Thanks for posting this Glenn. For those interested in organized push-back, here is a link to FAIR's event of yesterday 6/12/21 celebrating the anniversary of Loving v Virginia, the 1967 case banning prohibitions against interracial marriage. FAIR is distributing "pro-human learning standards", and is developing an honest, positive K - 12 curriculum as an alternative to CRT-based curricula. FAIR has done a lot in a short time and is worth supporting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XnFH_obkIA&t=19s
" we were exhorted not to ask why, because the burden of explanation shouldn't be on the black student.
The woman designating the school “toxic” seemed enraged, apparently at white students collectively. Those of us who happen to be white should search our souls for the ways in which we created the conditions that angered the former student. Nobody had any idea what these conditions might be, and everyone was afraid to ask." This mindset requires people to "mind-read" which never leads anywhere functional. These types of training reinforce cognitive distortions which promote psychopathological states. This way of thinking undermines those it purports to help - how can someone function at his or her best when he or she is convinced that they live in a toxic society with everyone out to get them and people walking around with shame that can not be resolved because there is really nothing they can rectify will make them less effective.
So these people demand that I accept my whiteness, that I also have an ethnicity. Hm.
I'm reminded of what happens when "ethnic white" or as my profile name states, "dark white" people, express our ethnicities where anyone can see.
We're told to stop.
When Italians, Jews, Greeks, Irish, any of us attempt to claim our history and our ethnicity, we're demonized for it. Oh, the accusation runs, so you think you had it just as bad as slaves? In their twisted brains, saying that we "are" something means we're stealing the thunder from slavery. A German American putting up a weinachtspyramide for Christmas? A Jew pitching a tent in their front yard during the booth festival? An Italian wearing a cornicella around their neck and learning to speak Italian? An Irishman learning to play uillean pipes?
Somehow that doesn't count as accepting our identities. In fact, all of this somehow proves how in denial we all are.
They want us to accept an identity, as long as it's the nonexistent, villainous one they foist on us that flattens all but them into one single people, who really have very little to do with one another.
And heaven forbid we talk about the garbage that our ancestors went through when they got here. Studying how populations move from hated foreigners to ordinary Americans might actually help us understand the problem. Can't have that.
There is much I could say. Instead I will just say this. Contemplating taking a "deep dive" into the toxicity of "whiteness" should be a punchline in a comedy sketch, not the ostensibly pensive pursuit of a bunch of upper-middle class girls in Manhattan. We have, in many ways, lost our damned minds!
I do wonder if this were 1960, if that psychologist, instead of focusing on race, would not have been running a practice curing gay men of their homosexuality.
So much about anti-racism, especially the book "White Fragility" remind me of a racialized version of gay conversion therapy.
The response you got from your classmates reminds me of what I (white, middle class liberal) get from my sister (white, upper class progressive) every time I try to talk about my concerns re: negative impacts of defund the police or Ibram-style antiracism teachings in public schools. We don't get too far in the discussion before she'll just cut it off and say "why would you want to even focus on those things??" She seems truly mystified and horrified. It seems too pat to say that this stuff has become a religion, and yet she's reacting as though it's blasphemy to question any of it. But you are right in your final sentence - it's the bystanders who are the biggest problem, and also the key to solving it. One reason we talk is to help others feel safe to talk, right? Glenn and John, what we would do without you on that front?!!
I love all of the intellectual discussions we have around this topic but when are we going to organize? I feel like that is our downfall at this point.
This silencing of even discussing the issue at hand is fascism at its core. It must be stomped out at the grass roots level immediately and loudly! Our beloved country is hanging on by a thread and MUST be salvaged from the clutches of Kendi/D’Angelo et al !!!
This is quite unfortunate for the lady. On the bright side there is a growing legion of individuals, teachers, parents and even students who are now openly opposing the imposition of Critical Race Theory in the K-12 school curriculum. Something can and should be made of this, perhaps a sort of movement like the short-lived one of school kids against gun violence which ended in their 'March on Washington'. It is a gift-wrapped opportunity for the Republican Party to intensify the culture wars and grab a platform for the 2022 midterms.
Thanks for posting this Glenn. For those interested in organized push-back, here is a link to FAIR's event of yesterday 6/12/21 celebrating the anniversary of Loving v Virginia, the 1967 case banning prohibitions against interracial marriage. FAIR is distributing "pro-human learning standards", and is developing an honest, positive K - 12 curriculum as an alternative to CRT-based curricula. FAIR has done a lot in a short time and is worth supporting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XnFH_obkIA&t=19s
" we were exhorted not to ask why, because the burden of explanation shouldn't be on the black student.
The woman designating the school “toxic” seemed enraged, apparently at white students collectively. Those of us who happen to be white should search our souls for the ways in which we created the conditions that angered the former student. Nobody had any idea what these conditions might be, and everyone was afraid to ask." This mindset requires people to "mind-read" which never leads anywhere functional. These types of training reinforce cognitive distortions which promote psychopathological states. This way of thinking undermines those it purports to help - how can someone function at his or her best when he or she is convinced that they live in a toxic society with everyone out to get them and people walking around with shame that can not be resolved because there is really nothing they can rectify will make them less effective.
So these people demand that I accept my whiteness, that I also have an ethnicity. Hm.
I'm reminded of what happens when "ethnic white" or as my profile name states, "dark white" people, express our ethnicities where anyone can see.
We're told to stop.
When Italians, Jews, Greeks, Irish, any of us attempt to claim our history and our ethnicity, we're demonized for it. Oh, the accusation runs, so you think you had it just as bad as slaves? In their twisted brains, saying that we "are" something means we're stealing the thunder from slavery. A German American putting up a weinachtspyramide for Christmas? A Jew pitching a tent in their front yard during the booth festival? An Italian wearing a cornicella around their neck and learning to speak Italian? An Irishman learning to play uillean pipes?
Somehow that doesn't count as accepting our identities. In fact, all of this somehow proves how in denial we all are.
They want us to accept an identity, as long as it's the nonexistent, villainous one they foist on us that flattens all but them into one single people, who really have very little to do with one another.
And heaven forbid we talk about the garbage that our ancestors went through when they got here. Studying how populations move from hated foreigners to ordinary Americans might actually help us understand the problem. Can't have that.
There is much I could say. Instead I will just say this. Contemplating taking a "deep dive" into the toxicity of "whiteness" should be a punchline in a comedy sketch, not the ostensibly pensive pursuit of a bunch of upper-middle class girls in Manhattan. We have, in many ways, lost our damned minds!
I do wonder if this were 1960, if that psychologist, instead of focusing on race, would not have been running a practice curing gay men of their homosexuality.
So much about anti-racism, especially the book "White Fragility" remind me of a racialized version of gay conversion therapy.
Hmmm... I wonder if the psychologist was Mica McGriggs...
The response you got from your classmates reminds me of what I (white, middle class liberal) get from my sister (white, upper class progressive) every time I try to talk about my concerns re: negative impacts of defund the police or Ibram-style antiracism teachings in public schools. We don't get too far in the discussion before she'll just cut it off and say "why would you want to even focus on those things??" She seems truly mystified and horrified. It seems too pat to say that this stuff has become a religion, and yet she's reacting as though it's blasphemy to question any of it. But you are right in your final sentence - it's the bystanders who are the biggest problem, and also the key to solving it. One reason we talk is to help others feel safe to talk, right? Glenn and John, what we would do without you on that front?!!
Interesting piece, but the phrase “the lynching of George Floyd” is ridiculous and dishonest.
I love all of the intellectual discussions we have around this topic but when are we going to organize? I feel like that is our downfall at this point.
This silencing of even discussing the issue at hand is fascism at its core. It must be stomped out at the grass roots level immediately and loudly! Our beloved country is hanging on by a thread and MUST be salvaged from the clutches of Kendi/D’Angelo et al !!!
This is quite unfortunate for the lady. On the bright side there is a growing legion of individuals, teachers, parents and even students who are now openly opposing the imposition of Critical Race Theory in the K-12 school curriculum. Something can and should be made of this, perhaps a sort of movement like the short-lived one of school kids against gun violence which ended in their 'March on Washington'. It is a gift-wrapped opportunity for the Republican Party to intensify the culture wars and grab a platform for the 2022 midterms.