Alternative Reality
My uncle wanted my help. See, this particular uncle is the only other progressive in our family. Most of my other family are conservatives. Mind you, they aren’t bad people. They work hard and generally don’t wish any ill will on anyone. Yet, they are the type of people that peddle this kind of stuff. I absolutely detest labels, but for our purposes here we will call this woman “School Board Karen“. He wanted me to respond to his friends.
For those that don’t want to go down the rabbit hole, this is one of many men and women that go to school board meetings and rant about critical race theory or some other such nonsense that is supposedly being taught to our kids. See, his friends were cheering this woman on.
He wanted me to respond. I could have picked over a dozen videos, but I think this is the one he sent me. I honestly couldn’t know for sure. I call it nonsense not because critical race theory is nonsense, but because this woman exists in a bizarro world that I don’t know. I’ve only done this for 24 years and the first half in a history classroom. I really don’t know what she’s talking about.
I never taught critical race theory or white supremacist theory or anything that could be labeled Antifa, Black Lives Matter, the Aryan brotherhood or any such nonsense. I taught history. In most years I taught World History, but I dabbed my toe in U.S. History once or twice. We did our best to teach the curriculum in front of us and augment it with other authentic history that the textbook skipped over.
I’ve taught in five different school districts and a private school. So, some might be tempted to say that maybe she is describing something that happens in schools you’ve never taught in. Sure. I guess anything is possible. After all, this is happening in another state. Yet, we have to ask ourselves what is more likely. Is it more likely that some rogue teacher or school somewhere is indoctrinating children with crap or is it more likely that Karen needs to take her meds?
I’ll have to admit that my response to the email was short and terse. I honestly don’t have much of a response to what this woman is saying. It’s just so ludicrous that you almost don’t want to interrupt her. You quietly make a distress call to the local mental hospital and wait for her to run out of gas. The problem isn’t this woman. The problem is that many feel the need to respond to it with anything other than laughter or scorn.
Somewhere along the way we have lost sight of something. Just because a number of people believe something, that doesn’t make it true. Not every opinion has value just because a certain number of people have it. Yet, people like our governor respond to it. They respond by creating a patriotic curriculum that does exactly what this woman is suggesting. Except, it does it to reinforce this woman’s point of view.
‘Murica is the greatest country there ever was and the greatest country there ever will be. Racism and bigotry only exist in the mind of the liberal. Events like the civil war weren’t about slavery and events like the Tulsa massacre didn’t happen. Lynching and riots weren’t about racism or even if they were, racism is long gone now.
That’s what they want us to teach. This is all in the guise of teaching students the “real” history about America. So, they want to guard against stuff we don’t teach by teaching stuff that didn’t happen. My wife is fond of saying that science doesn’t care about your feelings. Neither does history. I have no doubt there are rogue history teachers out there that try to indoctrinate their students with a political ideology. I’ve never met one and I’ve worked with a lot of them. I certainly don’t think there are enough to make a huge stink about a non-existent socialist plot to indoctrinate our children. God forbid we take the mic away from Karen, it’s ‘Murica after all.
“First God made idiots, that was for practice. then He made school boards.”- Mark Twain.
1That phrase “racism is long gone now”. In 2009 shortly after Obama took office, the claim was made repeatedly. That same year I had to fly back to Fort Worthless. Driving from DFW airport, from the six-lane freeway I saw a sign for a gun shop, with “Coon-skinning knives” advertised for sale.
If you’ve ever had to skin a small animal like a raccoon, you know what’s needed is like a sharp paring knife. I got off the freeway to see what a “coon-skinner” looked like: it had a 12-inch blade with blood gutters. But I did not have to go into the store. Pickup trucks with “the south shall rise again” and a giant Confederate flag in the store window told me just what kind of “coon” they were referring to.
“racism is long gone now” – sure, I’ll believe that when the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and Santa issue a joint statement. Or when cops start killing Anglos in equal numbers with blacks and Latinos.
2Don’t expect any more rationality than what you saw during the Jade Helm season.
And anyone who has seen enough school board meetings open to the public is well acquainted with the mentality.
3Lots of people don’t believe the Holocaust didn’t happen either.
4I particularyly like a meme that’s been showing up on Facebook:
“If Black and Brown children are old enough to experience racism, White children are old enough to learn about it”
5Nick, for the sake of brevity and your sweet uncle’s sanity, a quick summary. The WATBs of previous GOP eras have been replaced by QOP Qcumbers. From nutz to supercharged nutz on banned pesticides and fertilizer.
Simply: https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iGn2FRE1rcY/YMkvPxZx7bI/AAAAAAACN1U/C_BWOgrIYecAl_UTAsD2afnAeMF6qEf3ACLcBGAsYHQ/s715/3%2Bclay%2Bjones.jpg
6Since they’ve heard that winners write the history books–they’ve decided that by changing/rewriting history that means they will be the “winners.”
7Nick’s article sure hit home today here in South Dakota (or what is often referred to as the Mississippi of the North). In today’s local newspaper (Rapid City Journal, June 16, 2021) there is a report on exactly what Nick’s article referenced.
Some of the complaints to the newly elected school board included “money spent on ‘social engineering programs’ rather than academics and the addition of more school counselors, which she said are being used to ‘usurp’ parents’ authority; . . . that there are teachers in the school system encouraging students not to salute the flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance in the morning; . . . our children, our grandchildren, are not being taught to love our country and appreciate the greatness of our people and history, but rather to despise our Constitution and hate our founders, and to instead look at themselves as victims of systemic oppression, . . . [and] that the Indigenous Education Task Force was promoting segregation of students.”
What next?
8Perhaps we should start asking these people whether Japan is right to avoid mentioning the Korean Comfort Women, or other inconvenient facts, in their school history books.
9Here is some advice professor Justin Hart gave to his graduate students. He posted it on twitter. https://twitter.com/foredoma74/status/1403359120980418565
It reminds me of the years ago (and probably in some places still) controversy about sex education. One elementary school teacher admitted that she taught sex ed every day. She just called it “puppies and guppies.” 🙂
10Repugnanticans have made all these words and labels like cancel culture, “woke” and critical race theory the basis of their cult culture, but they don’t even know what the terms really mean. School board karen is living cancel culture by denying the truth about our history. To her, racism not only doesn’t exist but never did. She’s cancelled that out.
11I’m just imagining what her like minded social circle does when they get together. Kind of like a nazi rally.
I am someone who had to learn Critical Theory for my Rhetoric PhD, and then had to explain to my debaters what Critical Legal Theory proponents were talking about in order to understand an approach in academic debate. I’ve come to the quick realization — if someone can’t explain the concept in terms clear enough for a moderately bright 5th grader to grasp, they probably don’t understand it. It has been awhile since I’ve tested my comprehension with a 5th grader, but I don’t think I’ve lost all my understanding yet.
So, I’ve been reading with some interest the various takes on Critical Education Theory, Critical Feminist Theory, Critical Queer Theory, and Critical Race Theory, and how they should guide activism or be blocked (or canceled). I’m not certain, but the proponents seem slightly more likely to know what they are talking about — but confusion abounds on all sides.
So, the legislative language appears to offer all sorts of possibilities. Until I see it in action, I’m not particularly worried.
12Critical Race Theory is an old term, but as with Defund the Police, it phrased in a way that makes conservatives crazy.
13Critical= us white folks are going to be criticized
Race= anyone who mentions race is a racist!
Theory= “they” are just guessing!
If you called it Comprehensive History no one would be getting their knickers in a twist.
Here’s an example of why we are still not a post-racial America. Events still planned (but forced to cancel) on former plantations regaling the good old days:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article252053258.html
141 big post and 14 comments and still no definition of CRT.
Maybe it’s just a stupidly conceived slogan, like basket of deplorables and defund the police. Tricky semantic minefield out there.
I think, from maybe five years of this stupid concept, that what would be clear is that the objections are to the savage belittling of white kids as racist by birth.
Yes, I’ve already seen it happen to second graders at a very good public school a half mile away, reported by one of “our” kids in a manner reeking of “original sin”.
Memes don’t fall far from the tree. CRT is bad theory and not at all critical in the sense of critical thinking.
My suggestion? Save sociology for college. Teach Howard Zinn in high school history.
Please be rational and logical.
15Your “Karen” sounds like the folks around here who complain that ‘kids don’t pray in school’ (are there no math tests?) and they don’t pledge allegiance. Except…..they do. Every morning.
16Ormond,
I purposely didn’t define it because I find labels detestable anyway. When I was an elementary counselor for a few years I had kids come in all the time telling me they were “bullied”. The first thing I always did was figure our exactly what happened. Nine times out of ten it wasn’t bullying.
The problem I have with these terms (I include Karen even though I regrettably used it) is that even if the person using it knows what it means, those hearing it usually don’t. In most cases they even don’t. This woman’s tell was when she “described” what was going on in the classroom. She talked about teachers coaching kids to hate cops and even shoot cops. I’ll place all the contents of my wallet on the fact that this was never happening. She blew everything way out of proportion because she probably has no idea what CRT is in the first place.
In terms of making white children feel bad or “guilty”, i will again say I have no idea where that comes from. Admittedly, I’ve spent most of my time teaching in mostly inner city schools. We might have one or two white kids per class. I’ve never seen a teacher try to guilt trip them and I certainly haven’t done it. What I have done is teach history. If one feels guilty for hearing what happened or equates that to original sin that’s certainly not deliberate or intentional.
17What’s really disturbing are the comments below the YouTube that Nick linked. Most of the folks are APPLAUDING that woman and think this country needs more people like her!
Whew!
18Wow, so I finally get a chance to chime in.
19This happened in my town, I had no idea it was getting national attention. This area is the reddest little part (at least this far south) of NYS. Putnam County is chock full of right wing nut cases. The reality is is that this town government is solid Republican, run by Republicans, dominated by Republicans. Did I mention Republicans? As far as I can tell this is a right wing paradise. And yet we still have budget deficits, soaring taxes, and no public confidence in the services the county delivers. We can’t get a democrat elected to any office because OMG, communism. I don’t know where this lady learned her rap, but it isn’t based on things that are actually happening in the local school system. Sure there might be one or two teachers that are introducing a diversity of opinion, but largely I have to believe that even though she has “proof”, it might not look like proof to you or me. Also, while this made quite a splash, there has been no further noise about it. This ain’t no movement here. It’s just this very cranky Karen and her alternate reality.