Writer and thinker Bari Weiss is doing the country a great service by devoting her work to combating the stifling, pernicious, identity-driven woke insanity taking root in major American institutions. Not only is this sort of thinking poisoning elite universities and newsrooms, she's warned, the indoctrination is rampant at top-flight private schools, which pride themselves on incubating the future ruling class. She has reported on this phenomenon herself, and she occasionally turns over her Substack writing perch to academics and whistleblowers who are alarmed by what they're seeing. A Princeton mathematics professor recently penned a piece forcefully admonishing against the racialization of STEM disciplines, and now a high school teacher at a prominent private institution in New York City is risking his career to expose the madness that is being inflicted upon students and faculty alike. Bravo to Paul Rossi for writing this:
I know that by attaching my name to this I’m risking not only my current job but my career as an educator, since most schools, both public and private, are now captive to this backward ideology. But witnessing the harmful impact it has on children, I can’t stay silent...Recently, I raised questions about this [race-obsessed, oppressor/oppressed] ideology at a mandatory, whites-only student and faculty Zoom meeting. (Such racially segregated sessions are now commonplace at my school.) It was a bait-and-switch “self-care” seminar that labelled “objectivity,” “individualism,” “fear of open conflict,” and even “a right to comfort” as characteristics of white supremacy. I doubted that these human attributes — many of them virtues reframed as vices — should be racialized in this way. In the Zoom chat, I also questioned whether one must define oneself in terms of a racial identity at all. My goal was to model for students that they should feel safe to question ideological assertions if they felt moved to do so. It seemed like my questions broke the ice.
Students and even a few teachers offered a broad range of questions and observations. Many students said it was a more productive and substantive discussion than they expected. However, when my questions were shared outside this forum, violating the school norm of confidentiality, I was informed by the head of the high school that my philosophical challenges had caused “harm” to students, given that these topics were “life and death matters, about people’s flesh and blood and bone.” I was reprimanded for “acting like an independent agent of a set of principles or ideas or beliefs.” And I was told that by doing so, I failed to serve the “greater good and the higher truth.” He further informed me that I had created “dissonance for vulnerable and unformed thinkers” and “neurological disturbance in students’ beings and systems.” The school’s director of studies added that my remarks could even constitute harassment. A few days later, the head of school ordered all high school advisors to read a public reprimand of my conduct out loud to every student in the school.
A mandatory school-wide denunciation of a teacher who asked reasonable questions that challenged the "higher truth." Positively Maoist. As you read these additional surreal details, remember that this sort of thinking is growing more and more common, especially at the elite level of society. Tomorrow's leaders are being inculcated with this toxic sludge:
Every student at the school must also sign a “Student Life Agreement,” which requires them to aver that “the world as we understand it can be hard and extremely biased,” that they commit to “recognize and acknowledge their biases when we come to school, and interrupt those biases,” and accept that they will be “held accountable should they fall short of the agreement.” A recent faculty email chain received enthusiastic support for recommending that we “‘officially’ flag students” who appear “resistant” to the “culture we are trying to establish.” When I questioned what form this resistance takes, examples presented by a colleague included “persisting with a colorblind ideology,” “suggesting that we treat everyone with respect,” “a belief in meritocracy,” and “just silence.” In a special assembly in February 2019, our head of school said that the impact of words and images perceived as racist — regardless of intent — is akin to “using a gun or a knife to kill or injure someone.” Imagine being a young person in this environment. Would you risk voicing your doubts, especially if you had never heard a single teacher question it?
Words are violence, akin to shooting someone with a gun, but so is silence. Intent is irrelevant, which is a familiar refrain. The children will be made to speak, using only approved words, reflecting the correct thoughts. Frightening. Click through to read the full essay, which includes details of an incredibly racist directive from school administrators not to assign students writings by non-white conservatives, as well as an anecdote about a student expressing his concern about getting into trouble simply for being spotted speaking with Rossi. What a healthy environment in which impressionable young minds are being molded, no? This isn't 'nut-picking,' wherein crazy, unrepresentative outliers are elevated as exemplars of wider crises. The problem is real, undeniable, and growing. An entire generation of privileged children are being forced by radical adults to think and communicate this way. They are being taught that merit, hard work, and respect for other ideas are all evil and white supremacy-adjacent, if not outright white supremacy. They're bombarded with the message that their skin color is determinative. It's sick and unsustainable -- and it must be actively resisted, or this country will become unrecognizable. I'll leave you with yet another example of how the revolution eats its own, and how ludicrous things are getting:
A Waukegan middle school will not be named for former President Obama and his wife Michelle following protests from the Latinx community. https://t.co/BMY9YERlpk
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) April 14, 2021
The 'Latinx' name-check is a nice touch, too. And if you're curious where the deranged image atop this post came from, click here.