Dufuss trips:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Are we there yet?
https://www.americanthinker.
Meanwhile:
Perhaps a counter-reaction is bubbling:
Students defend professor under fire for expressing concern about anti-white sentiment on campus
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Studying different cultures can be very instructive and insightful but when the purpose/motive/agenda is questionable/radical that is another matter:
The problem with
ethnic studies isn’t just how it treats Jews
Anti-Semitic content was removed from a proposed California
public-school curriculum. But the real danger is a radical and divisive
ideological agenda at the heart of this effort.
Some Jews are declaring victory. Their
long battle to alter the draft of the proposed Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum
(ESMC) for California public schools ended with an outcome that left the Simon
Wiesenthal Center “encouraged.” The
effort to remove overtly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content from the document
was approved by
the California State Board of Education succeeded. Yet the center remains
“concerned” about the program. The American Jewish Committee agreed.
It referred to the ESMC as “fundamentally flawed.” StandWithUS concurred,
calling it “problematic.”
At stake was a new
school course requirement for schools from K-12 that would make the study of
the histories, struggles and contributions of Asian, African-American, Latino
and Native American communities an integral part of public education in the
nation’s most populous state. The fourth and revised draft of the curriculum
now includes material about, among others, Jews, Armenians and Sikhs.
The first draft, which
provoked a strong protest from Jews, included anti-Semitic and anti-Israel
language. It effectively endorsed the boycott of Israel by listing it alongside
the Black Lives Matter movement and #MeToo protests against sexual harassment
as praiseworthy activities. It referred to the establishment of modern-day
Israel by the term nakba, the Palestinian word
for “catastrophe.” It spoke of Jews gaining “race privilege” because of their
skin color, which makes them part of the oppressive majority grinding down
minorities. And it even included a song lyric that spoke of Jews manipulating
and controlling the press.
That’s all gone from
the final draft that’s been approved and included in it now are lesson plans on
American Jews, including one on the Mizrachi Jewish experience that discusses
anti-Semitism. Both contain the widely accepted definition of Jew-hatred,
according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, as well as
material on anti-Semitism from the Anti-Defamation League.
That’s enough to
satisfy some in the Jewish community. The California Legislative Caucus and the
San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Council have withdrawn their
objections entirely. Tyler Gregory, executive director of that JCRC, said in a
press release that “we need ethnic studies now. Ethnic studies gives
marginalized communities the agency to define and share their own stories,
cultures and histories. As Jewish Americans, we relate to this urgent need.”
So why do many Jews
remain worried about the implementation of this curriculum?
Part of the reason
stems from justified concerns about how it will be implemented in the 1,037
school districts around the state, where local boards of education will have
considerable leeway in interpreting the curriculum. That could lead to endless
controversies as the various groups seeking to be represented demand that their
preferred lesson plans be the ones used, as well as fights over the emphasis
that individual teachers and schools may choose in teaching about ethnicity.
But the problems with
this curriculum go much deeper than just a matter of implementation. The idea
of ethnic studies sounds like an anodyne concept that everyone should embrace.
It’s actually a terrible idea tainted by what even the liberal-leaning American
Jewish Committee rightly termed “a rigid ideological worldview.”
For all of the talk
about ethnic studies empowering marginalized minority populations and giving
children positive role models, the concept at the core of this effort is
critical race theory. That’s an idea that views all Americans solely as members
of racial and ethnic groups, not as individuals. As with other permutations of
this toxic idea, the goal of the curriculum isn’t so much to fight racism as it
is to enshrine race consciousness at the heart of every discussion and topic.
The Critical Ethnic
Studies Association, which was the original driving force behind this program,
isn’t really interested in celebrating diversity and adding the stories of
different groups to the accepted narrative of American history. What they want
is to replace the old story of America as born in a fight for liberty and
seeking, despite problems and the sin of slavery and racial discrimination, to
progress towards freedom for all with one that views it as an irredeemably
racist nation.
The point of the
curriculum they inspired, even in its revised form, is not one of inclusion of
minorities in the story of America, but rather, to indoctrinate all students in
the idea of “translating historical lessons and critical race theory into
direct action for social justice.” Its purpose is to reinforce a leftist
worldview that sees what earlier generations celebrated as the “American creed”
of opportunity, meritocracy and liberty as merely a “dominant narrative” that
serves white privilege and racism.
I understand why
Jewish groups scrambled to be included in the mix of ethnic, racial and
religious narratives that could be taught. The danger, however, is not so much
that those stories will be lost amid the importance that the curriculum places
on teaching about minorities who are viewed as marginalized rather than about
Jews who are not seen as protected victims that must be extolled.
The trouble with
ethnic studies is that even with the more overt symptoms of anti-Jewish
prejudice removed, the curriculum is still a political catechism rooted in
intersectional ideology about Third World nations and people of color locked in
a never-ending struggle against white oppression. The subtext is therefore
still one that puts Jews in the unfortunate position of either denying their
own “privilege” or being enlisted in a political struggle that has little to do
with a celebration of diversity, let alone the manifold blessings of American
liberty.
The disturbing aspects
of this teaching go beyond the trouble it makes for Jews. After all, in
California, students are only required to take three semesters of English and
two of math to graduate high school. But while subjects like biology,
chemistry, physics, geography, civics, history and foreign languages are merely
optional, this ideologically tainted ethnic studies curriculum will be mandatory.
Think about what this means for the future of a country in which important
disciplines, including those that were once correctly viewed as essential for
an informed citizenry in a democracy, are ditched in favor of lessons about
prioritizing race and tearing down the country.
Those who are trying
to remind Californians of the struggles and achievements of Jews in America
have a good story to tell that is deserving of attention. The same is true of
Mexican-Americans, African-Americans and a host of other groups. But Jewish
success in the United States is rooted in the core truths about that so-called
“dominant” narrative about the country in which immigrants from a variety of
backgrounds joined together to embrace the values and the ideas of the Founding
Fathers about political and economic freedom. The same is true for the
successes of every other group, including those who were subjected to far worse
discrimination than the anti-Semitism that Jews had to face.
By enshrining an
ethnic-studies course into law in this manner, California has set up a
destructive competition along racial, religious and ethnic lines that makes
race the primary way we all define ourselves rather than as individuals and
Americans. It glorifies a struggle for “equity” in which some Americans will
get privilege and power based on their group identity, rather than demanding
that all are given an equal chance and be judged on their own merits.
We should know the
stories of all groups that make up the mosaic of American life. But the critical
race theory animating this curriculum and other versions of it infiltrating
into American society is a poison that undermines national identity and
patriotism. Instead of Jews demanding their piece of the ethnic pie and begging
that the core ideology of inter-sectionalism that dismisses them as privileged
whites be watered down, we should be rejecting the entire edifice of this
deplorable curriculum as something that will hurt all Americans.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hoover Weekend Review (edited.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment