RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/06/california-public-school-teachers-latest-dupes-richard-l-cravatts/

No sooner than Israel had initiated its campaign to suppress Hamas’s rocket fire from Gaza, resulting in some 3400 rockets targeting southern Israeli towns during the 11-day conflict, than students and faculty at universities around the country began their noxious, though predictable, effort to once again slander the Jewish state, issuing statements of solidarity with the ever-aggrieved Palestinians and denouncing Israel for its alleged aggression, continued ethnic cleansing, oppression, and immorality for the inevitable deaths of Gazan civilians, including children.

The cognitive war against Israel has been waged on university campuses for more than a decade, during which time activist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine have promoted the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and have sought to galvanize anti-Israel support—especially at those times when Israel is forced by Palestinian aggression to suppress hostilities in defensive military maneuvers.

But the liberal worldview in which there are oppressors like Israel and oppressed like the Palestinians has seeped into public school systems now, as well, where woke elementary and high school teachers are suffused with concepts of the intersectionality of oppression, post-colonial views of the world, and the Left’s perennial notion that victims are guiltless and hegemonic powers (such as Israel and the United States) are founts of imperialism, militarism, and racism.

On May 19th, as one troubling example, the 6200-member United Educators of San Francisco teacher’s union passed a grotesque “Resolution in Solidarity with the Palestinian People” which, in addition to calling on the Biden administration to end all aid to Israel, denounced Israel’s alleged “forced displacement and home demolitions” of Palestinian Arabs in Jerusalem and its imposition of “a regime of legalized racial discrimination.”  Like many other statements issued during this latest conflict, Israel was denounced as an aggressive, militaristic oppressor whose military capriciously murders Arabs, seemingly without provocation. “Since May 10 the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has began [sic] an intense campaign of bombing and mortar fire on the territory of Gaza,” the resolution reads, and “nearly 200 people, more than a quarter of them children have been killed. Over 1,300 have been wounded, and 40,000 Gazans have lost their homes.” Conveniently missing from this language, of course, is any mention of Hamas, the terrorist group of psychopaths who have been lobbing rockets and mortars at southern Israeli towns for over 15 years now, some 20,000 of them (and 3400 alone in this latest skirmish), with the express purpose of murdering Jews. The fact that each time Hamas indiscriminately fires one of these rockets into civilian neighborhoods constitutes a war crime has seemingly never occurred to these woke educators, who only condemn Israel’s efforts to defend its citizenry, as any sovereign nation would do, from being murdered by terroristic foes.

https://www.realcleareducation.com/2021/06/14/the_backlash_to_critical_race_theory_is_on_the_way_50031.html

Michelle Goldberg complains in the pages of The New York Times about how it is the left wing that is currently a victim of cancel culture—thanks to the right, which is trying to destroy “critical race theory.”

Sounding alarm at the global counter-movement, she writes that

Critical race theory, the intellectual tradition undergirding concepts like white privilege and microaggressions, is often blamed for fomenting what critics call cancel culture. And so, around America and even overseas, people who don’t like cancel culture are on an ironic quest to cancel the promotion of critical race theory in public forums.

What are some examples of cancellations? Donald Trump’s order to cancel federal critical race theory propaganda, now reversed by the Biden administration, and the state-led fightbacks in Great Britain and France. 

Goldberg is not the only one being swept away in this narrative. Jeffrey Sachs is bitter in the pages of Arc Digital on why the left is the original victim. Apparently, government after government is legislating the woke out of academy. Not just right-wing regimes such as Poland, Hungary, or Brazil, but also Britain, France and, of course, state governments in the United States. 

But is that purge actually happening? Some differences can be seen in K-12 education and higher education, but the rejection of critical race theory, and the supposed threat this rejection represents, is vastly exaggerated. 

Sachs cites Republican leadership targeting critical race theory in the states, such as a proposed New Hampshire bill discussing “harmful divisive concepts,” similar bills in West Virginia and Oklahoma, and bills in Georgia that would bar schools from teaching about pseudoscientific concepts like oppression and privilege. 

Likewise in Arkansas, a bill might be introduced to stop any school from offering anything that foments division between races and classes. Missouri, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Mississippi have introduced bills banning the 1619 Project. Iowa is proposing a ban on the 1619 project, as well as informing parents whenever schools plan on asking pronouns from their children. Goldberg raises similar objections to these proposals. 

A few of those bills have become law, such as H.B. 3979 in Texas, but most have only been proposed, are currently being debated, or have died/been withdrawn. 

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/07/washington-and-lee-maintain-name-face-opposition?utm_campaign=https:

After much conversation, pushback and debate, the Board of Trustees at Washington and Lee University has voted not to change the institution’s name. The latter part of the name honors Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate States Army and former president of the institution. The board voted 22 to 6.

The name had been the topic of serious conversation at Washington and Lee for the past few years, and advocacy for a change was redoubled after the murder of George Floyd. In the wake of national protests, many colleges and universities re-evaluated their institutions and made changes to symbols and traditions.

The board took up the issue last July and said it would consider and vote on the decision this month.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/16/this-florida-mom-who-spoke-out-against-crt-in-schools-warns-parents-to-be-vigilant-about-curriculum/

Quisha King is not going to sit by and allow her children, or anyone else’s, to be indoctrinated into the racist lies of critical race theory without putting up a fight. The Floridian mother of two went viral from a speech she made at a school board meeting, in which she spoke in favor of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s proposal to ban critical race theory from public schools in Florida, which the state Board of Education passed unanimously last week.

Many states are not so lucky, however, with the racist ideology being enacted in schools across the country, in both blatant and subtle ways, from prep schools in New York and New Jersey to government primary schools in the Midwest.

I spoke with King about her activism to prevent these racist lies from pervading schools. That viral speech is far from the start of her fight, as she noted: “I’ve been learning about CRT for over a year now, and I’ve been seeing a lot of the policies that are being pushed onto our children from the school board. I have been speaking at local school board meetings as well about CRT and them putting our children down, essentially. Putting them in these ‘oppressor,’ ‘oppressed’ categories. When I saw that a vote was coming up, I thought it was important that I make my voice known.”

“I know a lot of parents feel the same way I do, but some are just, quite frankly, a little intimidated or scared to speak up about it,” she added.

As a mother of two black children, King is particularly concerned about how critical race theory will harm black kids, who are being told they are less capable and will accomplish less than their white peers, due solely to their skin color.

“That is destructive for any young mind to believe that they can never rise up to the level of their own dreams, goals, and the things that they want to accomplish,” King said. “I think that’s a terrible way to start kids off into life, by telling them they are oppressed, especially today. Black Americans are the most successful black people in the entire world, so why in the world would we tell black children or any child that they are oppressed? If you tell a child they can’t do something, eventually, they won’t even try.”

One of King’s children attends public school while the other attends private school, thanks to school choice.