CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

protest international activist movement protesting against racism and fighting for justice – Demonstrators from different cultures and race protest on street for equal rights

In McKinney, Texas last night there was a talk about “How to fight against CRT”.  The speaker was Cody Weaver, a sitting board member of Plano ISD.  He is definitely against any of this ideology being taught in Texas Schools, and is educating people all over North Texas to its evils, and most importantly, how to fight back.  He did do a great job indicating that he was not representing his ISD, but was acting as an individual.

Cody spent some time letting us know what he is not saying, and letting us know this could be part of our own future argument:

  1.  Not saying that racism does not exist in America today.
  2. Not saying that systemic and institutional racism did not exist in the past.
  3. Not saying that disparities do not exist.
  4. Not saying that slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and redlining had no effect on black communities.
  5. Not saying that SEL programs that CRT is attached to need to be ended.

We were told about Richard Delgado J.D., the law professor that was the creator of this ideology, CRT.  He currently teaches at the University of Alabama school of Law.  He founded CRT, combining Radical Feminism tenets (destroy current system rather than work within it for change) to critical legal studies, making a mix of white hatred combined with showing white people, especially white males as oppressors, and the rest of the races, especially blacks as the oppressed.  In a nutshell, the only way he sees that we can achieve equity (equal outcomes for all races), is to eliminate white supremacy, a scourge that all white people are guilty of, and have white people understand their new place in the world.  That is purported to be the only way to bring the white people down off their unearned perch and give all other races the opportunity to achieve equity in society.  Richard Delgado believed that changes have to be done immediately, otherwise, white racists would quelch it!  His book on this subject is “Faces at the bottom of the well”.

Cody hit on SEL (social and emotional learning), pointing out that it has been around for decades, and is not all bad.  It addresses students that are most in need of educational assistance due to infirmity, or due to poor family situations.  It can be effective in giving these individuals a “leg up” that they would not otherwise have, as opposed to them falling through the cracks and not participating in the learning environment.  He clearly stated that when SEL is used in this sparing fashion, it is a positive source of good.  However, CRT needs to be taken out of the SEL curriculum, as it is nothing more than a dark ideology that separates, rather than unites students of every stripe.

Cody spent time discussing Derrick Bell, a Harvard Law Professor and author.  He wrote a book called “Faces at the bottom of the well”.  His thrust with this book is that CRT must be implemented in schools and throughout society immediately, and cannot be implemented piece meal like other initiatives.  Incrementalism cannot be practiced with this ideology, and if it is tried that way, it would never happen.  White people would kill the movement in its tracks.  CRT goes against everything that was accomplished in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and those accomplishments were in fact failures because those social changes never addressed the root problem, and that is identified as “White Supremacist’s”.

Now he discusses the backbone of CRT:

  1.  The predicament of social reforms, is that “everything must change at once”.  “Otherwise, change will be swallowed up by the remaining elements, so that we remain roughly as we were before.”  Pg.91 Derrick Bell’s book “Faces at the bottom of the well”.
  2. Racism is ordinary, not aberrational.
  3. System of white over color ascendancy.
  4. Social construction thesis.
  5. Interest convergence – The notion that white people will only go along with “racial justice” if there is something in it for them, and this only happened for a short period of time when white elitists saw that they would in some way politically profit from it.

Key themes of CRT:

  1. Interest convergence.
  2. Revisionist history(1619 Project)
  3. Storytelling and counter-story telling (false narratives)
  4. Critique of present Liberalism

Whiteness:

  1.  Whiteness-Quality pertaining to Euro-American or Caucasian people or traditions.
  2. Whiteness as a property-the notion that whiteness in itself has great value for its possessor and conveys a host of unearned privileges and benefits.
  3. Property interest in whiteness-idea that white skin and identity are economically viable.

White Fragility:

“Whiteness is a dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels.  These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people.” Robin D’Angelo

Being White, being good:

“All white people are racist and complicit by virtue of benefiting from privileges that are not something that they can voluntarily renounce.”  Barbara Applebaum

Whiteness:

Many critical race theorists and social scientists alike hold that racism is pervasive, systemic, and deeply ingrained.  If we take this perspective, then no white member in society seems quite so innocent.  They are all racists.

CRT today:

Now called Culturally Responsive Teaching, with courageous conversations about race.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research and Practice – Geneva Gay “Although the students in the US are becoming increasingly diverse, most of the teachers are white, female, and monolingual.  Race and institutionalized racism are significant factors that influence and mediate the interactions of students from different ethnic, cultural

Whiteness:

  1.  Whiteness-Quality pertaining to Euro-American or Caucasian people or traditions.
  2. Whiteness as a property-the notion that whiteness in itself has great value for its possessor and conveys a host of unearned privileges and benefits.
  3. Property interest in whiteness-idea that white skin and identity are economically viable.

White Fragility:

“Whiteness is a dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels.  These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people.” Robin D’Angelo

Being White, being good:

“All white people are racist and complicit by virtue of benefiting from privileges that are not something that they can voluntarily renounce.”  Barbara Applebaum

Whiteness:

Many critical race theorists and social scientists alike hold that racism is pervasive, systemic, and deeply ingrained.  If we take this perspective, then no white member in society seems quite so innocent.  They are all racists.

CRT today:

Now called Culturally Responsive Teaching, with courageous conversations about race.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research and Practice – Geneva Gay “Although the students in the US are becoming increasingly diverse, most of the teachers are white, female, and monolingual.  Race and institutionalized racism are significant factors that influence and mediate the interactions of students from different ethnic, cultural, language, and social class groups.” Geneva Gray

Whiteness:

  1.  Whiteness-Quality pertaining to Euro-American or Caucasian people or traditions.
  2. Whiteness as a property-the notion that whiteness in itself has great value for its possessor and conveys a host of unearned privileges and benefits.
  3. Property interest in whiteness-idea that white skin and identity are economically viable.

White Fragility:

“Whiteness is a dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels.  These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people.” Robin D’Angelo

Being White, being good:

“All white people are racist and complicit by virtue of benefiting from privileges that are not something that they can voluntarily renounce.”  Barbara Applebaum

Whiteness:

Many critical race theorists and social scientists alike hold that racism is pervasive, systemic, and deeply ingrained.  If we take this perspective, then no white member in society seems quite so innocent.  They are all racists.

CRT today:

Now called Culturally Responsive Teaching, with courageous conversations about race.

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research and Practice – Geneva Gay

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST?

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination.  The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.  The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination!” – Geneva Gray

“Denial is the heartbeat of racism.” Ibram Kendi

The NEA, the largest teacher’s union in the country with over 14000 members, voted last week to support CRT nationwide in all schools, colleges and universities in the USA, and will be sending learning materials and staffers to teachers and districts that need help in implementation.  They will also be teaching ISD’s how to fight back from parental intrusion, and assist with word craft to assist in the masking of CRT’s true identity. 

What can parents do?  First, take an active interest in your child’s education.  Examine take home assignments, and if you see CRT rearing its ugly head, complain to the teacher and principal.  If that does not work, go to the ISD, and then to the board.  Let them know what you want from them in the way of education.  Write letters to your state representatives and your governor.  Push hard, and organize with other parents to push back from this toxic ideology.  Remember, this is not a partisan issue, people from both sides of the fence will see this for what it is, and will not want their children indoctrinated!  The only way to end this is to show courage and fight, and to be effective, you have to know what your fighting against, and this presentation has done a very good job of exposing the enemy for us. 

AS TEXAS GOES, SO DOES OUR COUNTRY!

Texas city elections are supposedly non-partisan by law.  That is not even a question anymore.  They are not non-partisan, thanks to Democrat PAC’s and the DNC.  Case in point, the Little Elm mayoral election.

My wife and I interviewed each candidate, there were 3 running for mayor, to find out who we were going to support.  At that time each candidate said that the election was non-partisan and did not display any interest in displaying their own politics, just wanted us to know that they wanted to serve the city.  Each of them indicated that as city politicians, their primary concern was to ensure that we had adequate policing, a robust fire/EMS department, and that the garbage was picked up on time. 

Our community is in growth mode, and I also pushed them for insight into their vision for the future.  Two of the candidates seemed to be taken aback on that question, and their answers were sketchy at best.  One candidate had a concise vision, one that took into account growth patterns and the need for services to fulfill the needs of our growing community.  This man was currently the President of the Little Elm Economic Development Corporation, and had detailed insight into the specific needs of our growing community, and had a detailed plan to achieve those goals.  He won us both over, and at that point earned our vote.

The campaign was on, and my wife and I were intimately involved in the process.  We called potential supporters, walked many neighborhoods, and motivated others to do the same.  We were a big part of this candidate’s ground game.  We worked hard all the way up to election day.

During the campaign, we went to a local restaurant for lunch, and saw one of the other candidates there.  He was with a group of people, some with signs, and all with tee shirts that said “Denton Together” and “Fuel 50”.  We came back to say hello to the candidate, and was introduced to a man, apparently the leader of that group, that was obviously a partisan Democrat.  It was evident that the race had gone partisan.  At that meeting the candidate, who is black, also intimated that the race was contentious because of racial divisions in the city.  We did not see that, and we told him so, but he was adamant on that point.

When home, we looked up Denton Together’s website, and found out it is a PAC, raising money through ACTBLUE, which is the largest Democrat PAC in the country.  We also discovered that this PAC was set-up to turn Texas blue, by starting from the bottom, winning city elections first, then county, and ultimately taking candidates to the state level to turn Texas blue.  Texas has 38 electoral votes, and if they go blue, so does the whole country in Presidential elections, turning our country into a perpetual one-party state.  With This realization we were energized, and so were those we were campaigning with to go the extra mile for our chosen candidate.  As conservatives, we were going to do everything possible to make sure that our city, and Texas itself stays on the right side of politics.

The general election resulted in a runoff.  None of the 3 candidates garnered over 50% of the vote, and a new election was called, and our candidate, along with the candidate supported by Denton Together, were now running against each other.  Denton Together brought in people from out of town to walk all neighborhoods, and signs, mailers, and an electronic billboard were part of their effort.  Still, it looked like a real horse race, with both candidates tracking close to each other.

On May 4th, the opposition kicked Denton Together to the curb, and brought in a paid Democrat operative to manage the remainder of their campaign.  This man was the organizer on the ground for Pete Buttigieg’s primary campaign in both Iowa and Texas, and was part of the campaign for Raphael Warnock in Georgia.  He also is currently a leader for the DNC to turn Texas blue.  He was brought in because it appeared that our candidate had a very good chance to win.

This Democrat operative pulled out the stops, and played the race card hard.  Soon after he came to the opposition’s campaign, a mysterious video showed up on-line for only about 5 minutes.  Hardly a person saw it, but after it was taken down and eliminated from U-tube, it was presented by the opposition campaign as a racist rant from our candidate.  A screen shot of the introduction was widely distributed, with their carefully concocted racist narrative boldly attached to it.  Now the fire of racism was not only lit, but gasoline was poured onto the fire.  This incited black voters that would normally stay home to go to the polls, and it worked.  On June 5th, there was a flood of minority voters going to the polls, and subsequently the opposition candidate did win by a slim margin of about 280 votes.  Was this tactic cynical?  Yes.  Was it effective?  Absolutely! 

This story of the mayoral election in Little Elm is a minor part of a bigger play.  It shows that Democrats, in their quest for power, will do absolutely anything, however despicable to win.  We see that on the national stage, with this party threatening to pack the Supreme Court with Progressive Judges so that rulings will always go in their favor.  We see them preparing to eliminate the filibuster to make it impossible for the minority party to stop their toxic bills from becoming law.  They even are trying to pass a law to take elections away from the states, to ensure that every way possible to cheat will be in their parties control forevermore. 

As conservatives we need an awakening.  We have to realize that the opposing party has taken the gloves off, and is fighting us with their bare knuckles.  We can no longer play by the established rules, but instead our gloves have to come off too, and then we have to fight on a level playing field.  If we do not, they will surely win, and our country will be changed forever, and not for the better!

THE AMERICA I ONCE KNEW….

When I was growing up my friends and I were in the Cub Scouts, and then the Boy Scouts.  Every Memorial Day we marched in our small town’s parade.  There were thousands in the parade, darn near ½ the town, with the other half lined up along the roads to watch.  The American Legion, VFW, Army and Navy Reservists, Police and Fire Departments, the High School Band and many other organizations were in the parade, along with our local politicians, religious leaders and their families.  Everyone was proud to be American, and all knew we were the greatest country on earth!

After High School I joined the Naval Reserve, and was on active duty from 1970 to 1975.  Interesting to note that back then religion was very important, and now it is not. When I got out, I attended Naval Reserve meetings 1 weekend per month, and went on 2 weeks active duty every year.  We also marched in the Cincinnati Memorial Day Parade with other reservists.  The Marines, ourselves, Army, and Air Force reservists were in these parades in our dress uniforms, along with High School bands and just about every social organization in the city.  Many people, thousands upon thousands would line the streets of downtown Cincinnati to watch the parade.  It was a great show of Americanism, and we all were proud to be a part of it!

Small towns outside of Cincinnati still do these parades, but Cincinnati no longer does.  Few big cities do anymore.  Except for small towns and cities in our country, the Memorial Day Parade is a thing of the past, a dinosaur in a fast-changing America.  In the bigger cities, and some small ones too, pride of country does not seem to exist anymore.  What happened?

80% of younger Americans are not physically or mentally fit to serve in the armed forces today.  Critical Race Theory is now part of the mission in our armed forces, and many that can join no longer will as the military goes woke.  Our schools have been teaching students that America is nothing to be proud of, and that we stole our land, killed many to take it, and have been fighting colonial wars all over the planet throughout our history.  All largely a lie, but a narrative to fundamentally change us by education our young people in this manner.

We now have a 2-tiered justice system, where Conservatives are treated differently from Progressives.  We have a weaponized DOJ, CIA, FBI and all the other alphabet soup agencies in our Federal Government.  Socialism is now being presented as a better alternative to Capitalism (Even though it has failed everywhere it has been tried), and our Constitution is being trashed.  Almost 50% of Gen-Z young adults think Socialism is good, free speech is not a good thing, and that the second amendment of the Constitution should be overturned.  Further, Progressives want the Constitution to be a “living document” that they can change at will.  We are now in a world of hurt, and the America I grew up in no longer exists. 

It will be a long struggle to get sanity back into our country.  We need to take back government, get rid of unneeded agencies, rebuild ones that are needed but have gone rogue.  We also must get rid of RINO’s and Progressives in our elected offices, and elect people who have the desire to bring back what we have lost.  This will not be done overnight, but 2024 is a bellwether year that can bring some positive change to our failing system.  Take voting seriously and research all candidates on your ballot.  Only vote for those that respect our country and its values, and will uphold the Constitution as written.  We can get positive change started, and then we must hold our representatives to the promises that they will have given us. Or we can just sit back and let the Progressives and RINO’s win.  It’s your choice!

THIS IS NOT MY WRITING, BUT I BELIEVE WE ALL SHOULD TAKE NOTICE!

HOW TO DESTROY A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY

The Liberal Progressive playbook has been applied time and again to destroy societies across
the world. The pattern is nearly the same in every instance.

  1. Promote discontent in the economically disadvantaged classes
  2. Expand the numbers of disadvantaged within the society by redefining “the
    disadvantaged” or importing large numbers of disadvantaged individuals
  3. Expand the role of government from governance to provision of “equality”
  4. Provide “free” services to both the deserving and the undeserving to buy votes and at the
    same time destroy the economic viability of the society
  5. Falsely promise “true equality” to encourage the sacrifice of personal freedom and the
    enhancement of the power of government
  6. Gain control of the education system and propagandize younger generations
  7. Use mass media (willingly or through force) to promote their propaganda
  8. Attack the underpinnings of the free society – law and order, freedom of speech,
    economic freedom, religious freedom, the right to bear arms
  9. Disarm the populace
  10. Rescind constitutional rights or declare martial law, giving an elite few total control of the
    society
  11. Eradicate all dissidents
  12. Enslave the entire population for the benefit of a few
    It only took one generation for the Socialists to transform Venezuela from a Democracy to a
    socialist democracy, to a ruthless dictatorship.
    1992 Became 3 rd richest country in hemisphere
    2001 Voted for Socialist president to correct “Income Inequality”
    2004 Private healthcare is completely socialized and is free
    2007 All higher education becomes “free”
    2009 Socialists banned private ownership of guns
    2012 Bernie Sanders praises Venezuela as the “American Dream”
    2014 Opposition leaders are imprisoned
    2016 Economy collapses. Food/healthcare shortages become widespread
    2017 Constitution and elections are suspended
    2019 Unarmed citizens massacred by the government
    Source: McGroartyforFreedom.com. Not a direct quote.
    The Liberal Progressives have been working for well over 50 years to transform the United
    States. They are no longer working in the dark, they are openly declaring their intentions to rob
    you and future generations of your freedom. Their recent actions demonstrate clearly that they
    feel the United States is ready for transition. Their willingness to challenge law and order, use
    our intelligence agencies to spy on private citizens,, attempt to illegally impeach a duly elected
    president and to openly encourage the mass migration of millions of illegal aliens are all bold
    signs of their intentions.
    Only one question remains, will you wake-up in time to stop them?

SOCIALISM, A FAILED SYSTEM THAT REFUSES TO DIE

I am going to focus on Great Britian and America in this essay.  There are parallels that we as Americans need to consider historically. Why?  It is because if history is not understood and heeded, the same mistakes that took down the British Empire is likely to give us the same result.

Great Britain’s roadmap to Socialism started with the Fabian Society.  This group was formed at the London school of Economics in January 1884. This group consisted of economists, and well-known poets and authors including George Bernard Shaw.  Most of these men were personally tutored by Karl Marx in London before his death in 1883, and were convinced that the best way for society to evolve would be through Socialism.

They formulated their platform through essays.  Those documents were called the Fabian essays.  They highlighted their thoughts about the evils of Capitalism and the overriding benefits of Socialism.  They believed that Socialism provided for economic and social justice, whereas they did not believe that Capitalism did so.  In their minds Capitalism put to many riches into too few hands, with the vast majority of the public suffering for the greed of the owners of capital. The end game was to not only change Great Britain’s economy to Socialism, but to eventually put together an international order where the entire world would have equitable social and economic outcomes. Does any of this start to sound familiar to you?

Their “coat of arms” was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but that was later dropped due to unpopular connotations.  They believed that a strategy of incrementalism was in order, so that slowly but surely over decades, the system could be changed without causing any social unrest.  They formed the Labor Party, and embarked on a patient journey for gradual and permanent change.  They wanted free health and dental care, and they got that.  They wanted the government to own major corporations, and they got that.  They wanted the government to take over rental properties, including single family homes, and they got that.  They also got millions more government employees running these efforts, and ruined what otherwise would have been a vibrant post WW2 economy.  What they got instead was economic and social malaise, and eventually Margaret Thatcher, who embarked on an effort to change all the damage that these Socialists had done.  Starting to look more like something we are going through right now? 

Yes, we are incrementally going the same way Great Britain did.  We are seeing some of the same mistakes.  Socialism is a losing proposition, but one that captures the imagination of those that are not students of history.    If one does not embrace history, they are doomed to repeat the misfortunes that others have in the past. 

2024 is key to rescuing ourselves from the malaise of Socialism.  We need a drastic change in political leadership, and also need to eliminate politicians that are pressing for social and economic change that would destroy our country.  Vote for your lifestyle, vote for your pocketbook, vote for your family, vote for God and Country, and vote for those that will embrace the Constitution and free markets.  We must, otherwise we may be seeing the end of this great experiment.  If we lose, we will have to fight twice as hard to get back what we have lost!  Get out and vote people, and vote wisely!

ANOTHER BIDEN BLUNDER?

Once again, the Federal government is running out of money.  We collectively have $31.5 trillion dollars of debt obligations with the Federal budget.  Sleepy Joe wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but does not want the new debt ceiling tied to the new budget.  He wants a “no strings attached” debt ceiling raise, claiming that the debt has nothing to do with budget talks.  So far, he has not talked to the Speaker of the House about this personally, but has let him know through channels that this is his position.

Speaker McCarthy and the Republicans in Congress have another idea.  Tie increased borrowing to spending cuts.  Thinking like real adults in the room, they know that the problem is too much spending, and without curtailing unneeded expense, the debt crisis will just get worse.  On the current path, the USA will eventually go broke, game over.  They have designed a plan, a workable document that addresses both increasing the debt ceiling, and curtailing unnecessary spending. 

Among the bill’s highlights:

— It would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion into next year, putting the issue squarely into the middle of the next presidential election.

— It would roll back spending to 2022 levels, and impose a 1% cap on future federal spending for the next decade, with likely exceptions for some defense accounts. It claws back unspent COVID-19 funds.

— Republicans want to rescind some of Biden’s top policy achievements, including his executive action that provided student loan payment relief for millions of college students, a Democratic party priority.

— The House GOP measure would also roll back elements of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act — particularly the provisions that the White House and Democrats put in place to fight climate change — and halt money to the Internal Revenue Service that was designed to conduct audits of potential tax cheats.

Other key parts of this proposal is to make it easier for producers to mine oil, gas, and coal, and to reduce regulations that hamper these efforts.  It also includes welfare reform, with work requirements for those under 56 years old in order to continue collecting benefits with medicare, SNAP, and cash assistance.  It does not address the insulin reduction already in process, and leaves Medicare and social security alone. 

In addition, non-military spending would be reduced to a 1% increase year over year for 10 years, and approximately $500 billion in unspent covid cash would be repatriated and used to fund the upcoming budget.  With this package being accepted, Congress would raise the debt ceiling by another $1.5 trillion dollars. 

This is the most sensible approach I have seen decades, and the White House is livid about this.  Their position is that if implemented, it would hurt the poor and the middle class, and would only benefit the richest in our society.  Clearly that is not true, but that is Biden’s position!

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Speaker McCarthy sided with the extreme MAGA wing of his conference and released a blueprint to devastate hard-working American families. MAGA House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage in order to take a hatchet to programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet.

Every House Republican who votes for this bill is voting to cut education, veterans medical care, cancer research, meals on wheels, food safety, and law enforcement. To offshore American manufacturing and kill good-paying jobs. To take health care away from millions of Americans and threaten food assistance for hundreds of thousands of older people. To increase energy bills and raise taxes for hard-working families. To slash programs hard-working Americans depend on even as they protect wealthy tax cheats and continue to push tax giveaways for the wealthiest and big corporations.

That stands in stark contrast with President Biden’s Budget, which Invests in America, lowers costs for hardworking families, and cuts the deficit by asking the super-wealthy and largest corporations to pay their fair share. House Republicans must avoid default and stop playing economic brinkmanship with the American people’s livelihoods and retirements. The American people have made clear which economic vision they support.”

Clearly Biden does not want to address the governments addiction and instead desires to “kick the can down the road”.  His position is a mistake, as spending is crippling our economy, causing supply chain disorder, and is the main cause of inflation that we are experiencing today.  It will be interesting to see who wins in this standoff.  One thing is for sure, if the government shuts down, it will be the Presidents fault for not negotiating with Speaker McCarthy.  Hats off to Kevin McCarthy for showing tough steadfastness in addressing the most troubling issue we as a nation currently have.  I for one wish him luck!

— Republicans want to rescind some of Biden’s top policy achievements, including his executive action that provided student loan payment relief for millions of college students, a Democratic party priority.

— The House GOP measure would also roll back elements of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act — particularly the provisions that the White House and Democrats put in place to fight climate change — and halt money to the Internal Revenue Service that was designed to conduct audits of potential tax cheats.

Other key parts of this proposal is to make it easier for producers to mine oil, gas, and coal, and to reduce regulations that hamper these efforts.  It also includes welfare reform, with work requirements for those under 56 years old in order to continue collecting benefits with medicare, SNAP, and cash assistance.  It does not address the insulin reduction already in process, and leaves Medicare and social security alone. 

In addition, non-military spending would be reduced to a 1% increase year over year for 10 years, and approximately $500 billion in unspent covid cash would be repatriated and used to fund the upcoming budget.  With this package being accepted, Congress would raise the debt ceiling by another $1.5 trillion dollars. 

This is the most sensible approach I have seen decades, and the White House is livid about this.  Their position is that if implemented, it would hurt the poor and the middle class, and would only benefit the richest in our society.  Clearly that is not true, but that is Biden’s position!

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said: “Speaker McCarthy sided with the extreme MAGA wing of his conference and released a blueprint to devastate hard-working American families. MAGA House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage in order to take a hatchet to programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet.

Every House Republican who votes for this bill is voting to cut education, veterans medical care, cancer research, meals on wheels, food safety, and law enforcement. To offshore American manufacturing and kill good-paying jobs. To take health care away from millions of Americans and threaten food assistance for hundreds of thousands of older people. To increase energy bills and raise taxes for hard-working families. To slash programs hard-working Americans depend on even as they protect wealthy tax cheats and continue to push tax giveaways for the wealthiest and big corporations.

That stands in stark contrast with President Biden’s Budget, which Invests in America, lowers costs for hardworking families, and cuts the deficit by asking the super-wealthy and largest corporations to pay their fair share. House Republicans must avoid default and stop playing economic brinkmanship with the American people’s livelihoods and retirements. The American people have made clear which economic vision they support.”

Clearly Biden does not want to address the governments addiction and instead desires to “kick the can down the road”.  His position is a mistake, as spending is crippling our economy, causing supply chain disorder, and is the main cause of inflation that we are experiencing today.  It will be interesting to see who wins in this standoff.  One thing is for sure, if the government shuts down, it will be the Presidents fault for not negotiating with Speaker McCarthy.  Hats off to Kevin McCarthy for showing tough steadfastness in addressing the most troubling issue we as a nation currently have.  I for one wish him luck!

CHINA IS ON THE MARCH

Four years ago, I wrote a story about a new cold war coming. (https://themcculloughreport.com/chinas-strategy-for-empire-the-second-cold-war/).

It now appears that its time has come!  China is spying on the world, preparing to transition from a cold to a hot war!  Spy balloons have floated for years over the entire earth, mapping defenses and weak spots, mineral deposits, and monitoring electronic conversations from every point in the globe.  They now have the largest military force in the world, and is rapidly becoming the premier nuclear power on earth.  They are planning to rule us all.

They have allied themselves with Russia and Iran.  Iran now has its fleet entering the Panama Canal, with ships docking in Brazil.  Russia and China are having joint naval exercises with South Africa off its southeastern coast, another nation rich in raw resources and a new potential ally.  China is supplying Russia with arms and ammunition in its fight to take over Ukraine.  In short, the post WW2 power structure centered around the USA is rapidly crumbling!

All this happening as we now have the weakest leadership in Washington that we have ever had, with Joe Biden at the helm.  Not only is he a doddering old fool of a man, he is compromised because of the fortune he and his family has amassed by selling influence to our enemies, most notably Russia and China, regimes planning for our demise.  We, and the entire Western Civilization are now in deep trouble.  Deeply in debt, and with our ineffective leadership, China, Russia and their newfound allies are filling up the vacuum in haste. 

Our military, once considered the best in the world, is now more interested in being “woke”, rather than being a premier fighting force.  The Biden Administration is intent on bringing this Marxist indoctrination into the ranks, and high-level officers that resist are being fired.  This military “wokeness” is endangering us all.  If a major war were to break out now, we would be woefully unprepared for the fight!

With our southern border open wide, we are also vulnerable to terrorist attacks.  We should have no doubts that terrorist cells are alive and working inside our country right now, waiting for the most opportune moment to create havoc.  Our security, and the security of the world is now in great jeopardy.  We are living in a time that is possibly more dangerous than right before WW2.

What can we do?  Right now we need prayer, and a lot of it.  We hopefully can get by the next 2 years unscathed, and at that time elect new leadership.  It is the lack of real leadership now that is our greatest danger, and we will have to wait until 2024 to correct the slide.  Until then, pray!

2 YEARS IN, NOTHING BUILT BACK BETTER!

The border is still being invaded, and Biden’s excuse is that this crisis did not begin overnight.  Fact is it did begin overnight, the same night he took office!  Due to inflation and high interest rates, the average family to date has lost over $8,000 in purchasing power.  MAGA Republicans, accounting for ½ of the voting population in America, are being vilified by Biden, as evil, anti-democratic monsters.  How’s that for living up to his promise of being a unifier? 

The” State of the Union” address will be read by Joe tomorrow evening.  Wondering how he will try to spin his many failures into victories?  This should be interesting, as he has had nothing but failures since taking office. From the border crisis he created, to asking our enemies for more oil while we sit on the largest petroleum deposits in the world, Covid-19 tyranny, shameful Afghanistan retreat, this guy is far from the healing uniter he promised, and this was just some of the failures in his first year as President! 

Now let’s look at what he has done in the last 12 months.  Cannot ignore the border, as over 250,000 invade every month, with over 3 million illegal aliens let in, and those are just the ones that were caught.  Another 100,000 or so each month get in and escape the border patrol all together.  Not only are our border towns besieged, but the entire country is now adversely affected by Biden’s border policy.  Huge quantities of drugs are now being smuggled in and thousands of our citizens are dying because of border policy.  With this happening, Alejandro Mayorkas continually states that the “border is secure”!  This crisis is intentional, purposely damaging our country for decades to come!

Federal spending is out of control.  So far Biden has accounted for 4 trillion dollars in additional debt in the 2 years he has been President.  To make matters worse, the lame duck Congress last year approved additional spending through September 2023 in its last dying breath, tying the hands of the new Republican majority Congress from addressing spending until then.  As of now, we have debt at 120% of GNP, the highest since WW2! 

The spending has put us into both an inflationary spiral with a looming recession.  Very predictable since too many dollars right now are chasing too few goods.  Coupled with the Transportation Secretary completely unqualified for his job, ignoring supply chain issues that continue to dog our economy.  Doesn’t sound like a very good plan for economic stability, does it?

With Biden’s insistence, the whole Federal bureaucracy, including our military has gone “Woke”.  Instead of focusing on their individual missions, they are now more interested in diversity, equity, and inclusion.  Our military is now more worried about “White Supremacy” and micro-aggressions rather than protecting our country from its enemies.  Letting a CCP spy balloon fly over our nuclear sites rather than shooting it down, letting it traverse our whole country is a shining example of how they will now ignore their basic mission. 

The Biden Administration has also re-defined Title IX protections for women to now include LGBTQ+ and transgender protections.  This is leading to the Department of Education withholding funds from schools that either have same sex bathrooms or are taking sexually perverted books off the school libraries.   

One also has to mention the scandals Joe and his family are in the midst of.  The family business of selling influence for millions to the Russians, Chinese, and Ukraine.  Joe being the “Big Guy” and his 10% cut of the take.  Classified documents, some dating back to when Joe was a Senator and VP, found in his garage and in an office at the University of Pennsylvania that was shared with the CCP representatives on campus.  All of this leading to Joe being compromised by our enemies!  What a mess!

We are dealing with a big fight, a fight for the soul of our nation.  Joe Biden is on the wrong side of this issue, having embraced all that is “Woke”, and vilifying those that believe in our Constitution.  His presidency is a total failure, and he is a tottering, corrupt, intellectually bankrupt face of this radical, anti-American broken regime.  Yes, it will be interesting to see how he spins total failure to something other than what it plainly is! We will see how creative his writers are!

OBSERVATIONS OF OPENING SESSION OF THE TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 10TH THROUGH THE 12th

I had never witnessed a state legislature in session.  I went because I wanted to see the State House of Representatives in their opening week.  This was not just for curiosity sake, but also because I was interested in seeing how this body will embrace the Republican Party platform as designed at our 2022 state convention. 

Of all the components of the platform, I wanted to see what would become of the most popular one, that being “NO DEMOCRAT COMMITTEE CHAIRS”!  Not only was this part of the Republican Party platform, but over 80% of Republican voters cast their ballot supporting this initiative in the mid-term election!  The politicians elected to the House are to represent the people who elected them, and logically this should be a shoe-in, but with the distinct possibility of Dade Phelan being voted in once again as Speaker of the House, his stance on this issue put a dark cloud on the possibility of getting rid of Democrat Committee Chairs!

Sure enough, Dade was once again elected speaker.  After talking to Representatives, it seems that it was a foregone conclusion that most Republicans and all Democrats would be voting for him, as a vote against would put that Representative in a position of being essentially powerless in the House for the next 2 years.  It is Phelan that picks committees and chairmen, and voting against him would be a death knell for anyone that would have the audacity to do so.

Next came proposals to modify the “Rules of the House”.  Representatives Slaton and Tinderholt put  up as many as 7 different modifications to eliminate Democrat Chairs for rules approval, but were summarily shot down by Phelan and his Parliamentarian. Representative Hayes, an attorney and a rules expert, argued to have them heard and voted on, but was also shot down.  These elected officials now show that they do not care about what their constituencies want, instead care about their power within the House, and very little else.  Only a few brave souls stood up for their voters, the rest went along with the easiest pathway to their perceived power. 

One thing did come out of the first week, and that was fines, censorship, and possible removal for Representatives that purposely flee the state to remover the quorum for voting.  The Democrats did that in the last session, going to Washington to eliminate conservative bills from passing. That will help the process, make it cleaner, but what a firestorm it created with the Democrats!  They were lined up at the speaking platform at the back of the room to complain on this proposal, and their arguments fell short, but they were passionate! 

I moved here from California for the freedom and fairness that Texas seemed to represent.  I learned early on that the same process that changed California for the worst, was being reenacted right here in Texas.  That is why my wife and I started a conservative group in my own city here, have worked on elections with truly conservative candidates, and have been fighting to wake up conservatives in Texas.  Texas is due for a rude awakening if people here do not see the threat. 

Get active people, or you will not like the consequences.  The BAD is coming, and you will not be able to hide from it!  Vote, get active supporting conservative causes, because there is an army of people and money from blue states that are actively trying to change the state that we love. 

DRAMA IN THE CAPITAL!

Well, without going through all the painful events of 2022, let’s just say, whew, glad that is over!  Now we are in the New Year, and drama envelops the House of Representatives.  At stake is the speaker ship of the House, 3rd in line for the Presidency.  Kevin McCarthy wants that position badly!  He has made promises to House members in order to find a path to victory, and he needs 218 votes to get him across the finish line.  As of today, on the 6th vote, he is 17 votes behind finding victory.  He just does not have the votes.  Why?  Because he is agnostic politically, and the grassroots conservatives in Congress want the Speaker to embrace Conservative values. 

Why do I say he is agnostic?  He votes by analyzing the political winds, not what his party stands for.  He is one of the people that put together “crisis legislation”, which is bankrupting us.  This is, in shorthand form why we never really get a budget, but at the last minute we see them passing a pork filled bill to keep the government from shutting down and defaulting on their financial responsibilities. He votes historically with Democrats on spending bills.  That is why Conservatives do not want him.  That is why we as citizens should not want him.

It is possible that he will redeem himself, but do not hold your breath!  He will not agree to the demands of the Freedom Caucus.  He will not push for a balanced budget.  He will not push for a negotiated budget ahead of time.  He will not agree to embracing Conservative values.  If he does, he has a slim chance of being Speaker, but that is a long-shot! 

We will have a Speaker in the next week or two.  It will most likely not be Kevin McCarthy, as he is part of the cabal that has taken our country down.  It will be someone that is smart, Conservative, and willing to take up the job.  The job is a hard one, not only do you direct bills in Congress, but you actually fund-raise and build coalitions within your ranks by continually politicking with your Caucus.  That is an 80+ hour a week job, and a thankless one at that!  That man will be praised and vilified at the same time, but a man that will be for the country and the citizens thereof.  He will, in a different way, be like George Washington, who never wanted to be President, but took the job because he was a patriot and knew that his country needed him.  Most likely, he will also step down after 2 terms as George Washington did, as that is the most that any politician needs to be in the same position of power. 

This is a great process!  For once, we are having a debate in Congress, as it was originally designed for!  The Establishment, both Democrats and Republicans, are pushing for Kevin McCarthy to be the Speaker.  A few real Conservative Republicans are saying “NOT ON MY DEAD BODY”!!!!  Dramatic for sure, but it gives all of us hope that we can eventually fix the mess that is Washington! Pray for the process, and understand this is a process that was intended for by our Founding Fathers!

WINNING WITH THE RIGHT MESSAGING

Under the leadership of Newt Gingrich, House Republicans in the minority came up with a brilliant concept.  They called it the “Contract with America”.  This contract was signed by all Republicans in the House.  The promise was that they, if elected in the midterms that year, they would promise to get things done that were on the minds of most people at that time.  This “Contract” was introduced in a timely fashion, on the Capitol steps in Washington DC on September 27, 1994.  Midterms were that November, and with this messaging the Republicans took the House gaining 54 new seats, and the Senate gaining 8 additional seats.  It was a blowout that stymied Bill Clinton’s radical leftist agenda, and forced him to negotiate with the opposing party!

What was promised?  Tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, measures to reduce crime and middle-class tax relief, and Constitutional Amendments requiring term limits and a balanced budget.  This was the messaging that the Republicans drove home making it possible for them to have a Red Wave, and those promises were not hollow.  With the exception of term limits, they accomplished everything on that list, and made it possible for Bill Clinton to sign them all into law.  In fact, at one point, Bill Clinton remarked that “The era of big government is over”!  Proof positive that if your messaging is on point, and is driven home nationwide, a party can win many seats and implement change.  Fast forward to midterms 2022.

What were the Republicans running on?  Let’s see?  Oh yea, inflation bad, recession bad, crime bad, open borders bad, green new deal bad, all the while trying to duck the abortion question.  They did not present real solutions, just a litany of gripes about how the government is currently run.   Still, they expected that they would have a Red Tidal Wave seeing that the numerous missteps by the Biden Administration would bury the Democrats in the midterms.  That of course did not happen.  Democrats held onto the Senate, although it looks like Republicans will gain a slim majority in the House. 

Democrats played on young voters 18-25 and Suburban housewives with the abortion issue, implying that abortion would be dead and gone if Republicans took over the Senate and the House with big majorities.  It turned out that the Republican calculation that this would not be a major issue was wrong, and both these demographics came out heavily for Democrat Candidates, effectively giving the Democrats the Senate. 

Where did Republican go wrong?  They really had no messaging that resonated with Swing and Independent voters.  The Democrats did not have any real messaging either, except the lie that the Republicans, if elected would nationalize an abortion ban on the whole nation.  Even so, that was enough to blunt any possibility of a Red Wave!

If Republicans want to win major elections in the future, they need to focus on clear, concise messaging that directly addresses the needs of their constituents.  Voters need to see a benefit in changing governments course.  Simply going against the opposing party’s policies without definitive plans that could be implemented to solve real problems will not be a winning solution.  Republicans should learn from Newt Gingrich and his House members who did just that!  Most of all, they must instill trust that they actually will do what they promise!  Otherwise, this strategy would only work once, if at all!

THIS IS NOT MY WRITING, BUT I FEEL IT NEEDS TO BE HERE!

No future awaits those who rage against family, work, and community.

Where there is no bread, there is no Law. Where there is no Law, there is no bread.

— Rabbi Elazar Ben Azariah

Racial identity politics has become the rage in the media, entertainment, and political worlds. You cannot read a mainstream publication, attend a sporting event, or browse a new educational curriculum without running a gauntlet of admonitions about America’s “systemic” racism and how it must be addressed, including through violence.

Millionaire athletes, anchors, non-profits, and corporate executives genuflect to groups like Black Lives Matter, an organization with openly radical, neo-Marxist aims. Yet amidst all this, very little attention has focused on what actually works for minorities who have faced harsh treatment in the past. By focusing largely on white guilt, suggests Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, movements like BLM embrace a form of “egghead racialism” that sees salvation as part of an effort to “strive to be less white,” as if their very pigmentation is a mark of inherent evil.

No doubt this agenda is working profitably for some, such as writers and administrators in the diversity “industry” and even some black fashion designers. But rhetorical genuflecting and quotas for board seats does little to improve the conditions on the ground for the vast majority of historically disadvantaged groups like African-Americans. As John McWhorter pointed out in the Atlantic, the idea that black progress relies largely on addressing white sinfulness seems an extreme form of “dehumanizing condescension” that robs Blacks, and other minorities, of any agency outside protest or destruction and does little to address the underlying causes of despair.

What works? A historical perspective

In today’s “woke” politics, some may insist I (a white male in his sixties) have no business even addressing these issues. Yet it seems far more useful, if we are serious about addressing racial disparities, to look at what has worked in the past—for both African-Americans and other groups—to transcend discrimination and create a durable success in a diverse society.

In doing research for my 1992 book Tribes, I found ethnic success was less about gaining unquestioning compliance on cultural and political matters from the majority than in encouraging behaviors, such as frugality, hard work and mutual support. This latter approach has propelled virtually every successful dispersed ethnic group, from the Jews and British to the Chinese, Indians, Palestinians, Lebanese, and West Indians. As the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun noted, “Only tribes held together by a group feeling can survive in the desert.”

This notion of a mutual assistance is more important than attempts to “reprogram” whites into “anti-racism” as defined by the woke. Discriminated-against minorities have succeeded, first and foremost, by developing their own skills and economic power, building alternative institutions and strengthening family ties.

In this country, Irish, Italians, Jews, and Asians, among others, were long barred from certain jobs and many neighborhoods. Rather than wait for the majority to discover tolerance, they labored in niche economies—fish mongering and construction among Italians, gardening and farming among Japanese, retail ownership for Koreans and the garment trade for the Jews. Among Asians, the first generation’s struggles allowed their children to make remarkable progress by stressing education and, when needed, political action. These groups have done, for the most part, better than whites. Asians, for example, constitute 74 percent of all Stuyvesant, a prestigious New York City academic high school, students.

African-Americans once widely embraced this approach. In the first half century after slavery many leaders, from pragmatists like Booker T. Washington to nationalists like Marcus Garvey, stressed both personal responsibility and social cohesion. Even Garvey, the father of black nationalism, modeled his program partly on Jewish success.

At its very essence, it seems absurd to base a group’s ascent on winning over people assumed to be congenitally racist at heart. Indeed much of the strongest progress among African-Americans took place in the 1950s and 1960s, when discrimination was far more rampant but black business communities, families, and church institutions were not just intact but cohesive and strong. The Blacks who built successful businesses in the first half of the last century, notes historian John Sibley Butler, nurtured a culture of “self-help”—in part due to their exclusion from mainstream business—that brought economic rewards, helping build powerful religious and educational institutions critical to the nascent Civil Rights Movement.

When integration came, many talented African-Americans naturally jettisoned ethnic business, turning largely to corporate and government positions. As they secured their rights, the community bifurcated between a sizable, successful managerial middle class that expanded  significantly since 1960, and a vast underclass. Yet in recent decades this progress has slowed, particularly in education, with African-Americans lagging recent arrivals from Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. Since 2000, Black median household incomes dropped by five percent while whites grew by six percent.

The vulnerability of the impoverished parts of the Black Community—roughly two times in percentage as that of the general population—have been tragically accentuated by the pandemic. Whether in New York, Detroit, New Orleans, Houston or Los Angeles, the brunt of the infection, outside nursing homes, has been felt in poor neighborhoods. In both New Orleans and Detroit, the vast majority of deaths have been African-Americans. The virus might be colorblind but, as Brookings reports, much more prevalent in areas with large minority populations.

What works, what does not

Race-based politics work naturally in countries, like China, where the vast majority of the population are of one ethnic group. Han nationalism works well unless you happen to be a Uighur, or an African migrant worker. But in a country like America, where the majority is white and minority population is increasingly diverse, imposing racial imperatives is far trickier.

In a multicultural society—where Blacks are roughly 13 percent of the population—radical racial politics have limited staying power. To boost their percentages, academics and media now include other groups, like Asians and Latinos, as “people of color”. These are all potentially united against the detested white patriarchy and the traditional family.

Yet in reality this ambition rests on a fantasy. Overall, immigrants, according to one recent survey, are twice as conservative in their social views than the general public. Indeed church leaders from Latino, Asian, African American and Muslim communities have been on the forefront in California of opposing new sex education standards, which include some graphic representations of carnal acts of various kinds.

These minorities may not embrace the entire political agenda on the Right, particularly to the degree they associate it with belligerently nativist Trump supporters. But it’s clear that many  “people of color” do not share the worldview of faculty lounge post-modern feminists. Race is also not necessarily as socially determinative as is often suggested. Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean enjoy much higher rates of intact marriage and incomes than their African-American counterparts and are better educated than the average native born American.

The problem with the riot ideology

The kind of racialized violence now taking place reflects what historian Fred Siegel called “the riot ideology”, which has been deleterious to the progress of African Americans. The rioting in the 1960s weakened urban economies and led to devastating losses for minority property owners and businesses. Even today many areas burned down in the 1960s in Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit have never recovered.

Indeed despite massive expenditures to redress huge past inequities, high-poverty areas in cities have grown steadily, doubling in population between 1980 and 2018. Looting and mayhem, long-term, don’t work. After the 1992 riots, there were pledges of massive corporate and government support for south Los Angeles. Now, almost three decades later, the area, site of two of the worst riots in American history, has experienced a growing gap with the rest of the county in terms of homeownership, income and educational attainment.

The more recent disorders also are unlikely to spark much long-term inner-city investment. Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot worries about large retailers such as Walgreen’s and Whole Foods not rebuilding their looted stores, saying it will take a “herculean effort” to keep them in the city.

The long-term political ramifications may also be less sanguine than evident today. To be sure, most Americans (correctly) want to see more police reform. As in the case of the 1960s civil rights movement, an appeal to basic decency was strongly supported by most Americans. But as activists turned more violent, openly anti-American and separatist, public support tends to recede. This helped secure victories for right-wing candidates like Ronald Reagan, elected the year after the 1965 Watts riots and, three years later, contributed to Richard Nixon winning the Presidency.

Today the violent turn of the post-Floyd protests could also spark growing reaction among Americans, perhaps the one thing that can rescue the slipping Trump prospects. Despite the justified concern about police abuse, most Americans, including African-Americans and by a wide margin Latinos, for example, overwhelmingly oppose defunding of law enforcement. Support overall for this position barely reaches 25 percent.

A dangerous shift

What is at stake is our ability to be a functioning pluralistic democracy. A country that witnessed growing rates of intermarriage and more congenial attitudes of race is now headed in the opposite direction, with more Americans seeing a deterioration in ethnic relations. Just like the ‘60s and ‘70s, black militants and white nationalists share an oddly common interest in supplanting a working pluralism with one at a hostile impasse.

The current wave of racial unrest has not been as lethal as past outbreaks, but has a clearer agenda. In sharp contrast to the grassroots explosion I witnessed firsthand in Los Angeles in 1992, today radical organizers and white activists now play a primary role. Particularly notable has been the continuing unrest in cities such as Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle that have small, and usually diminishing, black populations. Blacks may be fleeing these cities in droves, but white city officials in places like Seattle demand that their employees engage in “whiteness training” to wipe away the sins of their unfortunate pigmentation.

This pernicious development reflects the growing power of academia and media on what now passes as the Left. Much of this reflects a kind of cultural revolution, including a thorough reevaluation of American history, pushed most notably in the New York Times 1619 Project, an effort to recast the past disputed as highly distorted even by left-leaning historians.

The notion of America’s intrinsic evil may be popular on campuses, newsrooms and at CNN, but the ideology’s negative impact will be suffered by those left behind  in these distressed communities. Diverting funds away from the police may have been seen as politically expedient, but it has not helped Baltimore, a city with a long history of police abuse, curb its astronomical murder rate. Similarly, “defunding” efforts are unlikely to bring down Chicago’s persistently high homicide rate, or in once-safe cities like New York, as it and other blue cities have emptied jails and reduced enforcement.

Wrecking the institutions

In backing the Black Lives Matter movement, the corporate elite have decided to play the classic role that Lenin called “useful idiots”. Perhaps someone should let Jeff Bezos know BLM favors radical socialist economics to battle what its founders see as “racial capitalism ”. Liberals, particularly Jews, should recognize BLM condemns Israel as “genocidal”. Academic Melina Abdullah, a prominent BLM spokesperson in Los Angeles, is an open admirer of the racist, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam.

Adoption of the Black Lives Matter ideology threatens every institution it touches, imposing its will in Hollywood and the arts. Now as in the old Soviet Union or China today, culture is supposed to service the officially approved agenda. Race activists have been particularly successful in turning the education system, including primary schools, into instruments of indoctrination, through both social justice courses and activities increasingly required for both students and faculty.

Most amazing, given the enormous sacrifices for integration made by civil rights workers, some universities have embraced again segregation—what Western Washington University activists call “black student space” and even academic programs designed only for minority students. Worse yet, woke activists, white and black, denounce as “hopelessly white” behaviors that have worked for every ethnic group, including African Americans. The new notion, as the Smithsonian recently suggested, labels such things as intact family structures, frugality, and punctuality as “white” characteristics, opposed to universal keys to upward mobility.

In the process, academia, always a source of inspiration, is abandoning efforts to provide useful skills for the information age, preferring to double down on dysfunction. The English department at Rutgers, out of sympathy with BLM, have even suspended teaching proper grammar, as if this is still not important for success. Even science is being systematically challenged to fit the progressive racial agenda. Notoriously, one activist academic actually identifies the notion of two plus two equal four as “cultural” construct from Western imperialism/colonization, ignoring the fact that modern mathematics derives not from Europe but from India and the Arab world.

This is clearly destructive. Perhaps worst of all, Black Lives Matter is dismissive of the traditional family, but seeks to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” Given that much of the disparity between the races lies in the integrity of the family this approach seems patently self-destructive. The fact that seventy percent of Black children are born to single mothers should be seen as a critical problem, rather than celebrated as a departure from dreaded “whiteness.”

Needed: A return to what really works

Rather than soulful sympathy and symbolic gestures aimed to redress past crimes, minorities need a program that addresses the real problems of unemployment, underemployment, rampant obesity, lack of affordable housing, and fractured families. To address these issues, minorities need to emulate the brave African-American business pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th Century, who formed a culture built around mutual assistance, family and work.

Ultimately, there can be no useful response to future pandemics or social unrest without addressing the persistence of poverty and lack of upward mobility, what I consider the most pressing issues of our time. Traditional social democrats like myself may endorse different approaches than those of conservatives, but all should train the eye on what Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the prize”, the provision of greater opportunity irrespective of race.

Whether in the Jim Crow South, the 1960s or today, what works for the aggrieved is not victimization and racial obsession, but adopting attitudes that have helped successful groups and people of all colors. Hard work, family, mutual assistance, and a devotion to logic are not constructs of Caucasian culture—many non-whites often exhibit these characteristics more than whites—but simply the surest pathways that have led even the most discriminated groups to a better future.

Joel Kotkin is a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life and the Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University and executive director of the Urban Reform Institute. His new book, The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, is out now from Encounter.