(Credit: Getty Images Robert Gauthier / Contributor)
The New York Times’ Charles Blow has proven once again that the legacy media refuses to deal with its detractors on realistic terms. Not satisfied to simply parrot the usual easily debunked talking points about Critical Race Theory (CRT), Blow decided to add some flavor, so to speak, and compared the furor over woke concepts being infused into classrooms with older concerns that some were attempting to inject Sharia law into the American government. As the Fourth Estate continues to deny the idea that CRT is being taught in the nation’s schools, Blow went one step further, adding the faulty comparison to an already messy battleground.
Charles Blows It
In an op-ed for The Times, Blow laid out his arguments that conservative opposition to CRT concepts being taught in schools is a fake outrage craze. He started by describing the supposed victories against systemic racism that occurred during the protests and riots following the murder of George Floyd. He wrote:
“Millions took to streets to condemn the racism that pervades modern life, as well as decades of past injustice. Protesters called for accountability across the ages. The oppressive policies and practices of this era as well as those of yore were tied up together, a continuum, and all of them had to be brought down, their perpetrators brought to justice.
“The lies America had told itself about the degree and severity of its oppression were put on trial. The American narrative was put on trial. And it didn’t fare well.”
The media activist then celebrated the idea that these protests constituted “a great movement for many toward enlightenment, a mass removing of scales from eyes,” and noted that “[i]ndustries responded, schools responded, individual citizens responded.”
Removal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee statue (Photo by Steve Helber – Pool/Getty Images)
Blow gushed over the fact that “Confederate monuments came down, and social justice monuments went up, sometimes with paint on streets and sometimes in ways that were more permanent.”
Oddly enough, the author failed to point out any tangible victories other than superficial gestures made by white progressives in positions of power. That seems to be a common problem among the Marxist crowd these days.
But unfortunately, according to Blow, there was a backlash from racist white folks who don’t like it when nonwhites make progress. “The response has particularly taken hold and found a form in the campaign to ban the proper teaching of America’s racial history in schools,” he wrote. “The Republicans behind those bills can bang on about how they are banning the teaching of critical race theory, but what they are really banning is the teaching of the horrific history of white supremacy and how it spawned the oppression of nonwhite people.”
At this point, Blow goes full “beachfront property in Montana” mode and concocts an argument that has not been made by anyone on the right. He wrote:
“The truth is that critical race theory is generally not taught in grade school, but that was never the point, in the same way that in the 2010s conservative lawmakers were never really concerned about what they called the threat of Shariah law in the United States when they introduced bills to ban it in American courts; what they wanted was to advance a racist, Islamophobic agenda.”
If Blow were an honest broker, he would never have made this statement. No conservative is arguing that teachers are starting their lessons by having students open their Critical Race Theory textbooks to study the works of Derrick Bell or Jean Stefancic. The actual theory is not being taught in classrooms. Rather, concepts that come from the theory are being infused into lessons.
Critical Race Theory Concepts
In 2021, a white teacher named Stacy Deemer filed a lawsuit against her school district in Illinois, alleging that it is “conditioning individuals to see each other’s skin color first and foremost, then pitting different racial groups against each other.” One part of the curriculum addresses the issue of “whiteness” and encourages white students to reject it. The plaintiff included an image in the complaint from a lesson that contends “whiteness is a bad deal,” along with a list titled “Contract Binding you to WHITENESS,” which includes “stolen” land, riches, and special favors.
Whiteness is a concept featured heavily in the works of those who subscribe to CRT. In the book Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, authors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic explain that whiteness is “normative” and “sets the standard in dozens of situations.” They point out that minorities are typically labeled “nonwhite,” meaning “they are defined in relation or opposition to whiteness – that which they are not.”
The overall point is that the term “whiteness” is used to describe the dominant culture, which happens to consist mostly of white Americans and is largely seen as positive, while nonwhites are perceived in a more negative light. “Minorities appear in villain roles or as romantic, oversexed lovers. Science-fiction movies and television programs portray extraterrestrials with minority-like features and skin color,” the authors observed.
They also note:
“Another aspect of the construction of whiteness is the way certain groups have moved into or out of that race. For example, early in our history Irish, Jews, and Italians were considered nonwhite—that is, on a par with African Americans. Over time, they earned the prerogatives and social standing of whites by a process that included joining labor unions, swearing fealty to the Democratic Party, and acquiring wealth, sometimes by illegal or underground means. Whiteness, it turns out, is not only valuable; it is shifting and malleable.”
In the world of Critical Race Theory, whiteness is seen as something that should be combatted ostensibly because it contributes to the marginalization of minorities. Deemer’s story demonstrates how a school district took an aspect of CRT and molded it into a lesson plan that could be used to further indoctrinate children in the tenets of wokeism, the religion that spawns ideologies like Critical Race Theory.
Racist Boogeyman or Actual Indoctrination?
Deemer’s story is one of many revealed over the course of 2021. Teachers, parents, and students went public with tales of discriminatory behavior exhibited by their school districts. In some cases, students and faculty members were segregated by skin color during various exercises. With others, white students were labeled as “oppressors” while nonwhite students were given the “oppressed” moniker.
Nevertheless, folks like Blow seem to believe they can gaslight the public by simply telling people they aren’t seeing what is clearly visible. “Critical race theory is the new Shariah law, a boogeyman the right can use to activate and harness the racist anti-otherness that is endemic to American conservatism,” he wrote, contending that GOP lawmakers are merely stoking “fears of cultural change and inclusion.”
He ended his diatribe by insisting Republicans are not attacking CRT as much as they are targeting “progress” because of racism and stuff. Unfortunately for his ilk, it does not appear likely the public will pick up what he’s putting down. Parents may not know all the correct terminology for what they see in children’s classes, but they do know they don’t like it, and when it comes to the votes they will cast in November, that will be all they need to know.
~ Read more from Jeff Charles.
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