The Religion of Anti-racism: A field manual for subversion
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff
A book review by Thomas Jackson
Most people know that teachers and professors are well to the left of most Americans â their loonier antics sometimes make it into the press â but few outsiders any idea of the real designs âanti-racistsâ have on American children. Beyond Heroes and Holidays is a collection of 80-odd essays by âprogressiveâ school teachers and education professors about how to use the classroom to fight âracism.â It is supposed to be a guide for training teachers and instructing students â but is nothing less than a field manual for the subversion of American society.
This is a characterization many of the authors would not dispute. Anyone who can drag himself through the more than 450 large- format pages of this book soon learns that everything in America â including the economic system â will have to be revamped in order to eradicate âracism.â The authors, who include education professors at well-regarded universities, have a mentality exactly like that of doctrinaire Marxists. Although they never mention Marx or Communism, and they write about âtransformationâ rather than ârevolution,â they have the same totalitarian compulsion to control and reform every detail of our lives. They even have the equivalent of dialectical materialism. Just as Marxists used the dialectic to interpret reality, they use âcritical thinkingâ to interpret everything â and I mean everything â in terms of âracism,â âsexism,â and a batch of other âisms.â What the âcritsâ have established is a militant, secular religion, with schools as churches and children as compulsory congregations.
The central message of this religion is that every group difference is proof of exploitation, and every form of exploitation has been perfected by whites. The history of whites is an unending chronicle of rapine and despoliation, and only when these sins have been atoned for and all group differences eradicated will there be justice.
The âcritsâ do not yet control society but they control what they teach: âAll aspects of the curriculum [must] integrate multicultural, critical thinking and justice concepts and practice.â âDiversity and equity issues are integrated into all aspects of the teacher-training curriculum.â This is necessary because, as one of the editors of the book puts it with breath-taking finality, âThe purpose of education in an unjust society is to bring about equality and justice.â Thus, âschools should be the place where students can analyze the forces which maintain injustice and develop the knowledge, hope and strategies needed to create a more just society for us all.â
In short, education is indoctrination and its purpose is political: âEvery student whom we help to read and write is being provided with tools to defend herself or himself. We are helping prepare them for the onslaught of antihuman practices that this nation and other nations are facing today: racism, sexism, and the greed for money and human labor that disguises itself as âglobalization.â
Success is measured by how many students can be turned into anti- racist fanatics, and properly managed students can be made to un- bosom grateful testimonials like: âI also learned that all the institutions in this country are inherently racist and exist for the purpose of maintaining the power and wealth of the dominant group.â (Emphasis added)
Curing Whites
Because whites are the worldâs biggest problem, the fight against âracismâ begins with them. This book emphasizes over and over that âracismâ is not just a matter of thoughts and acts. It is an entire way of being that permeates society, institutions, and whites as a group. We know most whites are openly, hopelessly âracist,â but what about the ones who think they are not? They must be made to under- stand that âracismâ is not something practiced by other whites but is in the very marrow of their bones. As one anti-racist expert explains, his job is to take well-meaning white naïfs and give them âa new recognition of themselves as race-privileged, capable of racist thoughts and behaviors.â All whites are âracistâ whatever their intentions, whereas no non-whites are âracist.â
This goes without saying for most of the authors, but one or two try to explain it. As Peggy McIntosh of Wellesley, a celebrated proponent of this goofiness explains, inherent âracismâ is all about something called âunearned privilege:â
âI can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.â âI can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.â âI can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and childrenâs magazines featuring people of my race.â âI can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.â âI can choose blemish cover or bandages in âfleshâ color and have them more or less match my skin.â
As Miss McIntosh explains, for non-whites these privileges are experienced as oppression. âWhiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color,â she explains. Not recognizing and renouncing âprivilegeâ is the same as oppressing non-whites.
Of course, nearly all the âprivilegesâ Miss McIntosh describes are found just about everywhere. Japanese and Nigerians see people of their own race on television, too. A Frenchman living in Japan presumably suffers just like a black in America. There is the further implication that American whites gain some kind of stupendous advantage simply because non-whites live here. Having millions of poor, crime-prone, violent people among us gives us a great advantage over Norwegians, for example, who presumably donât experience âwhite skin privilegeâ ten times a day the way we do. It beggars the imagination how anyone could have thought of anything so stupid but, as Miss McIntosh explains, it is vital to open whitesâ eyes to how awful their country really is: âTo redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions.â
This doctrine of inherent racism is so weird and implausible it takes a lifetime to master it: âBecause the ideology of White racial superiority is so deeply embedded in our culture, the process of âunlearning racismâ is a journey we [whites] need to continue throughout our lives.â âKeep in mind that learning about racial identity and racism is a lifelong process.â âRacism is learned, and it can be unlearned, but it takes a commitment to stay aware, to keep working and to accept the unlearning as a lifelong journey.â
Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff
A book review by Thomas Jackson
Most people know that teachers and professors are well to the left of most Americans â their loonier antics sometimes make it into the press â but few outsiders any idea of the real designs âanti-racistsâ have on American children. Beyond Heroes and Holidays is a collection of 80-odd essays by âprogressiveâ school teachers and education professors about how to use the classroom to fight âracism.â It is supposed to be a guide for training teachers and instructing students â but is nothing less than a field manual for the subversion of American society.
This is a characterization many of the authors would not dispute. Anyone who can drag himself through the more than 450 large- format pages of this book soon learns that everything in America â including the economic system â will have to be revamped in order to eradicate âracism.â The authors, who include education professors at well-regarded universities, have a mentality exactly like that of doctrinaire Marxists. Although they never mention Marx or Communism, and they write about âtransformationâ rather than ârevolution,â they have the same totalitarian compulsion to control and reform every detail of our lives. They even have the equivalent of dialectical materialism. Just as Marxists used the dialectic to interpret reality, they use âcritical thinkingâ to interpret everything â and I mean everything â in terms of âracism,â âsexism,â and a batch of other âisms.â What the âcritsâ have established is a militant, secular religion, with schools as churches and children as compulsory congregations.
The central message of this religion is that every group difference is proof of exploitation, and every form of exploitation has been perfected by whites. The history of whites is an unending chronicle of rapine and despoliation, and only when these sins have been atoned for and all group differences eradicated will there be justice.
The âcritsâ do not yet control society but they control what they teach: âAll aspects of the curriculum [must] integrate multicultural, critical thinking and justice concepts and practice.â âDiversity and equity issues are integrated into all aspects of the teacher-training curriculum.â This is necessary because, as one of the editors of the book puts it with breath-taking finality, âThe purpose of education in an unjust society is to bring about equality and justice.â Thus, âschools should be the place where students can analyze the forces which maintain injustice and develop the knowledge, hope and strategies needed to create a more just society for us all.â
In short, education is indoctrination and its purpose is political: âEvery student whom we help to read and write is being provided with tools to defend herself or himself. We are helping prepare them for the onslaught of antihuman practices that this nation and other nations are facing today: racism, sexism, and the greed for money and human labor that disguises itself as âglobalization.â
Success is measured by how many students can be turned into anti- racist fanatics, and properly managed students can be made to un- bosom grateful testimonials like: âI also learned that all the institutions in this country are inherently racist and exist for the purpose of maintaining the power and wealth of the dominant group.â (Emphasis added)
Curing Whites
Because whites are the worldâs biggest problem, the fight against âracismâ begins with them. This book emphasizes over and over that âracismâ is not just a matter of thoughts and acts. It is an entire way of being that permeates society, institutions, and whites as a group. We know most whites are openly, hopelessly âracist,â but what about the ones who think they are not? They must be made to under- stand that âracismâ is not something practiced by other whites but is in the very marrow of their bones. As one anti-racist expert explains, his job is to take well-meaning white naïfs and give them âa new recognition of themselves as race-privileged, capable of racist thoughts and behaviors.â All whites are âracistâ whatever their intentions, whereas no non-whites are âracist.â
This goes without saying for most of the authors, but one or two try to explain it. As Peggy McIntosh of Wellesley, a celebrated proponent of this goofiness explains, inherent âracismâ is all about something called âunearned privilege:â
âI can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.â âI can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.â âI can easily buy posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and childrenâs magazines featuring people of my race.â âI can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having coworkers on the job suspect that I got it because of race.â âI can choose blemish cover or bandages in âfleshâ color and have them more or less match my skin.â
As Miss McIntosh explains, for non-whites these privileges are experienced as oppression. âWhiteness protected me from many kinds of hostility, distress, and violence, which I was being subtly trained to visit in turn upon people of color,â she explains. Not recognizing and renouncing âprivilegeâ is the same as oppressing non-whites.
Of course, nearly all the âprivilegesâ Miss McIntosh describes are found just about everywhere. Japanese and Nigerians see people of their own race on television, too. A Frenchman living in Japan presumably suffers just like a black in America. There is the further implication that American whites gain some kind of stupendous advantage simply because non-whites live here. Having millions of poor, crime-prone, violent people among us gives us a great advantage over Norwegians, for example, who presumably donât experience âwhite skin privilegeâ ten times a day the way we do. It beggars the imagination how anyone could have thought of anything so stupid but, as Miss McIntosh explains, it is vital to open whitesâ eyes to how awful their country really is: âTo redesign social systems we need first to acknowledge their colossal unseen dimensions.â
This doctrine of inherent racism is so weird and implausible it takes a lifetime to master it: âBecause the ideology of White racial superiority is so deeply embedded in our culture, the process of âunlearning racismâ is a journey we [whites] need to continue throughout our lives.â âKeep in mind that learning about racial identity and racism is a lifelong process.â âRacism is learned, and it can be unlearned, but it takes a commitment to stay aware, to keep working and to accept the unlearning as a lifelong journey.â