One of the central battles in the Woke Wars these days is over Critical Race Theory. Many on the Left and in the media are busy gaslighting us about conservatives' supposedly fake 'panic' over something that doesn't exist, while also lying about various forms of proposed pushback, and also...defending the very thing they're simultaneously arguing is a figment of right-wing fever dreams. Righties are debating one another about what, if anything, should be done about CRT, including via the political process. One need only peruse Bari Weiss' Substack and Twitter feed for just a handful of examples of CRT/wokeness/cancel culture run amok. It's very real, it's very serious, and combatting this toxic phenomenon requires committed opposition. This was my quick take on the dynamics at play:
‘Critical race theory’ isn’t always perfectly defined, concerns are over-applied in some cases & unhelpful issue conflation exists.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) June 17, 2021
But gaslighting from Left/media about conservatives’ reaction to something that is absolutely being thrust upon our institutions is breathtaking.
One of the ways conservatives can help win the public relations fight on this front is simply by highlighting and amplifying poisonous examples of CRT in our society, if only to reinforce how this is not some made-up concept invented by right-wingers to scare people or have something to complain about. To that end, please consider the intense skirmish playing out at a private school in New Jersey, where a popular teacher recently resigned in a very public way over the harm she said CRT-rooted instruction is inflicted on students:
Breaking: Dana Stangel-Plowe, an award-winning teacher, resigned from Dwight-Englewood school after many attempts to advocate pro-human values in education.
— Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) (@fairforall_org) June 8, 2021
(1/3) pic.twitter.com/uqbmC0BJbX
"Another loving teacher steps away from the job & kids she adores rather than force racist, divisive ideology on her students. Good for her & shame on this school, Dwight-Englewood," tweets Megyn Kelly. Whatever you want to call it, this pervasive, race-obsessed view of society -- which is infecting grade schools, universities, major corporations and even the US military -- is destructive and unjust. We can acknowledge our historical and existing flaws, and strive for improvements, without demonizing groups of people based on their skin color, embracing 'restorative' discrimination, or running down America as a fundamentally rotten place. But that's not how the hardcore Left is proceeding. Stangel-Plowe's resignation has reportedly touched off a furious debate within the Dwight Englewood community. She received this email from a student who thanked her for telling the truth and offered an adolescent's perspective on how CRT has negatively impacted him and his peers (content warning for language):
A student at the Dwight-Englewood school (which all parents should be ditching) has written in support of the whistleblowing resignation by @dstangelplowe. And the student notes he is hardly alone. pic.twitter.com/AJ6e8ZRWzc
— John McWhorter (@JohnHMcWhorter) June 16, 2021
Re-read the paragraph about the message an eighth grade teacher was sending to adolescent boys and the effect it had on this student. Examples like this are playing out across the country every day. Some people will exaggerate it or twist it for their own purposes. Others will lie about it, to pretend it's not happening. Still others will defend it as good and necessary. Most people believe embracing racism to combat racism is wrong. People need to speak up and stand up. As the student who wrote the above letter notes, "many many people" are appalled by what's happening. The way the race obsessives win is by bullying people into silence. I'll leave you with this:
It's under-discussed how major corporate news outlets like NBC -- which once so strictly enforced requirements of fake neutrality -- now not just allow but seemingly encourage their employees to be on one partisan/ideological side, with all their work geared toward advancing it. https://t.co/n0kigweE3k
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 15, 2021
Also: Is there any evidence that so-called "anti-racism" training even works?