling database that previously examined elite K-12 private schools and 500 of America’s top undergraduate programs. 

“The mantra of the so-called ‘antiracism’ movement has no place in medicine. Current racial discrimination in order to remedy past racial discrimination is wrong generally, but is downright dangerous in medicine,” Jacobson added. 

The schools examined were based on the rankings by U.S. News’ rankings of America’s top medical schools. Of the top 25 colleges and universities, 23 had some sort of mandatory training and 21 have offered materials by authors Robin DiAngelo and Ibram Kendi, whose books explicitly call for discrimination, according to Jacobson. 

The New York Times Makes A Stunning Admission About CDC Data On Vaccines

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scottmorefield/2022/02/20/the-new-york-times-makes-a-stunning-admission-about-cdc-data-on-vaccines-n2603555

The New York Times made an eye-popping admission on Sunday regarding data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Covid-19 vaccines.

In an article titled, “The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects,” reporter Apoorva Mandavilli writes: “For more than a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has collected data on hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States and broken it down by age, race and vaccination status. But it has not made most of the information public.”

Mandavilli, who covers science and global health for the Times, reported that the agency has published “only a tiny fraction of the data it has collected” since the pandemic began, including data on booster efficacy for 18 – 49 year-olds, a tremendous chunk of the U.S. population.

Reasons listed include bureaucracy, sample size, and not being “ready for prime time,” but one that’s definitely set to raise lots of eyebrows is the claim that the data could be “misinterpreted” by Covid vaccine skeptics. 

From the report:

Last year, the agency repeatedly came under fire for not tracking so-called breakthrough infections in vaccinated Americans, and focusing only on individuals who became ill enough to be hospitalized or die. The agency presented that information as risk comparisons with unvaccinated adults, rather than provide timely snapshots of hospitalized patients stratified by age, sex, race and vaccination status.

LET THEM EAT BUGS

https://issuesinsights.com/2022/02/22/let-em-eat-bugs/

For those who haven’t heard, cattle and pork are threats to the environment. The farms that raise them are foul greenhouse gas offenders. Better, say our superiors, that we settle for a nice bowl of insects instead.

A recent New York Times opinion feature headlined “​​The Joy of Cooking (Insects)” looks at “​​our broken food system and the three chances you get to help fix it – and save the planet – every day.”

“​​A growing tribe of environmentalists, academics and entrepreneurs are arguing that edible insects must enjoy a wider acceptance to help create a more sustainable global food system,” says the Times.

“It’s time for bugs. Whether you regard them as agents of filth or sources of nutrition, integrating more of them into your diet … is among a suite of dietary changes that we urgently need to consider to deal with food insecurity, biodiversity loss and climate change.”

The World Economic Forum claims “eating insects could reduce climate change” since “our consumption of animal protein is the source of greenhouses gas.”

The same organization has also said “we need to start nurturing – and eating – weeds,” which “can be nutritious and tasty, if we know which ones to pick.” Again, the greenhouse gases emitted by animal farming is the reason we need to go on a North Korean diet. Just another sacrifice we have to make to keep Gaia healthy.

The phrase “let them eat cake” has been attributed to Marie Antoinette. Whether she or an unnamed “great princess” of France said it, its disregard for hungry and sometimes starving peasants was clear. The royal class was going to continue to dine sumptuously, at least until they lost their heads in the revolution, and the rest were going to have to do with less.

Notable & Quotable: Judge Ho at Georgetown on Ilya Shapiro ‘If Ilya Shapiro is deserving of cancellation, then you should go ahead and cancel me too.’

https://www.wsj.com/articles/notable-quotable-judge-ho-georgetown-racism-ilya-shapiro-cancel-supreme-court-black-woman-justice-11645471956?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

From prepared remarks delivered Feb. 15 by Judge Jim Ho of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to the Federalist Society’s Georgetown Law School chapter:

Months ago, I was scheduled to talk with you all today about a subject that I’m very passionate about. . . . But I hope you won’t mind that I’ve decided to address a different topic today instead. . . . I’m going to spend my time today talking about Ilya Shapiro, who was recently appointed to serve as executive director and senior lecturer at the Center for the Constitution here at Georgetown. As you all know, there is now a heated debate—first, over the content of a recent tweet that he made and then deleted, and second, over what, if anything, Georgetown should do in response to his tweet. . . .

Ilya has said that he should have chosen different words. That ought to be enough. . . . If you asked Ilya, I am sure he would say that he’s the one standing up for racial equality, and that his opponents are the ones who are supporting racial discrimination. You don’t have to agree with him—but it’s obvious that’s where he’s coming from. And yet I don’t hear Ilya trying to punish others for taking a different view on racial equality. . . .

About a year ago, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “The Importance of a Diverse Federal Judiciary.” I’m honored that the committee invited me, along with four other federal judges, to testify to express my own views on the topic, and I agreed to do so. Here’s what I said:

“Equality of opportunity is fundamental to who we are, and to who we aspire to be, as a nation. . . . But here’s the kicker: Once everyone has had full and fair opportunity to be considered, you pick on the merits. Both the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act make clear that it is wrong to hire people based on race.