Network Schools – Wayne Gerseny to https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/03/magazine/thomas-piketty-interview u w B l.html?h I’ll smid=url-share the Is for

Two news stories that emerged over Labor Day weekend illustrate how the GOP intends to run the campaign for 2020, and it will not be a pretty picture.

Common Dreams writer Jon Queally describes the Trump administration’s recent edict banning any federal funding for training that is based on “critical race theory”, which is described as “…a theoretical framework for social scientists who explore the ways in which racial identities and racism impact society and culture”. Why is this being banned? Because to is “divisive, false, and demeaning propaganda” that “should have no place in the Federal government.” Calling training that brings structural racism to light, structural racism that reinforces racial biases as “divisive” is preposterous… but it will resonate with the latent White Supremacy that has been subtly and pervasively inculcated by the very structural racism that is currently kept under wraps. A tweet by Jamil Smith summarizes the GOP’s intentions well:

Critical race theory helps contextualize how systemic racism affects us. Trump and his party perpetuate systemic racism, but pretend that it doesn’t exist. Of course he wants “sightings” of CRT reported. This is white supremacy trying to cover its tracks.

Business Insider’s Connor Perrett wrote an article over the weekend on the POTUS’ threat to withhold federal funds from any schools that plan to use the NYTimes’ 1619 series describing the lasting impact of slavery. The Pulitzer Prize winning series has come under some criticism for historic inaccuracies and overstatements regarding the role of slavery in the founding of our country, but that is because it was intended to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” In doing so, the New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones inevitably elicited some pushback from Conservative writers and news outlets. When the state of California announced it would include the 1619 project in its curriculum, the Wall Street Journal reported on it and the POTUS tweeted that the DOE would investigate whether to provide funding for the State.

Here’s what is sad: high-minded editorialists on both sides of the spectrum will write about high-minded issues like academic freedom and the extent to which structural racism and slavery currently hinder the economic and educational advancement of blacks… but voters who never heard of “critical race theory” or read a word of the 1619 series will take sides based on the messenger and the hot button of racism will be in play instead of the simmering issues of fair housing, adequate funding for public schools, and the relentless push to privatize public services. The lizard brain issues will win out and take over bandwidth… the thoughtful issues, the tough ones that require deliberation and compromise, will be shoved aside.