Why Are We Allowing Racists and Crazies To Take Charge on Racial Justice?
/Have you heard? Racism is a “public health crisis” according to the CDC and several states across the country.
Politicians and activists have been vocal about how to combat such a terrible disease. We’ve flooded our entertainment with diversity, advocated that “honest history” be taught, pushed for more equitable forms of justice, and publicly scorn anyone who says something problematic.
When the dust settles, will our world be a less racist place? Considering our appointed leaders on such matters, I’d wager that’s utterly impossible.
For example, the Michigan School Board voted to pass a resolution on “teaching comprehensive history,” which condemns legislation banning critical race theory, The 1619 Project, and other “anti-American and racist theories.” The MI School Board stated in the resolution that “racism has been embedded in our institutions since 1619 when the first ships carrying enslaved Africans arrived on America’s shores,” and students should learn about it. They said, “teachers have the right and responsibility to teach that multifaced and complex history, including the history of race, racism, and other biases, which are inextricably connected to the constitutional and statutory history in our country.”
I wonder if the author of the resolution is aware Nikole Hannah-Jones, who earned a Pulitzer for her writing, said “The 1619 Project explicitly denies objectivity. We state in the intro that this was a reframing of history and sought to center black contributions in the narrative.” She also believes, “There is a difference between being politically black and being racially black.”
Why is the school board defending education from malicious historical fiction, authored by a woman who validates blackness based on ideology? And why are they defending critical race theory when it embraces “subjectivity of perspective” and is “avowedly political?”
Is indoctrination the goal instead of education?
When Chris Harrison was placed on temporary leave after his “controversial” interview with Rachael Lindsay, he took counseling from Dr. Michael Erick Dyson. You may have seen Dyson make the rounds during different debates and television interviews. He’s the guy who called Dr. Jordan Peterson a “mean, mad, white man,” and claimed Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears was an example of white supremacy through ventriloquism. I’m not sure why society has to accept Dyson as the authority on “black thought,” but we’d do better to not appoint racists to such high positions. But of course, men like Dyson conveniently don’t believe black people can be racist.
And what of criminal justice reform? Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said that “prosecutors should also be judged by their success in reducing mass incarceration and achieving racial equality.” He made the news late last year after Darrell Brooks plowed an SUV into a Christmas parade, only two days after he was released on a $1000 bond.
What about in 2020 when Vice-President Kamala Harris and a slew of other famous people promoted the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which indiscriminately bailed people out from jail. What does it matter if they bail out someone who may go on to commit murder if they could also bail out protestors who were looting and rioting on behalf of black lives?
It’s amazing that so many Americans are concerned about racism, but we’ve crossed a threshold where it’s in high demand and low supply. When Jussie Smollett claimed he was attacked in Chicago during a polar vortex by guys in MAGA hats, it was always ridiculous. That didn’t stop politicians and celebrities from believing it was true and a highlight of our cultural and political landscape. Smollett isn’t the only hate crime hoax, but he was the most prominent. When Bubba Wallace mistook a garage pull for a noose, the FBI promptly sent several agents to investigate the false alarm. Even a UCLA professor was so desperate for a narrative on white supremacy and patriarchy that she invented a belief that Kyle Rittenhouse, who perhaps had the most high-profile criminal trial last year, killed two black men.
Democrats, who used the filibuster in the past, are now saying it’s Jim Crow 2.0. Whoopi Goldberg, mega-rich movie star and co-host of The View, said that “black people still are where we were under the Emancipation Proclamation.” If we’re to the point where we have to say demonstrably false things to express the modern plight of the negro, perhaps we’re further along than you think.
The question Americans should ask is why do we uplift voices with such a skewed sense of reality? Everyone has some sort of bias, but there’s a difference between needing a stronger prescription to see things clearly, and the blatantly blind leading the willfully blind off a cliff.
