I am an American citizen living and working in Germany, concerned about anti-racism programs in the United States and their effect on the rest of the world. "Anti-Racism" is a misnomer: it's not what it sounds like. The vast majority of those forced into these programs were never racists to begin with. Incidents at Smith College, the Juilliard School, The New School, The Brearley School, The Dwight-Englewood school, and many others, indicate the following problems:
(1) These programs preach to the choir, stirring up misguided guilt. They also seem inadvertently designed to inflame racism in persons already inclined to be racist. Some studies suggest these programs actually create racist feeling where none existed before.
(2) They create a new form of racism. Participants are asked to define themselves by their ethnicity rather than their humanity or their interests.
(3) They are anti-intellectual. Two of the most popular versions of "Anti-Racism," Ibram X. Kendi's bestselling How to Be an Anti-Racist and Robin di Angelo's White Fragility are methodologically flawed, creating a false impression of the extent of racism, defining the term in misleading ways. (John McWhorter remarked that diAngelo's book is good for one thing: keeping table legs from wobbling.)
(4) The effects of anti-racism programs have been to inspire fear and to spawn hysterical reactions. Young people who are used to identifying by ethnicity and sorting ethnicities into victim and oppressor fall all too easily into the victim role.
(5) They foster censorship and self-censorship; they restrict freedom of speech. Poets have been censored not just for using a race-related word (Matthew Dickman, writing about his grandmother, used the word "negress") but also for writing about attitudes toward race. Reading aloud Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" to my class the other day, I wondered whether I'd get nailed for having spoken his line "through the negro streets." I worry more when I'm teaching Maya Angelou, Faulkner, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison or Harper Lee.
(6) The only thing I ever agreed with President Trump about was his ban on teaching anti-racism and critical race theory. In this single instance, he was all too correct. I am in favor of dissolving current anti-racism programs and returning to the liberal ideal of shared humanity.
In addition to what Andrew said, I'd like to suggest that concerned citizens take action now against the inevitable moment when Big Tech takes down parent FB and other sites used to share info on how to fight CRT, etc. I have no doubt that's coming soon, probably before this year is out (if I had to guess).
The "Marxicrat" party started to make its move last year—an attempted coup intended to turn our country some flavor of communism. Now that they are in office, controlling our kids and their futures (as drone-like SJWs with a socialist/Marxist mentality) through CRT indoctrination is vital to this long-term objective. Therefore, websites and platforms that allow parents to strategize and fight back must be eliminated.
So take action while you still can. And we must make sure we have multiple ways of keeping in touch and informed, so that when Big Tech goes to pull the plug on anti-CRT, anti-Communist websites, web pages, and individual accounts, we're not just dead in the water.
One powerful sure fire weapon that parents and community members must use against the abuses of non transparency of school boards is to exercise our right to hold Public Town Hall meetings where a fundamental right of free speech is exerercised -The right to engage each other with a back and forth communication in front of full media coverge.
Parents seeking another solution may want to check out this online, accredited K-12 private school: Freedom Project Academy. www.fpeusa.com My children attend and they love it. It a school which teaches the classics and is pro-America and pro-God and actively shuns Common-Core and all the other globalist schemes du jour. Check it out and get your kids out of harm's way!
Please share info you have on groups that’s are being formed against CRT in NYC. Count me in!! My daughter is also a Brearley student. Unfortunately, we can’t just uproot the family out of NYC
I'll be damned before I let my tax dollars go into this CRT nonsense and will do everything in my power to prevent my kids from being indoctrinated by this poison. Please keep up the good work Mr. Gutmann I support you all the way!
Thank you your open minded critical thinking. The science deniers will be sure that you good deeds will not go unpunished. The well known social scientist, Johnathan Haight, should provide you with some inspiration. Good science will never go out of style. See "The moral roots of Liberals and Conservatives"
Thank you for writing this article. We are starting to fight the fight as well. Unfortunately we cannot get a lot of parents on board where we live. They're "asleep", and pushing them to get involved is much harder than we thought.
I am an American citizen living and working in Germany, concerned about anti-racism programs in the United States and their effect on the rest of the world. "Anti-Racism" is a misnomer: it's not what it sounds like. The vast majority of those forced into these programs were never racists to begin with. Incidents at Smith College, the Juilliard School, The New School, The Brearley School, The Dwight-Englewood school, and many others, indicate the following problems:
(1) These programs preach to the choir, stirring up misguided guilt. They also seem inadvertently designed to inflame racism in persons already inclined to be racist. Some studies suggest these programs actually create racist feeling where none existed before.
(2) They create a new form of racism. Participants are asked to define themselves by their ethnicity rather than their humanity or their interests.
(3) They are anti-intellectual. Two of the most popular versions of "Anti-Racism," Ibram X. Kendi's bestselling How to Be an Anti-Racist and Robin di Angelo's White Fragility are methodologically flawed, creating a false impression of the extent of racism, defining the term in misleading ways. (John McWhorter remarked that diAngelo's book is good for one thing: keeping table legs from wobbling.)
(4) The effects of anti-racism programs have been to inspire fear and to spawn hysterical reactions. Young people who are used to identifying by ethnicity and sorting ethnicities into victim and oppressor fall all too easily into the victim role.
(5) They foster censorship and self-censorship; they restrict freedom of speech. Poets have been censored not just for using a race-related word (Matthew Dickman, writing about his grandmother, used the word "negress") but also for writing about attitudes toward race. Reading aloud Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" to my class the other day, I wondered whether I'd get nailed for having spoken his line "through the negro streets." I worry more when I'm teaching Maya Angelou, Faulkner, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison or Harper Lee.
(6) The only thing I ever agreed with President Trump about was his ban on teaching anti-racism and critical race theory. In this single instance, he was all too correct. I am in favor of dissolving current anti-racism programs and returning to the liberal ideal of shared humanity.
In addition to what Andrew said, I'd like to suggest that concerned citizens take action now against the inevitable moment when Big Tech takes down parent FB and other sites used to share info on how to fight CRT, etc. I have no doubt that's coming soon, probably before this year is out (if I had to guess).
The "Marxicrat" party started to make its move last year—an attempted coup intended to turn our country some flavor of communism. Now that they are in office, controlling our kids and their futures (as drone-like SJWs with a socialist/Marxist mentality) through CRT indoctrination is vital to this long-term objective. Therefore, websites and platforms that allow parents to strategize and fight back must be eliminated.
So take action while you still can. And we must make sure we have multiple ways of keeping in touch and informed, so that when Big Tech goes to pull the plug on anti-CRT, anti-Communist websites, web pages, and individual accounts, we're not just dead in the water.
One powerful sure fire weapon that parents and community members must use against the abuses of non transparency of school boards is to exercise our right to hold Public Town Hall meetings where a fundamental right of free speech is exerercised -The right to engage each other with a back and forth communication in front of full media coverge.
Parents seeking another solution may want to check out this online, accredited K-12 private school: Freedom Project Academy. www.fpeusa.com My children attend and they love it. It a school which teaches the classics and is pro-America and pro-God and actively shuns Common-Core and all the other globalist schemes du jour. Check it out and get your kids out of harm's way!
No Left Turn in Education is another group fighting this. We are in 20 states now, and getting bigger everyday: https://noleftturn.us/
Please share info you have on groups that’s are being formed against CRT in NYC. Count me in!! My daughter is also a Brearley student. Unfortunately, we can’t just uproot the family out of NYC
https://www.greatschools.org/new-jersey/jersey-city/7042-Hamilton-Park-Montessori-School/
Here’s the review of my kids school. I encourage everyone to write reviews!
Thank you! We must win!
I'll be damned before I let my tax dollars go into this CRT nonsense and will do everything in my power to prevent my kids from being indoctrinated by this poison. Please keep up the good work Mr. Gutmann I support you all the way!
Keep fighting! CRT is a cancer on our country.
Thank you your open minded critical thinking. The science deniers will be sure that you good deeds will not go unpunished. The well known social scientist, Johnathan Haight, should provide you with some inspiration. Good science will never go out of style. See "The moral roots of Liberals and Conservatives"
Thank you for writing this article. We are starting to fight the fight as well. Unfortunately we cannot get a lot of parents on board where we live. They're "asleep", and pushing them to get involved is much harder than we thought.
Thanks again Andrew!! What are your thoughts on MOMS FOR LIBERTY organization? My small group is starting a chapter in the Charleston, SC area.
Excellent! I’m all in.
BRAVO!