Darker Aspects

 

"Wit & Wisdom," an English language arts curriculum, has been widely criticized in recent weeks by Williamson County parents.... Arguments against the curriculum fall into two buckets. The first being the belief that "Wit & Wisdom" content isn't appropriate for younger students, and the second being that the curriculum teaches concepts of critical race theory.

Community members and local advocacy organizations have come forward in disapproval of books like "Ruby Bridges Goes to School," "Separate is Never Equal," and "George vs. George," their argument being that teaching about the darker aspects of racism in United States history isn't appropriate in elementary grades. 

One of the most vocal groups has been the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty started earlier this year. The group includes members with children in and outside of Williamson County Schools. [Moms for Liberty head Robin Steenman] said she disapproves of guidance for teachers to teach words like "injustice," "unequal," "inequality," "protest," "marching" and "segregation" in grammar lessons.

—Anika Exum, Nashville Tennesseean, 11 June 2021

Long, long ago, there was a kindly, Republican chief justice called Earl Warren, and one day he heard that some people in Topeka were not judging children by the content of their character. Not in Tennessee! Topeka is in Kansas.

It was true. In those days there were schools in America where there were no African American children! This is hard for you to imagine, since schools in America are not like that now, except if your Mom for Liberty schools you at home or a special religious liberty school or if you don't have a lot of African American people in your neighborhood for some reason. Some people have a shortage of African American children in their neighborhood! That has nothing to do with your parents or their mortgage broker!

Social Justice League

Via Washington Area Spark. Note it was a multiracial crowd.

While Monsignor Douthat urges the Marxists supposedly betrayed by the Democrats to join up with his own white-power movement, if that's what he's really up to, David Brooks continues with the simpler task of sketching out the Democratic Party he'd enjoy voting for, which would be more attentive to his particular sensibilities, and less distracted from what he regards as the Big Issues ("America Is Facing 5 Epic Crises All at Once: This is not the time to obsess about symbolism"):

1. "We" are losing the battle against Covid-19;
2. "all Americans but especially white Americans" are rapidly learning about the struggles involved in being an African American;
3. the American public is "vehemently rejecting" the Republican Party under Trumpian leadership;
4. American cultural institutions are being taken over by the "quasi-religion" of Social Justice, which sees history as "essentially a power struggle between groups, some of which are oppressors and others of which are oppressed", and speech as "a form of violence that has to be regulated"; and
5. we might be on the verge of a severe depression.

These five changes, each reflecting a huge crisis and hitting all at once, have created a moral, spiritual and emotional disaster. Americans are now less happy than at any time since they started measuring happiness nearly 50 years ago. Americans now express less pride in their nation than at any time since Gallup started measuring it 20 years ago.

Points 1 and 5 are real problems, though I think Brooks is too pessimistic about the first—it's not a battle with an enemy that can win—the virus can either run out of hosts to infect if we're all dead, or find a way of carrying on without killing us all, but it can't declare victory and occupy a throne somewhere; there's an other side that we'll all reach sooner or later, some of us sooner because we're willing to change our behavior, others not. Governors Abbot, Kemp, DeSantis, and Ducey certainly seem to be losing their wars. but they're against the Democrats and the citizens, and I hear Abbot is starting to negotiate for peace. On the last point, Brooks is too optimistic: this is a very bad economic crisis, and it will take a lot to emerge from it. 

#MarchForScience

Pictures from Saturday, where I had the opportunity to meet up with our friend the Big Bad Bald Bastard, an actual scientist by training, and help defend our community against the plague of ignorance and vicious profit-seeking.

Central Park.

People really were chanting, "What do we want? Science! When do we want it? After peer review!" I'm so glad I'm a nerd.

"Shame! Shame!" outside the Trump International at Columbus Circle.

"Science doesn't care what you believe, Carol!"

We felt good about it.