What the New Racism Looks Like

My generation was inspired by the words of Martin Luther King to judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. I have tried my best to live up to that standard personally and to impart it to my children. In raising my son, I never mentioned race. I thought it a meaningless attribute. It wasn’t until he was seven or eight that our son even took note of racial differences. One day he asked in idle curiosity, “Do you think there are more dark-skinned people or light-skinned people in the world?” He had not yet learned the racial classifications that Americans use.

Apparently, that’s a retrograde attitude. Peoples’ racial identity has become a matter of all-consuming importance. Pretending that racial differences don’t matter when systemic racism prevails, according to Critical Race Theory, is just another form of racism.

Those thoughts came to mind when I watched the video above, in which a Loudoun County school teacher badgers a student into labeling two women in a photo by their race.

This is what the new racism looks like.

Race, as critical race theorists never cease reminding us, is a social construct. Indeed it is, and right now they are doing the constructing. While some of us would like to minimize race consciousness as a way to diminish the role of race in society, that’s the last thing they want. Under the Northam administration, race has become the Left’s pathway to power.

As Northam implements his race agenda in public schools and higher-ed, I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more conversations like the one in the video.

(Hat tip: James Wyatt Whitehead V)


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26 responses to “What the New Racism Looks Like”

  1. Kathleen Smith Avatar
    Kathleen Smith

    It isn’t the Northampton administration, it is the Northam’s administration attempting to make amends. It is society’s way of saying we are not racist. Unfortunately, it may well backfire because it is not altruistic in truth but rather untruthful at the start. I find the video appalling. That young mind should totally adversary to this kind of teaching.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    One has to ask in all this moderation and “respect the man” if there is such a thing as white supremacy and whether it plays a role in our society. no?

    1. Baconator with extra cheese Avatar
      Baconator with extra cheese

      Yes Black supremacy is much more appealing. Or based on income and education we should all be happy about Asian supremacy? Or based on population growth rates Latinx supremacy?
      It will be interesting to see the narative in 30 years when the country is dominated by a Latinx population…

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        So was the Air Force WRONG to do an investigation based on race?

        Air Force investigation finds disparities in how Black and White members are treated

        https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2455474/air-force-releases-findings-of-racial-disparity-review/

  3. Baconator with extra cheese Avatar
    Baconator with extra cheese

    I wish the teacher would explain more about those differences as indicated by skin color.
    Besides the skin color….

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Well, there are brow, nose, and general skull dimensions. I watch Forensic Files.

  4. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    The late great Walter Williams had something to say about this:

    “The bottom line is that the new racism, born in academia, is just as ugly as the old racism.”

  5. Baconator with extra cheese Avatar
    Baconator with extra cheese

    Maybe we should all add not just out pronouns but our racial identity to our email signatures?

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead

      I imagine that data will be present in your vaccine passport.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      What pronouns?

      1. StarboardLift Avatar
        StarboardLift

        I think Baconator is referring to They/them, She/her, He/him…

  6. In my opinion, there are no circumstances under which that so-called teacher should be allowed within 500 feet of a school-aged child.

    1. Kathleen Smith Avatar
      Kathleen Smith

      Beginning in 2002, the VDOE began accrediting public schools based on the pass rates of Standards of Learning Assessments. At that time, the benchmark was a 70% pass rate in each of the core content areas. There was a small increase to a requirement of 75% in English. During the McAuliffe administration, then Secretary of Education Kaine, and Student Superintendent Staples along with the Board of Education did yet another overhaul of accreditation. The requirements now include not only the Standards of Learning but other indicators as well.
      EdEquity is defined by VDOE as the elimination of predictability of student outcomes based on race, gender, zip code, ability, socio-economic status, and/or languages spoken at home. It appears that all many agencies in the government, like VDOE, are attempting to address problems associated with systemic racism.
      For over twenty years, the SOL accreditation allowable pass rates passed by the Virginia Board of Education at many points in time have allowed 30% of students to fail with no consequences to schools. It is not about Critical Race Theory; it is about simple mathematics and a poor policy decision to come up with a 70% pass rate to begin with.
      Students with disabilities ages 3-21 account for about 14% of all public schools nationally, close to the same in Virginia. There are provisions for alternate assessments for most students with disabilities in this state, leaving most of those students a mark in the pass, not fail column.

      EdEquity as defined above absolutely accounts for those 30%. Those students have been allowed to fail for not one, but twenty years. Quit chasing your tails or going down a rabbit hole that sounds like you might indeed find the rabbit. Simply change the required pass rate. By allowing schools to get by with various levels (Tier 1, 2, 3) of “continued progress” to meet the SOL benchmark for each subgroup of students over time in the new accreditation system, it would be easier to just change back to a simple accountability system of say a 95% pass rate on all SOL assessments.

      If you think the SOL renders what we think kids must know and be able to do, why be soft? That was our systemic error in the first place. I taught in Petersburg, and yes, many of my students came in way behind their white peers in NOVA; but they could and did catch up. Teach, teach, teach, and quit having bizarre discussions about race as in the Loudoun video.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        Geeze Kathleen, how dare you be a simple voice of reason here in BR… 😉

      2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
        James Wyatt Whitehead

        If George Allen had put the remediation money in place for SOLs, your kids in Petersburg would have passed. Instead he passed that tab on to localities who could not write that check. One of the great tragedies of the SOL era in the late 1990s.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          James – that’s an interesting perspective. Do you think, it’s the State’s responsibility to ensure that such populations of kids receive remediation money instead of the locality?

          So, for the example given, Petersburg, the State needs to step in and provide more funding than the local can or does?

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead

            The original intention of the SOLs was for failing schools to provide remediation to reach the high bar set by the state. As originally written the state would provide that funding to localities who could not meet the need. Petersburg fit that. But instead most of the tab had to come from local tax sources. A long line of governors from Allen to the present never fulfilled that obligation.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Okay, but is money the problem and what is not being provided that more money would buy?

            And I could see Petersburg and some other jurisdictions of lower economic means but what about some of the failing schools in places like Henrico?

          3. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead

            Good question.

          4. Kathleen Smith Avatar
            Kathleen Smith

            That is my point. Those Henrico students are in the 30 percent. Petersburg has been given millions of federal dollars. It isn’t money in Petersburg. There are teachers who teach and get great results. Others do not. Many are first year teachers. Many who do not get results are veteran teachers who collect a pay check. You have to have a critical mass of teachers who get good results. In some years in some schools in Petersburg that happens. In other years it does not.

          5. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            So I might be a little confused all though I do get the point about the staff makeup issues.

            But if I were to provide a map of Henrico, the 30% problem would largely be reflected in the poorer neighborhood schools where the demographics are more like Petersburg than other parts of Henrico.

            How come it’s a staffing issue in the 30% parts and not the 70% parts?

  7. StarboardLift Avatar
    StarboardLift

    Same orientation as Jim Bacon toward race, grew up on an integrated street, public schools were integrated. It’s taken me, personally, years to understand why color blindness has been left behind, and I’m getting there.

    There was a Kevin Costner line in the movie “Black or White” on Netflix, similar to this: “Do I see the color of skin? Of course! That is the first thing I notice. Just as when I see an attractive woman I notice her breasts. What matters is what happens next–what is my second thought, my third thought…that is what makes me not a pervert, and not a racist.” Lightweight stuff but irrefutable logic, to me. It won’t know your religious affiliation from 10 yards away (unless you’re sporting some overt like hijab or yarmulke) but I have immediate optic recognition of race.

    We’re well into a big pendulum swing. I’m concerned that Critical Race Theory will yield an undesired outcome, but white boomers are not in the driver’s seat on this. The pendulum will swing back–if it can center itself, we’ll all be better off. I’m hoping that Critical Race Theory will eventually be displaced by critical thinking.

  8. Don Crawford Avatar
    Don Crawford

    OMG! Do we pay this teacher? This young man has it right! The teacher forces him to differentiate on skin color. Man alive we build monuments to, name streets and buildings for him but never do we pay attention to the message Dr. Martin Luther King hoped we would hear. We are one race. The HUMAN race. Each member is unique. Appreciate our differences but don’t let skin color divide us.

  9. StarboardLift Avatar
    StarboardLift

    https://apple.news/AQipDmeiRSBOmdGM_VY7WHg When the pendulum swings too far…if you do not carry the stamp of approval, you are sussed out and felled.

  10. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    The LCPS video was a topic of discussion at the Frost Diner. Just about everyone I talked to this morning had seen it or heard about it.

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