RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/another_sad_spectacle_at_duke_university.html

University commencement speakers took the stage this past weekend to advise students of the Class of 2022 now ready to join the real world.  I observed the commencement ceremony at Duke University, as my niece graduated magna cum laude.  As a Duke alumna myself, I was proud of her: half of her college experience was marred by extreme COVID lockdown policies, yet she remained focused, worked hard, and earned her accomplishments.  My extended family — which included several Duke grads and employees — settled atop Wallace Wade stadium, bracing unseasonably cold weather, awaiting the commencement speakers’ advice to the next generation. 

The featured Duke commencement speaker was General Motors CEO Mary Barra.  She spoke of five lessons from the kitchen table.  I appreciated her speech and humble advice, especially grateful that she did not receive the memo that the words “diversity” and “equity” are crucial features of modern-day academic discourse.  Unfortunately, her grounded advice will be overshadowed by the student commencement speech preceding it.

Prior to Ms. Barra’s speech, the chosen Duke undergraduate student speaker spoke of a “Duke Nation.”  The Duke senior described the idea that if a moat existed around Duke, “[Duke] could be its own tiny island nation like Cuba or Sri Lanka.”  “Cuba?” I thought at the time.  “Well, that probably isn’t a terrible comparison when you really think about the communist collectivism on campuses.”  The remaining speech contained citizenship metaphors, passport allusions, and a “world of experiences.”

This senior had an impressive résumé, including an impending Bachelor of Science degrees in statistical science and economics with a religion minor.  She had been an editor with the Duke student newspaper and a Young Trustee Finalist, had studied at the Ecologic Institute in Germany for a summer, and was a Duke Student Government senator, among other accomplishments, and she “is passionate about empowering women of color in STEM,” according to the commencement program biography.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/california-parents-say-no-to-anti-semitic-ethnic-studies-public-school-children-classroom-israel-anti-semitic-11652389663?mod=opinion_lead_pos6

A group of Jewish public-school parents and teachers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging the adoption of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist curricular materials in Los Angeles public schools.

Last year California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring public-school students in the state to complete a course in ethnic studies to graduate from high school. He said it was needed because “students deserve to see themselves in their studies, and they must understand our nation’s full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society.” But the ethnic-studies movement has never been about representation or justice. A creature of 1960s radical left-wing activism, ethnic studies was from the start about attacking the U.S., capitalism and Zionism.

Advocates—including teachers union officials, public-school teachers and other ideologues—have formed the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, through which they hope to influence the teaching of ethnic studies in the state. The consortium, which disseminates teaching materials lifted directly from radical anti-Israel websites, rejects the idea that all cultures should be studied. It asserts that ethnic studies is about only four groups: Native Americans, black Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, and Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders. That last group includes Arabs from the Middle East—but not Jews, who’ve lived in that same region for millennia.

The consortium’s materials—many of which have been taken offline in recent months—are filled with attacks on Jews and the Jewish state. They deny that Jews are indigenous to the Middle East and teach that Israel is a “colonialist” and “settler state” founded through “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid.” They falsely define Judaism, teaching that “Zionism is distinct from Judaism” and that Zionism isn’t a Jewish religious belief but an invention of the “late 19th century.”

Tell that to the millions of Jews who end their Passover Seders with “next year in Jerusalem,” or end every Jewish wedding by breaking a glass to mourn Jerusalem’s destruction, or pray each day facing Jerusalem—or whose bible, prayer book and calendar have for thousands of years been filled with the yearning for a return of the people of Israel to sovereignty in the land of Israel.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/05/a_peek_into_how_educrats_indoctrinate_our_children.html

As a lifelong conservative and a retired teacher, I welcome all efforts to wrest control over education from the leftist educrats. I long for a day when we can send our kids to public schools and know they are being educated, not indoctrinated. But indoctrinated they are and one of the main vehicles is the seemingly innocuous “Advisory” module.

As parents, we send our children to public schools to learn English, math, science, history, and other subjects deemed desirable by our society. Our schools also teach propaganda aimed at transforming America into something like the America that President Obama longed for when he said he wanted to transform America during his administration.

Recently, conservative groups critical of Obama’s vision have challenged those school boards and politicians suspected of trying to help Obama transform America. The defeat of Terry McAuliffe in Virginia and opposition to Critical Race Theory show that parents and taxpayers are wising up to the leftward march of American Public Education.

As I said, I support wresting control of American Public Education from the leftist educrats. Even as we celebrate the victory of Governor Youngkin and the attention on CRT that is making the news on a regular basis, however, we must not underestimate the educrats’ power. They will not go away quietly. They are true believers and they expect that conservatives will lose interest in this fight.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/05/harvards-jew-hate-ronn-torossian/

Last month, Harvard Law School deemed Israel in a report to the United Nations as “an apartheid regime.” They issued a 22 page report claiming that Israel systematically discriminates against Palestinians and suppresses their civil and political rights.” Harvard’s report “finds that Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank are in breach of the prohibition of apartheid and amount to the crime of apartheid under international law.”

Now, the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper at Harvard University, has  endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. They also expressed support for Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student group that annually hosts an “Israel Apartheid Week” on campus. The editorial says, “We are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — and we call on everyone to do the same.”

One wonders if those behind said editorial of boycotting the Jewish state are concerned for their job prospects as they would be, say if they endorsed the KKK or any other form of racism. This is pure and unmitigated hatred and antisemitism. And its politically acceptable at Harvard apparently. 

At Harvard Law School there is a spring 2022 class on “Law, Human Rights, and Social Justice in Israel and Palestine” taught by Ms. Salma Waheedi, who has signed a letter to “express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination. Israeli state violence has devastated Palestinian life through a combination of warfare, territorial theft, and violent displacement. Unwavering US financial, military, and political support has fueled an apartheid system that institutionalizes the domination and repression of Palestinians.”

https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/at-harvard-facts-are-for-losers?token=

There is no one writing more lucidly today on the subject of Jews and Jew-hatred than Dara Horn.

I find myself constantly recommending her essays—especially this one, called The Cool Kids—and her recent book, People Love Dead Jews. As I wrote my own book about antisemitism, these two sentences from Dara helped me frame my own thinking: “Since ancient times, in every place they have ever lived, Jews have represented the frightening prospect of freedom. As long as Jews existed in any society, there was evidence that it in fact wasn’t necessary to believe what everyone else believed, that those who disagreed with their neighbors could survive and even flourish against all odds.”

In other words, where liberty thrives, Jews thrive. But where liberty is under siege, Jews will inevitably be, too.

I find myself constantly returning to that theme as I am bombarded by news of historically high antisemitism here in America, and as I read, last week, of the Harvard Crimson’s decision to endorse the boycott movement against Israel. That’s the subject of Dara’s essay today, which we are thrilled to publish. — BW

“…Twenty-five years later, I still remember the theatrics involved with becoming an editor at the Harvard Crimson, the newspaper produced by Harvard undergraduates every day for the past century and a half. The newspaper’s office had a room upstairs called the Sanctum, so named because only those who had jumped through the paper’s prescribed journalistic hoops were allowed to enter—and then only for Sunday night editorial meetings, at which the coming week’s worth of unsigned editorials were debated and approved under strict secrecy. Newly minted editors were welcomed into the room with the question, “What are your politics?” One’s answer determined the side of the room where one would sit for these debates.

https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/65000-fake-students-enrolled-in-the?s=w

Every few days, Professor Kim Rich looks through new student registrations for the Los Angeles Community College District, including at Pierce College where she teaches criminal justice, and sees hundreds of newly created fake student enrollments.

In our conversations with Rich, she told us that It’s been going on for months.

Hackers enroll the fake students and collect up to $900 million in financial aid and Covid-19 aid each semester. However, no one seems to know for sure the sheer scale of the fraud.

These fake students, usually created by bots, open new accounts using easy-to-spot fake names like Barack Obama, Donald Trump or duplicate first names — Clifford Clifford, Jordan Jordan, Sidney Sidney, Kamara All of the above and fivethousandonehundredseven — names with questions marks or names with numbers.

New fake accounts are created, the fake students enroll in classes, taking seats away from actual students hoping to enroll in those classes. The fake accounts also “qualify” for financial aid.

https://amgreatness.com/2022/05/03/dc-school-gives-anti-racism-fistbook-to-4-year-olds-asks-them-to-out-racist-family-members/

At a public elementary school in Washington D.C., teachers and other staff members forced “anti-racism” curriculum on students as young as four years old, and even went so far as to ask the children to out allegedly racist family members.

As reported by Fox News, a letter signed by Danielle Singh, principal of Janney Elementary School, and dated from November 30th confirms that students were forced to participate in an “Anti-Racism Fight Club.” The event was hosted by a speaker named Doyin Richards.

“As part of this work, each student has a fist book to help continue the dialogue at school and home,” Singh confirmed in the letter, with a link to Richards’ presentation. “We recognize that any time we engage topics such as race and equity, we may experience a variety of emotions. This is a normal part of the learning and growing process. As a school community we want to continue the dialogue with our students and understand this is just the beginning.”

Richards’ book, the “Anti-Racism Fight Club Fistbook for Kids,” declares that “White people are a part of a society that benefits them in almost every instance,” and that “it’s as if White people walk around with an invisible force field because they hold all of the power in America.”

“If you are a White person, White privilege is something you were born with and it simply means that your life is not more difficult due to the color of your skin,” Richards says in the book. “Put differently, it’s not your fault for having White privilege, but it is your fault if you choose to ignore it.” The book also says that “anti-racism” involves being “loud, uncomfortable, confrontational and visible to ensure change is made.”

The book then demands that the students ask them to find racism in themselves, then asks about family members.

“Just because someone is older than you doesn’t mean that they’re right all of the time,” the book continues. “Parents need to stop making excuses for that behavior if they truly believe in anti-racism. Who in your family has racist beliefs? Do you think you can change their ways? What is your strategy for dealing with them?”

Parents have already taken to the district’s online forums to complain about the material, with one anonymous commenter claiming that their child was traumatized by the unknown contents of the lesson.

“Anyone else’s Kindergarten kid freaked out by an anti-racism assembly today? My kid needed to sleep with a light on and the door open tonight,” said the comment. “Anyone know what specifically was talked about? My kid couldn’t relay much except that she was scared.”

In a statement responding to the leaked reports, DC Public Schools claimed that the “fistbook” was never shared with students.

“DC Public Schools provides joyful and rigorous academic experiences for our students and is committed to advancing educational equity,” the district’s statement said. “In December, a resource link with this content was shared in a parent newsletter at one of our schools. It is not part of our DCPS curriculum and was not shared with students.”