My Birthday Wish

I think I insulted my 88 year old mother today. I called her today (it's my birthday) and told her that I like being out in the world. I told her that I like it better out here than being in the womb, which was too dark and there was no furniture, no museums, no running paths. And my prefrontal cortex was paltry back then.

On a serious note, here is what I want for my birthday: I'd like everyone reading this to go find someone they disagree with and have a heart-to-heart conversation on a difficult topic. For those who voted for Biden, for example, you could visit with a neighbor or relative who voted for Trump. Ideally, this should be a conversation that involves a lot of listening so that you come away from it with a better ability to see the world through that other person's eyes. If this sounds scary, I'd doubly recommend it. If you do this right, you will come away from it with a gift of your own.

This is not just a good idea. I believe that it's the only way forward. "Love your enemy" is a good idea for all of us, not only Christians. You'll find more resources from two of my favorite organizations: Heterodox Academy and Braver Angels. Good luck. Be brave!

Continue ReadingMy Birthday Wish

They have all the energy in the world. Why? Often because they aren’t building anything.

Haters almost always accuse you of what they themselves are guilty. When they do, listen: It’s about them. You can’t chase these people. They have all the energy in the world. Why? Often because they aren’t building anything. They aren’t saying what they are for except for saying that they want things to be just. And just, often disappointingly, may mean you built stuff they now want.

Lastly, don’t confuse your critics with your haters. Critics see good in you too. Learn to value your critics. They aren’t trying to mess with you. They may not be correct but critics aren’t haters. Learn to spot the differences.

Eric Weinstein

Continue ReadingThey have all the energy in the world. Why? Often because they aren’t building anything.

Christopher Rufo Reports: Critical Race Theory Takes Root in Public Grade Schools and High Schools from Coast to Coast

Christopher Rufo has been reporting on Critical Race Theory in our schools for the past year. His eleven headlines (and articles) below demoralize me. These are the teachings of Robin DiAngelo and Ibram Kendi in action. I hope that attorneys file lawsuits with regard to every one of these situations for creating hostile race environments. This is also child abuse, but most of the parents either don't know what is being taught to their children or they are afraid to speak up because doing so will cause them to be ostracized or branded “racists.”

Here are Rufo's headlines and synopses. Each of the eleven locations below contains a link to Rufo's full story of the way those schools are teaching CRT. Many of these stories are based upon whistle-blower oral and written disclosures to Rufo:

Seattle [Public Grade School]

Seattle Public Schools tells teachers that the education system is guilty of "spirit murder" against black children and that white teachers must "bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance."

San Diego [Public K - 8]

San Diego Public Schools accuses white teachers of being colonizers on stolen Native American land and tells them "you are racist" and "you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies." They recommend that the teachers undergo "antiracist therapy."

Cupertino, California [Public School, Third Graders]

A Cupertino, California, elementary school forces third-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves according to their "power and privilege." They separate the eight-year-old children into oppressors and oppressed.

Springfield, Missouri [Public Middle School]

A middle school in Springfield, Missouri, forces teachers to locate themselves on an "oppression matrix," claiming that white heterosexual Protestant males are inherently oppressors and must atone for their "covert white supremacy."

Philadelphia [Public School - Fifth grade]

A Philadelphia elementary school forces fifth-graders to celebrate "Black communism" and simulate a Black Power rally to "free Angela Davis" from prison. At this school, 87 percent of students will fail to achieve basic literacy by graduation.

New York [Public School, Grades 6 - 12]

The principal of the East Side Community School in New York sent an email to white parents telling them that they should "subvert white authority," become "white traitors," and then advocate for full "white abolition."

Buffalo [Public Grade Schools]

Buffalo Public Schools teaches students that "all white people" perpetuate systemic racism and forces kindergarteners to watch a video of dead black children warning them about "racist police and state-sanctioned violence" who might kill them at any time.

Arizona [ Department of Education Report regarding Babies]

The Arizona Department of Education created an "equity" toolkit claiming that babies show the first signs of racism at three months old and that white children become full racists—"strongly biased in favor of whiteness"—by age five.

California [Department of Education - Primary and Secondary School Students]

The California Department of Education passed an "ethnic studies" curriculum that calls for the "decolonization" of American society and has students chant to the Aztec god of human sacrifice. The solution, according to one author, is "countergenocide."

North Carolina [Public grade schools and high schools]

North Carolina’s largest school district launches a campaign against "whiteness in educational spaces"—and encourages teachers to subvert families and push the ideology of "antiracism" directly onto students without parental consent.

Santa Clara, California [Public grade schools and high schools]

Santa Clara County Office of Education denounces the United States as a "parasitic system" based on the "invasion" of "white male settlers" and encourages teachers to "cash in on kids' inherent empathy" in order to recruit them into political activism.

When you are finished absorbing the highly divisive course materials used by these schools, also consider the numerous violations of the NEA teacher code of conduct.

Continue ReadingChristopher Rufo Reports: Critical Race Theory Takes Root in Public Grade Schools and High Schools from Coast to Coast

Christopher Rufo: What to Do About the Rapid Spread of Critical Race Theory Throughout the United States

Christopher Rufo summarizes the spread of critical race theory, characterizing these stories as the tip of the iceberg. His article: "The Courage of Our Convictions: How to fight critical race theory."

What does critical race theory look like in practice? Last year, I authored a series of reports focused on critical race theory in the federal government. The FBI was holding workshops on intersectionality theory. The Department of Homeland Security was telling white employees that they were committing “microinequities” and had been “socialized into oppressor roles.” The Treasury Department held a training session telling staff members that “virtually all white people contribute to racism” and that they must convert “everyone in the federal government” to the ideology of “antiracism.” And the Sandia National Laboratories, which designs America’s nuclear arsenal, sent white male executives to a three-day reeducation camp, where they were told that “white male culture” was analogous to the “KKK,” “white supremacists,” and “mass killings.” The executives were then forced to renounce their “white male privilege” and to write letters of apology to fictitious women and people of color.

This year, I produced another series of reports focused on critical race theory in education. In Cupertino, California, an elementary school forced first-graders to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities and rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” In Springfield, Missouri, a middle school forced teachers to locate themselves on an “oppression matrix,” based on the idea that straight, white, English-speaking, Christian males are members of the oppressor class and must atone for their privilege and “covert white supremacy.” In Philadelphia, an elementary school forced fifth-graders to celebrate “Black communism” and simulate a Black Power rally to free 1960s radical Angela Davis from prison, where she had once been held on charges of murder. And in Seattle, the school district told white teachers that they are guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.”

I’m just one investigative journalist, but I’ve developed a database of more than 1,000 of these stories. When I say that critical race theory is becoming the operating ideology of our public institutions, I am not exaggerating—from the universities to bureaucracies to K-12 school systems, critical race theory has permeated the collective intelligence and decision-making process of American government, with no sign of slowing down.

The woke-infested media has, for the most part, given CRT advocates a free pass regarding the real-world affects of CRT. Rufo proposes asking that CRT advocates be forced to answer these questions:

Critical race theorists must be confronted with and forced to speak to the facts. Do they support public schools separating first-graders into groups of “oppressors” and “oppressed”? Do they support mandatory curricula teaching that “all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism”? Do they support public schools instructing white parents to become “white traitors” and advocate for “white abolition”? Do they want those who work in government to be required to undergo this kind of reeducation? How about managers and workers in corporate America? How about the men and women in our military? How about every one of us?

Rufo suggests advocating "excellence" rather than "diversity":

In terms of principles, we need to employ our own moral language rather than allow ourselves to be confined by the categories of critical race theory. For example, we often find ourselves debating “diversity.” Diversity as most of us understand it is generally good, all things being equal, but it is of secondary value. We should be talking about and aiming at excellence, a common standard that challenges people of all backgrounds to achieve their potential. On the scale of desirable ends, excellence beats diversity every time.

When we tell the story about the United States, we need to tell the whole story, the moral arc:

[W]e must promote the true story of America—a story that is honest about injustices in American history, but that places them in the context of our nation’s high ideals and the progress we have made toward realizing them.

Fighting back will require that good-hearted thoughtful people stand up to waves of abuse:

Above all, we must have courage, the fundamental virtue required in our time: courage to stand and speak the truth, courage to withstand epithets, courage to face the mob, and courage to shrug off the scorn of elites.

Continue ReadingChristopher Rufo: What to Do About the Rapid Spread of Critical Race Theory Throughout the United States