I am tired of rightwing politicians distorting our language to suit their bigoted ideology.
They have the nerve, for example, to quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 and said he hoped for the day when his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Dr. King was projecting a vision of a world without racism, when people would see each other as friends, neighbors, and fellow human beings.
But rightwing politicians twist his words to insist that we should ignore racism right now, stop teaching about it, and pretend it does not exist. They use his words to justify prohibitions on teaching about or discussing the racism in the here and now. They use his appeal for an unrealized future to blind us to a cruel present.
I propose that we make a conscientious effort to reclaim the plain meaning of words.
One of the hot-button words that has been appropriated by rightwing politicians is “woke.” They are trying to turn it into a shameful word. I looked up the definition of WOKE. It means being aware of injustice and inequality, specifically when referring to racism. I strive to be aware of injustice and inequality and racial discrimination and to do whatever I can to change things for the better. Shouldn’t we all do that?
My acronym for WOKE is “Wide Open to Knowledge and Enlightenment.”
What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”
Yes, I am WOKE. I want Dr. King’s dream someday to be true. It is not true now.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida believes it is terrible to be woke. He demeans those he says are woke. He claims that the woke are politically correct and are intimidated by organized efforts to reduce racism in schools and the workplace. He thinks that being woke is so dreadful that it must be made illegal.
He urged the Florida legislature to pass “anti-woke” legislation in March. And they did. The so-called STOP WOKE” Act means “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act.”
This legislation is intended specifically to silence discussions and study of racism. It bans the teaching of critical race theory in schools and colleges and bans diversity training in the workplace.
Governor DeSantis doesn’t want people to be opposed to injustice and inequality. He doesn’t want them to be opposed to racism. Such awareness makes some people feel uncomfortable, he says. We should teach nothing that makes anyone uncomfortable.
Who is uncomfortable when racism is discussed? In my experience, the people who don’t want any discussion of racism are either racist or are embarrassed by their acts of racism in the past.
To protect the tender sensibilities of white people, we must avoid any discussion that makes them or their children uncomfortable. We must not take the risk that they or their children might feel uncomfortable for terrible things that happened long ago. So don’t talk about them. Don’t read books that discuss slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, or segregation. Don’t mention the distant past or the wrongs of the present. Don’t dare to talk about discrimination against black people, or the passage of laws that impair their right to vote, or the persistence of racially segregated schools.
Not only is it wrong to be woke, in the eyes of those who prefer to stifle all recognition of racial discrimination, it is absolutely forbidden for teachers or professors to examine the causes of racism and its persistence today in our laws and policies. Making a conscientious effort to understand the causes of racism and to seek remedies is called “critical race theory” (CRT).
The attacks on critical race theory are intended to intimidate teachers and to prevent students from learning about racism, past or present.
In states that have banned the teaching of critical race theory, the legislators can’t define CRT, so they make it illegal to teach “divisive concepts” or anything that makes some students “uncomfortable.”
When a white supremacist massacred ten Black people in Buffalo, New York, teachers in anti-CRT states were not sure if they were allowed to teach about what happened. Would they lose their jobs if they taught the truth?
The states that prohibit the teaching of critical race theory are banning the teaching of honest history, for fear that someone might be uncomfortable when they learn the facts about what was done to Black people in our history. Some states have explicitly banned Nikole Hannah-Jones’ “The 1619 Project,” because it might make some white people uncomfortable. I may be wrong, but I can’t recall a state that ever passed a law censoring a single book. This book is obviously very powerful and very frightening to those who feel the need to ban it. It cannot be refuted by the DeSantis faction so it must be banned.
The same states that want to ban honest teaching about racism are also banning books about gender identity and sexuality. The legislatures in Republican states think that the schools are filled with pedophiles. The rightwing zealots claim that teachers are “grooming” their students to become gay or transgender. They pass laws like Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans teaching about gender identity and sexuality in grades K-3 (where gender identity and sexuality are not taught) and tolerate only “age-appropriate” discussion of gender identity and sexuality in other grades.
Like the STOP WOKE law, the “Don’t Say Gay” law is vague, which makes teachers fearful of teaching anything related to gender or sexuality. If schools can’t teach about gender identity, then they cannot teach about married couples of any gender. If you take them literally, you should not refer to Moms and Dads, men and women. Dare we teach young children about heterosexuality? Apparently not, if you follow the letter of the law.
The groups that are behind these attacks are familiar to us. They are Moms for Liberty, Moms for America, Parents Defending Freedom, and a bevy of other groups funded by rightwing billionaires.
Not coincidentally, these are the same groups that are fighting to pass funding for charter schools and vouchers.
What is their motive? They want to destroy not only freedom of thought but public schools.
Recently, I watched the far-right provocateur Chris Rufo give a speech at Hillsdale College. He called on his audience to act in a speech titled “Laying Siege to the Institutions.” (Please watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8Hh0GqoJcE). Rufo claims credit for making CRT a national issue. He boasts that a few years ago, CRT had virtually no public recognition. Thanks to his lies and distortions, most people have heard of it and some think it is a radical, Marxist plot to destroy America by turning race against race. Because he says so.
This is absurd.
For the past four decades, CRT was known as a law school study of the origins of systemic racism and the extent to which it is embedded in our laws and institutions. Its founder was Derrick Bell of Harvard Law School. He was a friend of mine. He was not a Marxist or a radical. He was a great American who wanted America to live up to its promises. Unlike Rufo, he didn’t believe in gag orders and bans. He believed in study, scholarship, debate and discussion.
Chris Rufo offers one solution to all the problems he sees: school choice.
To him, the public school is the most dangerous of all institutions, because it teaches equality, justice, and critical thinking. It teaches students to respect others. It teaches them to abhor racism and other forms of bigotry. It teaches students about American history without censoring the unpleasant and horrifying parts. The laws passed to ban CRT and to gag teachers have one purpose: Teach lies, not honest history.
Here is what I suggest.
Fight censorship.
Fight privatization of our public assets.
Read without fear.
Read “The 1619 Project,” which will open your minds. Read critiques of “The 1619 Project” by reputable scholars, not by rightwing ideologues.
Think about it. Discuss and debate the issues.
Say gay.
Stand up to the craven politicians who attack your freedoms.
Vote against them when you have the chance.
Fearlessly defend the freedom to read, the freedom to teach, and the freedom to learn.
Work towards the day when we treat each other with respect.
Wake up.
I respectfully suggest, Wide Open to Knowledge and Empathy. ❤
Also great, Ms. Marsh.
Thanks. I am open to improvement. Also to suggestions for the unwoke.
My first thought was that you can’t have enlightenment without empathy, so that’s implied by what you had said, Diane. But then, again, I like the directness of Ms. Marsh’s formulation. Either way, this piece is so beautifully written, Diane! I would be so proud if this had come rolling out of me. Wow.
The unwoke = mentally dead
I would suggest that they have SfB but I’ll play nice here.
I think your only option is to put us in concentration camps, Diane. We know that’s what you’d want, and it’s for a greater good, so it’s all A-OK.
You and your readers already support AntiFA, the Democrats’ reformed variant of their dearly beloved KKK, so why stop there?
Go for it! Get your gulags. Holocaust all those wrongthinkers.
Hey, Bertie,
Are you pro-fascist? The concentration camps where my relatives died were run by fascists.
I am opposed to fascism. Does that mean I am anti-fascist? Of course.
The KKK terrorized Jews like me.
You have your stereotypes all mixed up.
I am pro-democracy. I favor freedom of thought and freedom of speech.
I am anti-fascist. I loathe the KKK.
Define yourself. You seem to be pro-fascist.
Your succinct crystallization of our nation at this moment in history is both comforting and disconcerting. You always speak truth to power and you never cease to inspire. Thank you!
What she said! ^
This is just magnificent, Diane! Important, and so artfully said. What a freaking gift to wake to this piece this morning! BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!
I am reminded, Diane, of your comment about the term Antifa: I am against fascism, too. Aren’t you? That was so beautiful that I’ve done it the honor of stealing it (with attribution, of course).
Wide Open to Knowledge and Enlightenment is now revealing Uvalde for the historically racist place it is. A Public School teacher did Not leave a door open to a shooter. And a Public School Cop was not “in charge” of Do Nothing TX Troopers, Police, SWAT & Border Patrol. The false narrative is collapsing.
Hispanic families have been confined to Robb Elementary for decades. A white Trumpie Mayor presides over the town with his ideology & the blessing of the Governor. A KKK monument to Jefferson Davis stands by the Courthouse even after 2020 petitions for removal.
The Oasis Outback is a law enforcement hangout, selling guns and grub to Police, SWAT, Border Patrol, TX Troopers and the 18 year old shooter. Oasis has also been linked to Cartel gun smuggling sales. This racism is entrenched, lucrative and deadly. Let us look and let us learn.
Wow, Ms. Irwin. Just wow.
Thank you.
They sell guns out of an Outback Steakhouse? Lie number 1 and then all all the subsequent lies. George Floyd was a felonious criminal who pointed a gun at a pregnant women’s stomach and He HAS A STATUE. GIVE ME A BREAK YOU CRYING WHINEY SJW! And to BoB shepherd…grow some balls you whimp!
Can’t lie and then tell me, the rest is true!
I usually delete crackpots, but I’m letting Austin run his mouth because it’s funny.
Thank you for your clearly written important message that I will share on social media. You should publish it so that a wider audience will read it. The right wing has so many trolls that work to distort the truth; we need rebuttals to their distorted perspective We need to hear from those that defend open hearts and minds so the public does not get inundated and misled by right wing propagandists.
This coming from a teacher ( Think Teachers Union ) and the marvelous work they did preventing children ( the LEAST affected by Covid) from attending schools, suicide increases, learning disabilities and Falling many many behind years vs their peers. Think of the Teachers Union that took billions and have spent hardly a dime of it on the kids. How many children’s lives did you and your Union destroy? YOU DESTROYED CHILDREN FOR GODS SAKE! How do you just forget all this and now claim your the bastion of truth? What a farce. Your a 🤡!
LOL, NOW, WE ARE SUPPOSE TO LISTEN TO YOUR TRUTH?
You don’t have to read or listen, Austin. There are lots of Trumper blogs that would welcome you.
Austin,
I am not a teacher, though I was a college professor.
I never belonged to a union, but I support unions because they assure that working people get a decent wage and benefits.
Since you have made clear that you know how to read, did your mother teach you?
Or did you go to a public school?
Have you thanked your teacher for the precious gift she gave you?
Since I know you can read, please read this:
Austin,
I admit I am proudly anti-fascist.
Are you a fascist?
Woke is selfish! We live in an I world now. Forget about God or Jesus who breathed life into us. I heard someone that was woke say thank the universe! (NOT GOD) He gave us life and Im not racist and respect people decision to be gay. BUT woke people abuse that they were born male or female not them or they. People that are woke are loud , rude and abusively derogatory against GOD. In general in society people should be nice and respect people except mean people and woke people are inflammatory mean and hate filled with their agenda. Lastly in the past few years people popularized fatness and obesity and that’s wrong. Its unhealthy to be excessively or overweight especially obese because it poses health risks. Woke people say its okay focus on caring for your body your integrity and stop blasting anti woke that actually want common decency like me. Oh and IM NOT A BIGOT . I’m kind unlike woke people that are blatantly rude.
Woke means aware of racial and social injustice. Is that a bad thing? Is it better to be indifferent to the suffering of others. I am woke. I care about others. I am not rude or loud or mean. I care about my weight. Where did you get these bizarre ideas? Watching FOX?
Jesus was woke. He said, “Blessed are the meek.” And lots of other things to show that he cared about suffering people.
How do such idiots manage to get into politics??? Are those who elect them just as idiotic? Just asking.
Everybody does understand that it is her job to amplify anything and everything that is negative about western politics and governing. One wonders if she gets paid by the word or post. I’m guess post and then gets a bonus for comments. So I guess I just added to the paycheck.
Absolutely! Most targets of grift are less intelligent than the grifters. That means there are 74 million Americans (traitors) dumber than Donald Dunning-Kruger Trump.
I don’t see much more interest to discuss in the woke side than in the opposite side. There is a lot of intimidation coming.from the woke side (M. Navratilova being a good example of that).
If not for other reasons, I find the urgency to introduce such advanced avantguardist academic theories like the one you mention politically awkward. It is.obvious that if teenagers come home and start talking about it to conservative parent, there will be a great discomfort, to say the least. Most parents don’t like this. I bet you won’t like it either if your child came home supporting theories you hate and not listening to your contra-arguments (something that many teens like to do).
So I think that insisting that this CRT thing be introduced in schools is more likely to hinder the advancement of racial equality than the opposite. It creates more divide than cooperation, more animosity than open and tolerant discussion, more (right and left) radicalism than approximation.
The simplest definition of “woke” is caring about other people and doing whatever you can to support decency and kindness. Is that controversial? Is it taught in school? I hope so.
CRT means being aware of racial bias in the law and instititions. If you are a racist, you oppose it. It you care about reducing and even eliminating racism, you support it.
Brilliant. I am woke, too.
What the right wing did to the word “woke” reminds me of what they did to the word “liberal” and “ACLU” in 1988, during the Dukakis/GHW Bush election. It took years and years before politicians realized a way to combat this was to identify themselves as “progressives” and stopped invoking that “negative” word liberal.
I know the right wing has an enormous media arm to help them amplify and demonize things like “woke” and “CRT” and “union”. But there is no excuse for the mainstream media helping legitimize their demonization of those words, and the mainstream media helps the right wing instead of acting as guardians of democracy and telling the truth. The co-opted, too often completely useless “so-called liberal” mainstream media has continued their complicity to this day, refusing to call out what is wrong and using right wing framing to minimize the criminal abuses of democracy by Republicans and to amplify the criminalization of Dems for acting like human beings.
We have too much toxic messaging from the right. Well said.
What about YOUR own toxic messaging?
Mass formation and collective psychosis are a real phenomenon. Given that wokeness is so obviously antithetical to human cooperation and empirical reality, it’s no wonder it becomes so dependent on censorship (repressive tolerance), propaganda, and the modern equivalent of “unpersoning” in order to promulgate.
Sure, it’s destroying all the institutions that dabble in it, but at least it’s fending off the ascendency from all those powerful small-town hayseeds that dominate communities like Uvalde.
If you ever research Jim Jones to any great extent and learn about his “apostolic socialism”, you’d see how much Jonestown resembles the modern woke movement in ethos and execution…if you weren’t already so blinded by ideology.
Yes: so stipulated.
Brilliantly said, Diane. Sharing everywhere.
same
Unwoke : Unequivocally Not Wide* Open to Knowledge and Enlightenment
*Or even “a crack”
Woke = brainwashing that pushes the “white quilt”, “black victimization “ narrative.
I woke up when Reagan was governor of California before he ran for president.
Now their stuck with newsome😜🤪
they’re
Newsom
Please do carry on.
Sorry for for the typo spelling error Bob. I was in a hurry. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while.
I am one of the worst offenders, Harry.
“You Reap what you Sleep”
I am woke
I’m not asleep
And if you poke
I’m bound to peep
But stay asleep
If sleep you will
And all you’ll reap
Is bitter pill
“Woke” is an example of what I mean about how language has become politically meaningless. When it was created, it referred to people, generally the left and young, who became aware of things of which they had previously been unaware and realized that they had to play a role in making change if it was to happen. The right caricatured this to mean anything from clueless, naive and ignorant and then fined tuned the rhetoric over time to make it a blanket condemnation much in the way they use the word “communism.” They know it’s evil, they know they’re against it, and anyone for it is now an evil virus that needs to be vanquished, it’s no longer a joke about duped individual fools.
“Woke” and the war over its meaning is also a different form of narcissism, but rather individually based, this time it’s American. We think we’re the only ones fighting this war on language, suffering from inflation, dealing with Covid, or concerned about Ukraine. These are international issues, not just American. And the key leaders in the US do not see it as American only, their object is the world, as the infatuation with Urban represents. Listen to this British commentator and substitute American issues, personalities, etc. for the British he mentions. Cold be about the U.S., right down to the definition of what “woke” is.
Could not cold in last sentence. It’s almost as if James had telepathy and answered this comment before it was posted.
Love this GregB. Thank you!
Greg, do take a gander at my late reply at bottom – would love to have your input.
Diane, you’re absolutely right about the appropriation of language for political purposes, a topic in which I’ve had a long standing personal interest. Over the years, just for my own edification, I’ve been gradually compiling a list, in no particular order, of perfectly good common words & phrases on which have been imposed specific political meanings rendering them effectively useless for normal conversation. Perpetrators come from both ends of the political spectrum, though it’s heavily weighted toward the right; I don’t know if this is an accurate reflection or influenced by my own inclination. I’ve had no idea what, if anything, I’d ever use this for, but your first sentence suggests this might be as good a place as any to share it, so, FWIW, here it is.
Feel free to add your own suggestions. It’s fun!😀
deplorable
swamp
health care
on both/all sides
sad
fake news
environment
diversity
wall
I can’t breathe
shithole
trigger
climate change
fine people
fair & balanced
collusion
zero tolerance
best people
thoughts & prayers
collusion
woke
racist
snowflake
groom
Thanks, Lenny.
Equity
Diversity
Inclusion
differently abled
persons of color (but NEVER “colored”)
BIPOC
misinformation
violent internet posts
violent speech
hate speech
climate crisis (not “change” anymore)
Russian bots
racist
debunked
fact check
consequences to speech
islamophobia
transphobia
homophobia
heteronormativity
Christian dominionism
authoritarianism
fascism
anti-fascist
Latinx
cisgenderism
cisnormativity
toxic masculinity
modern-day Gilead
safe and legal (but not “rare”)
rugged individualism
pull yourself up by your bootstraps
microaggressions
This took me 6 minutes, Lenny.
If being woke is defined as being aware of and lamenting America’s frequent unfairness – past and present – to various groups of people, then the vast majority of Americans won’t object to describing themselves as woke. The problem is that the definition has changed in popular usage to mean people who try to enforce ideological conformity to the entire left-wing orthodoxy – no dissent allowed or you are racist, sexist, transphobic, etc., and you should be fired from your job and/or socially ostracized.
For example, the current woke position is that XY-chromosomed people who identify as women should be allowed to compete in athletic competitions for girls/women. J. K. Rowling has been called transphobic for objecting to that belief, and some groups have tried – unsuccessfully – to ruin her literary career. Some writers have noted – correctly – that longstanding academic qualifications for most brand name colleges have been reduced in order to admit more non-white/non-Asian students – those writers have been called racist for pointing out indisputable facts. There are many other examples one could provide, which is why the adjective “woke” is now a pejorative to many people – including most mainstream liberals.
The examples you offer are ones on which reasonable people disagree and have a right to disagree. As it should be.
Laws like STOP WOKE in Florida are meant to silence the discussion altogether.
No, the problem with “woke” is when it’s used just as a veneer or a distraction, like when the White House and the Pentagon light up in rainbow colors even as they continue to bomb people abroad and starve people at home through austerity. Or like when businesses slapped BLM signs in their windows in 2020 in hopes of avoiding getting vandalized and looted. Or like when we have to vote for killer cops like Harris or Adams or warmongers like Hillary just because they’re Black and/or female.
As for Rowling, she’s been (accurately) called a transphobe for far more than just her stance on trans athletes. She has essentially said that trans women are not women and that trans people should use the bathroom assigned to their biological gender (although methinks she wouldn’t be any too happy to see my son in the ladies’ room, even though he was assigned female at birth).
And, no, it’s not “qualifications” that have been reduced at colleges – it’s barriers. Colleges are finally waking up to the fact that tests like the SAT and ACT are simply a “measure” (sic, with apologies to Sr. Swacker) of whiteness and socio-economic status. Grades, recommendations, in-person interviews, project portfolios and other assessments are a far better indicator of how a student will do in college and beyond and, co-incidentally, tend to favor whites and Asians less because they require deeper thinking rather than memorization, regurgitation and thinking like the (white) test-makers.
So, sorry, your straight white self is not a victim and you can stop blaming “wokeness” for your personal failures.
Agree about Rowling dienne 77. Harry Potter/getting kids to read=good.
Author spouting about transphobia=bad. VERY BAD.
People wanting to “ruin her literary career?!”
Excuse me for not wanting to cry a river of crocodile tears for this millionaire author.
I think Rowling is a billionaire, not a millionaire.
No one scares her.
Trans women are men, not women.
Rowling is an intelligent woman who refuses to bow to the woke mob.
It is exactly the nonsense like “tests like the SAT and ACT are simply a “measure” of whiteness and socio-economic status” that turn wokeness into a knowledge-averse tyranny that thinking people prefer to avoid.
The SAT and ACT have nothing to do with knowledge. They accurately measure family income and education. That’s not an opinion. That’s a fact.
So, I’m in moderation, but this piece of joy just floats on through. Hmmm….
That disgusting comment is gone.
Thank you.
Where are there people dis-allowed of their opinions on the right? Are there new laws being passed in all the Blue states against suggesting that students be restrained from belief? No! No! I scream it: No!
Restrictions on debate in this country come almost solely from the right in states where the red meat of fear is tossed to the dogs of the electorate in hopes that this group of voters will continue to vote for people who do not share their interests at all.
I notice the left wing media (MSNBC, Don Lemon, Rachel Maddow, etc.) strongly suggested that Fox News might have to be shut down by the government because of the “disinformation” and “misinformation” which is a danger to our democracy. But you’ll notice those in right wing media (Hannity, Carlson, etc.) NEVER call for ANY media to be shut down…they want ALL points of view aired, the viewers decide what to watch…you know, freedom of choice, America?
When the left loses an argument, they want to take their marbles and go home. Can’t win, so they want to end the game. Weak.
MIT recently announced that it will again require applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores. No student will succeed at a college like that unless he/she has demonstrated on an objective test the ability to do high level math. High school GPAs are notoriously inflated and that situation is getting worse with demands in some districts to not require non-white/non-Asian students to turn in homework assignments. I grant that many colleges will do anything to virtue signal their moral superiority and – most important – to keep the tuition money coming in.
Roy, you need to expand your sources of information beyond those which only confirm your existing far Left opinions. There is overwhelming evidence that people in academia and elsewhere are fearful of expressing non-woke opinions because of likely repercussions. Heck, even the NYT comments sections are full of people – almost all Democratic voters – who don’t agree with the repressive atmosphere on college campuses and even in private sector corporations.
Maybe if MIT officials were a little more woke and a little less money-grubbing, they might not be so quick to accept money from convicted pedophilanthropists trafficking teenaged girls.
And maybe they need a better selection process for MIT profs (based on their ability to actually use their brain) so they won’t think it’s a good idea to pal around with said pedophilanthropists.
Good for MIT.
Kate…..I’m no fan of the SAT (or the ACT) as the tests are based/normed on Common Core math and ELA which are both just dreadful pieces of garbage imposed upon children. You are correct that there is a lot of grade inflation especially in math. My son is off to college next year and he needs to take a 3 hour math test for UDe so that they know where to place him for math….he has declared a general business major and his highest math in HS is Calc.
I think it’s a great idea and it gets around using the stupid SAT. I’m sure others will disagree and accuse the college of trying to get more $$$ by placing students in lower or remedial math courses, but I think it’s a very wise idea considering that there are kids in college who still need a calculator to multiply 5X5 and don’t know how to add/ subtract fractions. My daughter has spent numerous hours tutoring some of her college friends in math for the past 2 years and she can’t believe that these kids don’t have the most basic math life skills.
Kate: there is no “far left” in asking you to show me a place where laws are being passed that ban voicing the beliefs of the right? Did I miss a legislature passing a law that we could not discuss gun safety or something?
Kate,
As someone who has lived on college campuses for over 40 years, I can testify that the atmosphere is not particularly regressive. Faculty are now even free to discuss the virtues of margarine, something that has caused much concern in the past.
On the other hand I am in favor of colleges and universities having as much information about potential students as possible, so I am in favor of using standardized tests in the admission process. In this I stand with the faculty of the University of California, a group that is perhaps well know for being “woke”.
Anyone who would respond “Good for MIT” to this is truly suspect. Have they even read any of Diane’s books? Have they even looked at the historical and statistical evidence that standardized tests tell us absolutely nothing about any individual other than how they take tests or how affluent they are? How does is this not responded to? How can that person ever be taken seriously on any matters related to education? This is an incredibly uninformed (honestly, stupid) remark. It exposes a person with an agenda, not one with an open mind who can consider ideas that might once have been uncomfortable. To claim that testing is a good thing to evaluate anyone, on this blog, means one has never paid attention ever or completely discounts every piece of evidence that has been presented here.
GregB,
Have you read the 2020 report of the University of California faculty senate?It can be found here: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/committees/sttf/sttf-report.pdf
I am interested in how this impacts your thinking about standardized tests. The UC faculty found that standardized test scores are the best single predictor of grades and more importantly retention at UC schools.
High school grade point average is a better predictor of college success than scores on college admissions tests.
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/test-scores-dont-stack-gpas-predicting-college-success
College admissions tests like the SAT and the ACT have been corrupted by paid tutoring. When I was in high school, the Colkege Board claimed that coaching would not change one’s score. That was wrong. Coaching can and does raise your score. So affluent families pay for coaching and their kids get bigger scores. Families that can’t afford coaches or tutors are at a disadvantage.
A few years ago, the New Tork Times had a front-page story about SAT tutors who charged hundreds of dollars PER HOUR and guaranteed higher scores. I recall that the top fee was $700 per hour.
The SAT and ACT demonstrate the ability to succeed on standardized test taking.
GPA reflects diligence, commitment, and consistency.
Which is more important?
Little wonder that so many colleges and universities are now “test-optional.”
GregB, I’ve read a couple of Diane’s books, and also you’re wrong. The SAT/ACT are good predictors of success in college; they are less correlated to socioeconomic status than they are correlated to college grades; and “holistic” admissions criteria favor the wealthy more strongly than standardized test scores.
And there’s no need to say I’m “suspect,” when all you really mean is you disagree with me.
Dr. Ravitch,
The problem I have with the study you point to is that the authors look at students attending any four year college and that those colleges admit, in part, based on standardized test scores. I think we might both agree that a student from Chicago that attends MIT and takes Calculus II is in a very different course than another student from Chicago taking calculus II at Lewis University. If the MIT student with a high math SAT score (the range at MIT is 780-800) receives a B+ in that class and the Lewis University student with a low math SAT score (the range at Lewis University is 510-610) receives an A- , this is considered evidence that math SAT scores do not do a good job of predicting math grades. I do not think that is good evidence that math SAT scores do a poor job of predict success in math classes.
The University of California Faculty Senate study controls for differences in college courses by looking at students attending University of California schools. The faculty committee found that standardized test scores outperformed high school GPA in predicting college grades in these more standardized classes.
Of course you or other may have some objection to the work done by the University of California Faculty Senate’s task force, and I look forward to reading them. Since the report is rather long, at 118 pages plus appendices, page references would be helpful.
TE, anyone who can pay for a tutor for their child can get a higher SAT score. The deck is stacked against kids whose families can’t pay for tutoring. Even in the absence of tutoring, rich kids are advantaged, as they are on all standardizezed tests. The tutoring gives them an additional 100+ points.
“the current woke position is that XY-chromosomed people who identify as women should be allowed to compete in athletic competitions for girls/women.”
I am not going to write a long post to describe the complex rules and regulations that various youth sports leagues have developed but this is such an intentionally deceptive statement that it proves that this person’s side is full of deceit and lies. When you have to argue your point with lies, that says something. It says that the person posting already knows full well that their arguments are unconvincing, so instead of having an honest discussion they rely on lies and misinformation.
NYC PSP,
I am a fan of the solution suggested by the publication The Economist. There should be two divisions in sport: one for people with XX chromosomes and the other open to everyone. Do you find it reasonable as well?
TE, I like that solution.
Chromosome analysis is way too complex to do this. Maybe we should look at other ways to level the playing field. Like making sure no one ruins their body and their life competing in a sport. Like making sure athletes understand that winning is just part of the puzzle.
Teachingeconomist,
Are you saying that you are a good with a trans man competing in women’s sports because of their chromosomes?
I found this article to be very fair-minded (I don’t know if the link will post). It makes the often ignored point that many trans athletes compete and don’t win, and that people who take hormones experience changes that affect their performance.
Although most anti-trans folks don’t want a real discussion, they just want to foment outrage.
https://www.outsports.com/trans/2021/4/8/22373672/trans-athlete-ban-policy-inclusion-transition-women-sports
NYC PSP,
I think that the hormonal treatment for a trans man would count as a performance enhancing drug, so would be banned for that reason. Sis women would also, of course, be banned from using the treatment as well. A trans man could participate in the open division with levels that were consistent with other participants.
Certainly people who take hormones experience changes in their athletic performance, but going through puberty as a male is a very significant advantage in many sports. There are no concerns about trans men competing in male sports for this reason.
I like TE’s idea, but it doesn’t go far enough, it’s focused on athletics that no one really cares about in the medium- to long-term of their lives. We should do chromosomal and genetic tests to determine familial predispositions to certain diseases. That way, those who don’t have them will get lower insurance rates–or maybe even none all–and preference for corporate jobs because they are statistically likely to have longer productive lives, therefore they are worth the corporate investment in them. We could also have separate professional athletic leagues based on genetic predispositions. And we could use these tests to figure what “better” jobs are for men and women. And of course, skin color.
Disagree strongly with GregB’s comment.
FLERP – I think GregB must have used disappearing ink for the “/s/” at the end of his comment.
Letting trannies compete with real biological girls and women is an abomination.
All girls and women should refuse to attend or compete in any event where a tranny is present.
Martina Navratilova and even Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner agree.
Kate Levin says:
“Some writers have noted – correctly – that longstanding academic qualifications for most brand name colleges have been reduced in order to admit more very rich and overprivileged white students whose families donate huge amounts of money – those writers have been called anti-white (or anti-Trump and anti-Jared Kushner) for pointing out indisputable facts.”
Oh never mind. I am wrong, Kate Levin isn’t concerned about all the less qualified but very rich white students who are admitted.
I always find it odd that folks like Levin are fine with the supposedly more qualified white and Asian students being displaced by far less qualified rich, over privileged white students. What they object to is white and Asian students being displaced by a Black or Latino student who didn’t have that privileged upbringing.
Kate, if you were a fair-minded person, it would be the opposite. You would be far more outraged that overprivileged white students were taking seats away from those supposedly more qualified white and Asian students, and far less outraged that Black and Latino students who haven’t benefited from privilege do.
Kate, what you are describing here is social pressure. No question that social media has turned this into a nightmare, with ghosting, doxxing etc. And DEI policy, whether K12 or on college campuses can be terribly mishandled and no doubt has been in some places. But (as Roy points out below), this is quite a different matter from passing state laws which dictate that certain classroom discussions, as well as private discussions between teacher & student, or school counselor & student, either cannot be held at all, or if held must be fully disclosed to parents or risk personal and institutional lawsuits by parents whose legal fees will be reimbursed by state [i.e., encouraging lawsuits].
DeINSANEtis wants people to stop thinking. Period.
As he has.
You know the saying “Do as I say, not as I do”?
Well DeSantis has a special version
“Don’t (think) as I don’t”
Don’t as I don’t
Not as I say
Ponder you won’t
If mine is your way
That’s what NewSCUM wants in California. People are fleeing there. Florida population growing by the day.😎
You go, Diane! I feel your frustration, anger, outrage, etc. These moronic, lying, word-bending righties should be laughed off & scorned publicly—but that would happen in a rational, logical & educated world—which it is NOT. Most everyone on this blog of yours is/was an educator, and most are well-educated people. That’s why it’s even more frustrating for us to deal with the ignorance & deceit that they continually spew at their zombie-like followers. You’re right. We all need to stand up to these lying tools of the Oligarchs who just want to dumb down & confuse the masses so the can eventually be more easily subjugated to fit into their New World Order.
The lefties get their “info” from watching the View.🥴
Just curious Harry. When you’re out in public, how many “lefties” do you encounter? Can you point to your fellow Americans who have earned the derogatory label? What distinction do you use to call someone a “leftie?” Is your answer going to be racist, homophobic or misogynistic? Or is your answer going to spew the false narrative that lefties are communists or socialist?SMH, why don’t you look up the definition of terms before you run off all half-cocked based the derogatory slant on a word by a known serial liar? Police Departments and Fire Departments are examples of socialism; the government provides services to society. As a member of our society have you ever received any kind of assistance from a government agency; you know, socialism? I’m not sure how your clan connected communism to the Democratic Party but MAGA seems way more likely to embrace Putin and other dictatorships where communism thrives. Democrats support the Constitution, MAGA supports the enemies of the Constitution. When you opt to believe blatant lies without facts, you actually become a victim of the “fake news” gaslighting grift. You know that every time the orange turd utters the phrase “fake news,” there are facts that verify it’s true news. You have been mongered in fear and gaslighted but you don’t have the intellectual temerity to question or research. If you learn what our Constitution says and you support it, you will despise Donald Trump and his version of the Republican Party. Like corrupt cops, Trump has personally violated American citizens rights from a position of authority. IMHO, that’s grounds for immediate dismissal because he took an oath to do the opposite. His first impeachment should have been when he attacked Collin Koepernick for exercising his right to free speech. Free speech means you can say what you want without repercussions from the government… the president represents the government. When dumbass Trump claimed he was just using his freedom of speech to attack Collin, he neglects to realize that he doesn’t have to fear repercussions from himself. That is only one example of many Constitutional violations the orange stain committed. Convicted sexual abuser Donald Trump’s lack of understanding the Constitution or total disregard for it was definitely grounds for impeachment and dismissal. Cops lose qualified immunity when they violate citizens rights, Trump should have lost executive privilege. Authoritarianism is not part of our Constitution’s ideology but that is exactly what Trump is after. If you’re afraid to be WOKE because Ronnie tells you it’s bad, maybe you can wake up and pay attention to what your anti-American heroes in the Republican Party are actually doing, not just what they say. I would venture to say that “The View” deals more in truth and facts than whatever right-wing propaganda you watch. Traitor Trump will destroy America if he fools enough morons into voting for him and Desantis is to Trump what Mussolini was to Hitler… both became shit stains on history for their fascist ideology. I know that insulting your intelligence is not the best way to convince you to see things in a rational manner. We “lefties” have learned that some of our fellow Americans lack basic reasoning skills and empathy to understand basic human rights. Whether it’s racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, wokephobia… there is no rational discourse with someone who has chosen to follow the anti-American agenda of the MAGA right. Like all the traitors who fly the flag of an enemy to the United States (Confederate States were and are an enemy of America; if you raise that flag you’re a traitor) you have the right to leave America if you don’t support the Constitution. Supporting MAGA is opposing the Constitution; supporting the Constitution is required to be a patriot. Logically that means you’re an enemy to America if you support MAGA, not a patriot. Pay attention to what is going on around you, learn from your mistakes before you try to make another point. Lol, I know that learning from mistakes isn’t something MAGA has shown a capacity for, but everyday patriotic Americans can hope that a national epiphany will cause MAGA mental midgets to become WOKE.
Well said. Thank you, Thomas!
Yes to all of what Diane said. Republicans have only one goal: Protect the wealth and power of those who already have it. In fact, they want more. Fear, division, despair, lies, and hate are their weapons. Democracy is an expendable obstacle. Organizing and voting are the only remedies.
Organizing and voting are not remedies when laws restricting who can vote and who has the power to declare results in lieu of legitimate votes. This is yet another area where Democrats shoot themselves in foot, hip, and head. Thinking an election is about issues when it’s actually about democracy and the right to representation.
Don’t quite get this one, Greg. I can’t get behind, don’t organize and vote on an issue cuz ithat’s no remedy? Gotta walk & chew gum – never stop pushing on voting rights, against gerrymander, for campaign reform.
And democrats want more power, especially over anyone remotely connected to Trump. Hundreds of people held for over a year, without bail, for mostly non violent trespassing in the Capitol. That’s OK, they’re “Trumptards”. Arrest Peter Navarro at Reagan National Airport, handcuff him, put leg irons on him, strip search him, because he was an advisor to Trump.
I know republicans are tax cutting, tax dodging, environmental regulation cutting, greedy golf players with mistresses, etc. But democrats are worse — they want vengeance. They also seek total control over the population — if you don’t buy into their entire woke agenda, you become an “enemy of the state”.
Mike, you watch too much FOX news. Do you want Social Sscurity when you turn 65? Do you want Medicare? If yes, thank Democrats.
Diane is a hack.
You, Mikey, are a deeply troubled person. Seek help, please.
A degree of nuance is required here. Woke is a word in the American English language. That’s all it is, just a word. So is the word Jewish. That I am Jewish does not mean I agree with all Jews about everything. One word does not encompass my beliefs.
I appreciate progressive thinkers like you, Diane, who believe the world can be made a better place for all instead of for some. One should refuse, however, to be trapped into identifying oneself with a word. I have varying degrees of agreement with such things as defunding the police and non-gender bathrooms. Respectfully, I do not wish to be lumped in with neoliberals who want more standardized testing and charter schools. We must fight for progressive ideals, not for labels no more meaningful than the colors worn by street gangs or the uniforms worn by athletic teams.
Do you want to be lumped in with progressives who want more standardized testing and charter schools?
Or do you want to be lumped in with moderates who oppose standardized testing and charter schools?
I agree with your point about labels. But being “woke” (or being Jewish) isn’t a list of specific policies one believes. Didn’t Diane describe it at the top: “being aware of injustice and inequality”?
I agree that it is important to be aware of facts. It’s just that the word “woke” means many different things to different people because of its evolution. I wouldn’t go anywhere near the word “choice” nowadays. Language changes. In today’s climate, words become casualties of war. The word “reform” is dead. “Populist” is twisted out of shape. I could go on, but got to get to woke, I mean work.
From the linguistic POV, I agree; I am a descriptivist, not a prescriptivist. That doesn’t stop us from calling it out when the other guy co-opts a term and claims it means the opposite.
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes sang it best
I do not use emojis. That said, ❤️.
What a great post, Diane. Thanks for this.
And, well, damn. I keep coming in too late. Just can’t think as fast as all the whizzes on this board! (Or I just over-ponder…) So once again, if anybody’s still reading here, these are my thoughts.
Such a huge topic– “rightwing politicians distorting our language to suit their bigoted ideology.” I’m going to take the liberty of leaving out the “bigoted” part, because there are just too many “rightwing” politicians who have no ideology whatsoever. They simply hope to stir up voters’ bigotry (et al) to grease the wheels for incrementally-increasing anti-democratic policy.
I imagine historians can tell us that this MO has been around for a very long time as an essential tool of would-be and actual autocrats. [As suggested in 1871 by Lewis Carroll– “ ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. ‘ “] However, the situation is far, far worse now. Our public sphere is fire-hosed daily with this MO of wannabe and actual autocrats.
We seem to have waded at least partway into a post-truth world. Not all the way yet, I don’t think. To give a topical example: our dear leaders tacked the Dickey (1992) and Tiahrt (2003) amendments onto appropriation bills to dissuade govtl agencies from studying gun violence or tracking weapons electronically. There’s a recognition there that truth can be divined from the proper collection and analysis of statistics. Our govtl agencies haven’t actually begun to disseminate false stats/ analyses on gun violence/ ownership. And MSM media has been rather loud lately to point out we have peer countries publishing authentic, stats-based analyses of which we can avail ourselves to get a handle on “truth.”
There are a lot of competing theories on what exactly constitutes “post-truth [politics].” Most cluster around tech advances– excesses of advertising/ marketing algorithms, misuse of social media platforms. I think its growth has at least as much to do with post-Iron-Curtain-collapse politics. Autocracies and countries in transition to autocracy hide oligarchical &/or military consolidation of power behind ‘elections’ et al trappings of democracy because it’s just so much more PC, now that democracy is generally seen as without a viable contender. Meanwhile they depend heavily on confusing the public between reality/ truth vs lies in order to continue their agenda [eliminating public voice] without much notice. Who are they fooling with their lies? Perhaps no one at all. The idea is to herd some along into convincing themselves of a faux reality against their better judgment– the rest into a dumb hopeless cynicism.
We can see that 21stC US politics is moving in that direction. I don’t think it’s irrevocable. But it’s why EIU re-classified us as a flawed democracy 5 yrs ago.
Here’s a word for you:
woman
Now define the word.
You can’t…you’re woke.
I can…I’m not woke.
Woman — an adult female human being.
Language constantly changes. We have two separate phenomena to describe here: One is the set of inherited biological traits typically referred to as sex. The other is the set of acquired (or not) behaviors and accoutrements typically traditionally enforced upon and so associated with sex, what we now typically refer to as gender. You make the mistake, Manic One, of confusing the two. One is inherited. The other is acquired and can be CHOSEN. That’s what people are figuring out, and the process of figuring that out has led to a) a new birth of freedom for many and b) hateful reactions from people who fear change and the OTHER.
One of the drivers of language change is social and cultural change. Only troglodytes now refer to a married woman as “the little woman at home.” Same here. We are in the process of figuring out new language to use to refer to the sudden understanding on the part of a great many people that they can CHOOSE their gender attributes. And there are those who find that scary because they don’t want to live in a world in which people have that freedom. They want to crush that freedom in the cradle. People like you, Mikey. People driven by fear of the Other.
I love how the media, academia, government, etc. has completely buried the story of the BLACK supremacist who mowed down those white people at the parade in Wisconsin. Witnesses say he deliberately swerved back and forth to hit as many people as possible. Six dead, over 47 injured, some very seriously…no big deal, right?
The more we learn about Darrell Brooks, the easier it is to understand why the media don’t want to talk about him. Brooks’ social media feeds are full of racist and Black nationalist propaganda. In one of his rap songs, he includes lines from Malcolm X justifying race-hate against Whites. He posted a picture of a fruit bowl arranged to display the letters BLM with a raised fist.
But, he CAN’T be racist…he’s black!
You left out the subway shooter and how blacks kill each other day after day,,,,. Completely totally ignored. The MSM won’t cover it unless it fits the radical left narrative. Where’s BLM????
My lord.
Racist much?
ricidulous, mikey
No one has repressed this story.
No one has claimed that there aren’t any racist black people.
Gosh, Malcolm X was a little upset. Wonder why.
So you blocked me…just like youtube, twitter, abc, yahoo, etc. did. Like everyone else, you are weak and unable to engage.
If you’re blocked how come we can see your post claiming you’ve been blocked? Just sayin’.
My mistake I got several messages saying my comments to several people couldn’t be posted — must be a chromebook glitch on my end.
Oh, I see, you made a new name. Never mind.
Darrell Brooks referring to BLM is no more a condemnation of BLM than is Timothy McVeigh referring to the Bible a reason to condemn the Bible. “In the name of” is not the same as “in accordance with.”
Refusal to engage with faulty logic isn’t a sign of weakness, but of preference for informed discussion. Such constructive focus precludes engaging in arguments based on false equivalence. It’s not inability to engage; it’s declining engagement in discourse based on misconceptions & misinterpretation.
If you’ve been blocked by YouTube, Twitter, ABC, Yahoo, & so many others you have to group them all under “etc.,” it may be possible that it isn’t the rest of the world that’s wrong & you’re right.
Mike Pulcifer aka manicmikey was never blocked. He posted one garbled and offensive statement after another all day today. He called me a “hack.” Then he complained I wouldn’t debate him. I don’t see the point in debating hateful people. Nothing he wrote was debatable. If he keeps writing vicious comments, he will be permanently blocked.
My apologies, to your credit, you did not block me. My comments may be offensive, but I wouldn’t call them vicious. It’s just that you left wing academic types live in your own bubble, you think the entire country has to agree with everything you say or they’re somehow morally defective — don’t know how or why you guys believe you have the moral high ground but YOU DO NOT.
Congratulations, manicmikey. I now join Twitter, Yahoo, YouTube and every other reputable (and far more powerful) outlet in blocking your manic ravings. Good bye and good riddance.
Mikey moved some of his raving to my site, where he continued raving about you and an amorphous “woke” and “leftist” conspiracy. I am amused by such ravings, as they are so self-revealing, so self-critiquing.
I’m sorry you got him. I continue to get comments frequently from Ragsnarbut, who has been railing against vaccines for over a year. He regularly insults me but his comments, almost all the same, will never appear here.
Wrong! I’m only blocked by liberal left owned platforms. I never get blocked on vidmax, bitchute, gab, etc. because they still believe in free speech.
Darrell Brooks is a racist. Anyone, white, black, hispanic, native american, can be a racist. But the left wing media continues the lie that “white supremacy” and “white nationalists” are the greatest threat to our nation.
There are a small number of white nationalists/nazis ultra right nuts out there but they are insignificant overall.
Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
I found this post by Diane Ravitch last week and meant to re-blog it then, but … well, you all know how short my memory is! Anyway, like Diane, I am WOKE and wish more people were! Thank you, Diane, for this inspiring post!
Thank you, Jill.
Good Americans are woke.
Those who are not woke are asleep and unconscious.
My pleasure! It was a great post! You’re right, and far too many today need to be awakened.
Any time anyone calls me “woke,” I thank them for recognizing my worth as a human being, and add that I am proud to be seen as woke. Most of them just look at me like I am too stupid to know when I have been insulted, so I smile and turn away. Some get angry and yell at me. I don’t let them rile me up (until I get away from them, lol). A few are just bewildered, wondering what they said to make me respond as I do. They really don’t get it. They must be expecting me to break down and cry, I don’t know. Are we supposed to be weaklings? I think not.
It’s good to be woke. It means you care about American values like justice and equality. Those who are not woke are dumb, dead, or racists.
Or all three of the above, dead being mentally and spiritually dead. But actually, not being an American, I would call my values human values, or better yet, life values. No one nation can lay claim to such values, and hopefully, not even one such species. Good luck to you, and your nation, in the coming election.
Thank you! We need luck, intelligence, care, hard work, and enlightenment.
Honestly, I believe you yourself are all three. Another angry, lonely, middle-aged feminist. And for the record, I am not a Republican. The woke ideology started out to be promising. Now it is just a toxic mess of sexually confused, scared wimps. We need another extinction-level event to get rid of woke idiots and far-right a-holes. But thanks for the laugh. 🙂
Wonderful, RG!
Diane, you are right on as usual. And your solutions to fighting this scourge are just what we have to do.
Good to see the state of Arizona pass the School Choice Bill. It is fair that tax dollars for education should go to the students and not to the teachers’ unions who made backroom deals with the CDC to keep the lockdowns and schools closed unnecessarily which according to a study by John Hopkins University did extensive mental health damage to students especially young girls whose suicide rate increased dramatically. Parents want to have a say in their children’s education so they can learn to be successful, productive citizens and not be indoctrinated activists preaching the hate and division of Marxist woke ideology. Poorer students won’t get left behind if we can figure a way to source additional funds from teachers’ pension funds.
Arizona is following the privatization path of Sweden and Chile, where schools got worse after privatization. Test scores fell, and segregation intensified by class and religion. If you want to dumb down the population, AZ is heading that way.
There was a referendum on this choice plan in 2018. Voters turned it down by 65-35%. But in Arizona, the will of the voters (I.e. democracy) doesn’t matter as much as Koch money.
Moving ahead with charter schools and vouchers for private schools has several parents. One is the ideological blinder that the market is the solutions for everything. Then there is the selfish, “I want my kids to go to a private school, but I want someone else to pay for it.” The big push has nothing to do with quality education. Instead, it is about decreasing investment in public welfare in order to lower tax burden for the wealthy and/or reduce the power of public sector unions. Finally, there is opening up an arena for private capital investment and profit. So, the evidence of lack of impact on achievement or equity is irrelevant to the advocates.
Critical Race Theory is nothing more than Marxist Critical Theory with class replaced by race. The end result is just as toxic. Critical Theory destroyed entire countries by turning its citizens into passive, entitled zombies with victim mentality (Homo Sovieticus). I know, I was there. Fear anyone who wants to turn you into a victim. They want to steal your life and your soul. They want power for themselves and despair for you.
Critical Race Theory is not Marxist. It’s not radical. It’s the study of racism. Period. It’s teaching critical thinking about race in American life, past and present.
It is literally impossible to teach American history without teaching about racism.
I don’t agree with the original commentator, and I really don’t agree with state laws that ban whatever legislators mean (or think they mean) when they write about “Critical Race Theory.” Indeed, I think that this whole thing about CRT is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot, and a culture war that will be viewed by historians as a symptom of how partisan this era has been.
That said, your first sentence (“Critical Race Theory is not Marxist”) is not really correct: Critical Race Theory is derived from Critical Theory, which comes from Western Marxism. Thus, it is based on Marxism.
Critical race theory has nothing to do with Marxism. It is the study—usually in law school—of how racism is embedded in institutions. Richard Rothstein’s excellent book “The Color of Law” is an excellent example of critical race theory. It shows how housing patterns along race lines were created by federal and state laws. Rothstein is not a Narcist.
I was a friend of the late Derrick Bell, one of the originators of critical race theory. He worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and became very discouraged by the lack of progress, despite legal
victories. Derrick was not a Marxist.
According to paragraph 1 of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory, the “critical” in “critical race theory” is based in part on critical theory. And, paragraph 3 of that source indicates that critical race theory’s analysis is based on critical theory. As well, according to https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory, it is based on critical legal studies, which is an offshoot of critical theory, which it clearly indicates is oriented with Marxism. That, and https://iep.utm.edu/critical-theory-frankfurt-school/ indicates that critical theory is based on the Frankfurt School, which was started with the intent of studying Marxism.
So, based on that, critical race theory is based on (and influenced by) Marxism.
Shadow. What CRT REALLY means, is to Create Racial Tension. Preach white guilt and black victimization. They’ve been pushing this agenda on college campuses for years and are now trying to do it in the public schools. The nazis used similar tactics in Germany, painting the Jews as “evil”. In today’s USA, the white man is “evil”.
lol trying to force anyone to be woke isn’t going to work. Nice try though. It’s like a religion, you don’t believe or you believe. You might even either said can be in the wrong. No thanks to BLM and such other ventures like The Woman King. Black on black slave movie.
Some responses to your original post:
You attack Republicans, and Ron DeSantis in particular, in your post, and come across like you view them as the enemy. Perhaps this is not your intent, but that is how you come across. And, writing in this manner ensures that you will not appeal to very many people outside of the Democrats’ Progressive wing, which is nowhere near enough to win elections, let alone effect lasting social change.
According to dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/woke), “woke” means being aware of prejudices and injustices that are considered to be systemic. It is also related to an ideology that is progressive or liberal, and can be used in a disparaging manner.
Your post mentions the 1619 project (https://pulitzercenter.org/lesson-plan-grouping/1619-project-curriculum). I’ve looked at it and even tried reading it once, but had no use for it: It was a bunch of essays, opinions, and perspectives, rather than a study of history based on facts, data, and evidence. Indeed, it is just as bad as what the 1776 Commission came out with in 2020, when it produced a vision of American history which was glorified pro-America propaganda.
On top of that, you do not need to rely on the 1619 Project, or critical race theory, or any related ideas to understand race and racism in U.S. history. And, I know this for a fact: I have read extensively about American history, with what I read based on fact, data, and evidence (ranging from works written in the 1960s to books and articles from the 2010s, along with Grant’s autobiography, Sherman’s autobiography, and Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, as well as essays by W.E.B. DuBois), and I can assure you that they went over such horrors as slavery (including how it was the cause of both the unjust Mexican-American war and the Civil War), the Trail of Tears (just one of many crimes that this country has committed against American Indians through its long history), the Black Codes, and Jim Crow, along with just how hard it was for any freed slave to advance further in life than to be the equivalent of a serf who was chained to whatever mine, factory, or farm they were on.
Most of these works came about long before Derrick Bell and others invented critical race theory. And, they had no difficulty discussing racism and how it showed that we had not yet lived up to what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, when he wrote that all Americans were entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thus, you do NOT need the 1619 Project, critical race theory, or to be “woke” to recognize this, let alone to discuss it.
My problems with critical race theory are that it is subjective, that it frowns on objectivity and truth, and that it avoids neutrality (https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory/Basic-tenets-of-critical-race-theory). On top of that, it pushes narrative (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory#Criticism), plus, based on that, I’d also say it appears to push lived experience as being a high form of truth (which seems problematic, given how we tend to forget details while remembering the gist of things [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210526085058.htm among others]). Science and knowledge are built on evidence (which includes statistics), and you need those (rather than yet more narratives or lived experiences) to really understand what’s going on. Otherwise, you will never understand the problem you’re trying to solve, and you will never get anywhere with it.
On top of that, critical race theory seriously questions the First Amendment, while calling for banning what is considered to be hate speech (https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1254/critical-race-theory). And, this in particular bothers me, since the latter would open the door to censorship. You have made abundantly clear that you do not like state laws that ban the teaching of critical race theory and call them censorship–and I share your dislike of them. At the same time, you should also oppose the kind of censorship that critical race theory calls for, since, with just a few exceptions (including fighting words, threats, and doing the equivalent of shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater), what you might consider to be “hate speech” is also protected speech. That and, do you really want to live in a country where speech you do not like or which you find problematic is banned, especially when the other party could come back into power and respond by banning speech its followers consider to be problematic? As a friend of mine brought up recently, this way lies authoritarianism.
Your post disparages those who are not interested in discussing racism as either being racists or being ashamed of racist views. It’s the equivalent of when both Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush said (in so many words) “you’re either with us or against us” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_are_either_with_us,_or_against_us).
See, the fact is that I am personally not interested in discussing racism, especially out of the context of American history, plus I also have no interest in discussing it based on assumptions such as the U.S. being inherently racist. So, does this make me racist? According to what you wrote, it means I’m either a racist or am ashamed of past racist views.
As a counter, I graduated from an historical American Indian college, I lived in East Africa for 2.5 years, I lived in East Asia for six years, and I am fluent in Spanish (plus I spent a couple of months in Nicaragua). I am fully aware of racism (having put up with it when I was abroad), and I’d like to think that I try to treat others whom I meet without regards to their race. You can call me racist if you want, but that would say more about you than anyone else.
(And, in case you want to refer to me as being homophobic, since your article also went over that, I just wanted to say that I have met a number of LGBT+ people in my life [including in graduate school], and I seriously wonder what the big deal others have with them is, since they’re average, ordinary people who just want to live their lives in peace. Too, I voted against my state’s constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage back in 2004, plus I thought that Obergefell v. Hodges [2015] was a good ruling, though I wish it had never been necessary.)
But, having written all of this, I also fear that you’ll go through what I’ve written, conclude I’m not “woke,” and dismiss my words as being either the ramblings of yet another right-winger, or, worse yet, as the words of yet another disappointing moderate who just doesn’t get it and is even more of an enemy to progress than the Right (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/060.html). After all, rather than investigating the point I made earlier about how critical race theory was based on Marxism, you said, basically, “no it’s not, plus Derrick Bell was no Marxist.”
So, why should this be any different?
Regardless, if you agree with me, great; if not, at least we can agree that we disagree.
Thank you for your comments. I think you make many generalizations that I don’t agree with. You also attribute views to me that I have never expressed.
I oppose censorship in all its forms, no matter who proposes it. I wrote a book criticizing the censorship of language by the left, the right, feminists, and everyone else.
I know of many states that have banned The 1619 Project and a long list of books about gender and race. They are all red states.
I don’t know of any blue states that have banned books. If you do, please let me know.
Woke means, in my understanding, opposition to prejudice, bias, hatred based on group characteristics. Yes, I try to be woke every day. Don’t you?
The people who pass laws banning critical race theory don’t know what it is. It is an academic study of the roots of racism and an effort to understand how racist laws and policies have affected the present. For an example, read Richard Rothstein’s “The Color of Law,” which shows how housing segregation was written into federal and state laws and affects housing patterns today.
Critical race theory is not Marxist. It is a recognized academic study that seeks to understand why racism persists.
What’s Marxist about that?
Answers:
1. When I wrote that you were treating Republicans like they were the enemy, I was going by the words you used in this post, particularly how you were attacking them and Governor Ron DeSantis. And, having skimmed through other posts you have made (you are a prolific blogger), it was apparent to me that, to you, the GOP is bad and the Democrats are good. That is what my statement was based on.
I also dislike censorship, except for things such as true threats, sedition, and doing the equivalent of shouting “fire!” in a crowded theater–though the sheer amount of false information on social media and the world wide web poses a challenge to this, which will need to be addressed in the future.
The ALA has a lengthy list of books that have been challenged and banned, some of which you can see here: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics . From there, you can find out more about this. And, from what I saw, school districts all over America have challenged books, plus some have even banned them. It’s not a “Red” or “Blue” state deal. This Wikipedia entry also goes over this topic in more detail: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_censorship_in_the_United_States
That said, you wrote that Red states are banning books while Blue ones are not. And, even in the very Red state I live in (Oklahoma), that really hasn’t happened (though the legislature’s actions with regards to free expression have left something to be desired). So, kindly provide sources to back up your claim that Red states are banning books. Thanks.
I am not “woke,” nor am I interested in being “woke”: It’s been my experience that people who call themselves “woke” are, more often than not, self-righteous hypocrites who are not pleasant to be around, so I have no interest in associating myself with that. On top of that, it seems like it goes hand-in-hand with concepts like White privilege and male privilege, neither of which I have any use for. So, no, I’m not woke.
(It also goes into the concept of moral self-licensing, which essentially states that people who consider themselves to be good can either excuse bad behavior by assuming that the good still outweighs the bad, or they assume they are so good that nothing they do is bad, or they assume that the end justifies the means. You can read more about it at the following sites: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-licensing, https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/licensing-effect/, and https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-09273-005)
In truth, I am personally more interested in trying to avoid being rude, judgmental, smug, or anything like that to anyone, though I know I often fall short and can be a foolish, judgmental hypocrite, since I am only human. And, to me, it helps to bear in mind the Christian idea that we are all fallen and are sinners, as well as the point Graham Greene once brought up, namely that even the worst people had redeeming qualities while the greatest saints were capable of great evil. And, this was also a point Tolkien seemed to make in his works (particularly LOTR): No matter how mighty, good, or humble we are, we are all capable of bad behavior or of going astray. Bit, again, I digress.
So, again, am I woke? No, though I would like to think that, for the most part, I try to treat others as they want to be treated, even though I know I often fall short on that. (However, as I’ve learned, less is more when it comes to interacting with ones who, for example, are narcissistic or self-absorbed.)
I could go on with this point, but it’s late, and it is annoying typing this on my phone. That said, here’s my question for you: When you say you are woke and define it as such, do you actually consider yourself to be that way, or do you see it as an ideal you try to live up to but sometimes (often?) fall short on?
The state legislatures that ban CRT are violating free expression. That, and their bans seem like solutions in search of problems. However, I’m betting that, as happened with McCarthyism, it’s not going to end well for those behind this.
I have explained that Critical Race Theory is ultimately based on Marxism, plus its thinking is based on that. And, I have provided sources to back up my views (though they were in a different comment). Yet, you responded (for the second time) that it isn’t. In other words, I’ve written that it is and have supported my statement with evidence, but, while you have disagreed with me, you have not backed up your statement with evidence (except for what you wrote about how you knew Derrick Bell and how he wasn’t Marxist).
In other words, you’re welcome to your opinions, but, based on what I found, it is apparent that Critical Race Theory is ultimately based on Marxism, as is its thinking.
Critical race theory has nothing to do with Marxism. It is a study of how racism became embedded in our policies and institutions. What’s Marxist about that? Have you read The 1619 Project? I recommend you read the essay by Nicole Hannah-Jones. You don’t have to agree with everything she writes, but you should think about what she writes.
I try to be “woke,” by which I mean I try to be aware of racism and other assaults on the dignity of others. I try to recognize my own privilege and not take it for granted. I
Yes, the Republican states are more intolerant than the Democratic states. Are there pockets of intolerance in blue states? Yes, as there are enlightened districts in red states, like Houston and Austin in Texas.
Is there a significant difference between red and blue states?
Of course.
In New York, a pregnant woman or girl can get an abortion. Is that possible in Oj
Oklahoma, Texas, or Florida?
In California and New York, is there anti-gay legislation? No.
What about Florida and Texas? Yes.
Blue states try to enact gun control.
Do red states? No.
Which states are trying to privatize public education?
Most fervently, states like Florida and Texas.
Let me be clear.
DeSantis is a bigot.
He plays to bigotry and hatred.
Any party controlled by Trump and his lackeys is the enemy of democracy, sanity, and decency. Which Republicans can we look to today to revive the party of Eisenhower? Stitt? Abbott? Gaetz? Cruz? Rubio? Remind me.
Since you haven’t responded to my previous comment where I provided sources to state that Critical Race Theory is based on (and influenced by) Marxism, I will repost it here:
“According to paragraph 1 of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory, the “critical” in “critical race theory” is based in part on critical theory. And, paragraph 3 of that source indicates that critical race theory’s analysis is based on critical theory. As well, according to https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory, it is based on critical legal studies, which is an offshoot of critical theory, which it clearly indicates is oriented with Marxism. That, and https://iep.utm.edu/critical-theory-frankfurt-school/ indicates that critical theory is based on the Frankfurt School, which was started with the intent of studying Marxism.
“So, based on that, critical race theory is based on (and influenced by) Marxism.”
No matter how many times you write that it isn’t, the facts go against you.
As well, and as I wrote above, I read as much of the “1619 Project” as I could stomach before setting it down. For, as I saw, it was a series of essays and perspectives with the overarching message of “America is built on and based on slavery, and it need to come to grips with that.” And, as I explained above, it is overly simplistic and general, to the point of giving a highly inaccurate picture of this country’s history. Frankly, it is as bad in its own way as the propaganda that the 1776 Commission came out with back in 2020.
(Not that I favor banning either, since expressing ideas like those is protected by the concept of free expression along with the First Amendment, and is necessary when dealing with the marketplace of ideas.)
I am honestly uninterested in reading essays that push perspectives and opinions, since they can be misleading: When I read history, I want facts, data, and evidence, and I want any analysis provided by them to be based on fact. Too, I want it to let the facts speak for themselves, rather than have some writer or speaker cherry-pick facts to back up a questionable argument.
So, as an example, was slavery a factor in Colonial America? Yes: There were slaves in each of the 13 colonies, plus the ones in the North (where there were fewer) were heavily engaged in the slave trade. As well, was racism a problem in early American society? Yes: Though slavery went away in the North during the first half of the 19th century, its people were still racist towards Blacks. And, of course, the South practiced slavery (with Deep South states engaging in it more than the others). These (and other points I brought up earlier) are analyses that are built on facts: The first one came from a biography of John Adams I read last year, while the second came from a 12-volume series on American history that was was published in the mid-1970s, which I re-read last year and this year.
Or, here’s another: Was slavery a repugnant institution that corrupted those who engaged in it, and which caused a lot of pain, suffering, and misery? Yes: Various slave narratives that I’ve read (such as “12 Years a Slave” and “Up from Slavery”) made this abundantly clear, as did Grant’s autobiography (in which he ruthlessly attacked the institution of slavery as being why we invaded Mexico in 1845, and why we annexed half of that country). Sherman’s autobiography didn’t have anything kind to say about it, either. Finally, when I was in Nicaragua, I learned about the foolish American adventurer William Walker, who tried to create an empire in Central America. And, from what I read later, he wanted that region to join the U.S., so as to create more slave states and to expand slavery.
Did I need to read the “1619 Project,” study Critical Race Theory, or go through any of the works you’ve suggested to understand this? No. Indeed, none of them are necessary to understand that–though if reading those or believing in CRT leads some to better understanding that aspect of American history, then who am I to tell anyone any differently?
You wrote that Red states are more intolerant than Blue ones. What evidence backs up your assertion? And, where does it come from? Also, what evidence backs up your assertion that Ron DeSantis is a bigot? And, where does it come from?
See, absent evidence, your claim about Governor DeSantis seems like yet another one pushed by partisans that attacks a politician, and which is meant to say to others in the party something along the lines of “you may not like our candidate, but have you seen the piece of work that the other party is pushing?”
And, I have a problem with that, both because it is propaganda and also because it reminds me of some of the claims against Governor Romney during the 2012 election, which portrayed him as being sexist, biased in favor of the rich, a 1980s-style corporate raider, and an ignoramus who had no business serving as president. Perhaps as a result, Obama won re-election that year.
Yet, having thought about it since then, I’ve come to the conclusion that they smeared a good man and a highly qualified presidential candidate, and that it would have been better had he defeated Obama in 2012. Among other things, we would’ve done a better job of standing up to Russia in 2014 when it invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and it would’ve likely kept Trump from running for president in 2016. That, and if he’d been re-elected in 2016, we would’ve avoided many of the diplomatic problems that Trump caused (especially with our allies), we wouldn’t have had incidents like what happened in Charlottesville (VA) in 2017, and we would have had a much better response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a lower death (and disability) toll from it. On top of that, your party would have likely done well in the 2014 midterm elections (and likely would have also done well in 2018, had Romney still been president, plus a Democrat likely would have been elected president in 2020).
Hindsight is 20/20, yes, but it is telling how different things would have been had Mitt Romney won. Thus, I am dubious of your claims about Ron DeSantis.
Concerning your point about the GOP, I agree that it is currently a concern, especially given how many elected Republicans have enabled Trump, and how many buy into his lies about the 2020 election (never mind that his statements on other elections suggest that, to him, voter fraud happens whenever an election does not go as he wishes). Indeed, had it not been for others in that party backing him, his 2020-21 coup attempt would have been nothing more than the rantings and ravings of a sore loser.
Sooner or later, the Republican Party will pay the price for this at the polls.
That said, the GOP does have plenty of leaders it could band around and who could help it to once again become a conservative / center-Right party, such as Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Larry Hogan, among many others. Once Trumpism (and MAGA-ism) is defeated, it will likely rally around them and others. After all, it did defeat McCarthyism and renounced Nixon, so I am sure it will eventually do the same for Trumpism.
Finally, even here in blood-red Oklahoma, where more than a few Republicans believe the lie about massive voter fraud in the 2020 election, the GOP is not a monolithic group: Governor Stitt is facing an extremely close race against his Democratic opponent (Joy Hofmeister), which he might lose, plus the Democratic candidate for state school superintendent is leading her GOP opponent, who is one of these Trump-supporters who thinks that critical race theory is a bigger issue in education than such minor problems as the ongoing teacher shortage, low teacher salaries, and low funding for education. Too, voters in this state regularly vote out problematic politicians (such as the attorney general this year), to say nothing of how the previous governor (Mary Fallin) was roundly disliked by 2018–even by Republicans. Finally, a majority of the state GOP (in the legislature) opposes Governor Stitt’s move to push vouchers and charter schools, since they would harm rural schools.
On a different note, I have something I need to bring up with you. After my first long comment, I ended it by writing “…if you agree with me, great; if not, at least we can agree that we disagree.”
It is clear that we do not agree and will not agree, which would be fine if we could both agree to disagree. And, I acknowledge that you are a highly-educated professor of education who has read a lot, who has seen a lot in her lifetime, and whose opinions are based on things you have read and observed. Too, though I do not agree with you on a number of points, I do not see that as being a problem. For, life would be very boring if everyone agreed on everything, plus it would be harder to find the truth (or the right answer) on different issues.
On top of that, through our debate, I have responded to the points you have brought up, and I have included evidence when appropriate. Yet, when you have responded with me, you have acted differently, including strongly suggesting I should be woke (even though I am not and have no interest in it), suggesting I read the “1619 Project” (even though I have now explained that I’ve tried reading it and have no interest in continuing that, along with why), and suggesting I read other things that back other things you believe. You also haven’t responded to a number of other points I made, such as my problems with people who are woke (to paraphrase what I wrote earlier, a number of the ones whom I’ve met have been as self-righteous and hypocritical as some Born-again Christians I have had the misfortune of coming across [one of whom even told me I’d go to Hell for not being one]), what I wrote about moral self-licensing, and my points about history, among others.
The fact is that we disagree on these issues, and we will never agree on them. I can respect that: I well remember having enjoyable and mind-expanding discussions in graduate school with both a Communist and a conservative Republican, and I especially liked how we implicitly agreed to disagree; plus I had a professor in college who, in spite of being a non-denominational Christian minister (that is, a conservative Evangelical), was always open for a discussion and never seemed to judge others who disagreed with him, which I liked and respected. If being woke, being aware of what you consider to be your privilege, and reading works like the “1619 Project” means that you try to act in a better manner towards others (while being aware that you are flawed and make mistakes), then who am I to tell you to act or believe any differently?
You are wrong.
You are wrong about critical race theory, which has NOTHING WHATEVER TO DO WITH MARXISM OR THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL. What you write is nonsense.
I knew Derrick Bell. We discussed CRT. I know Kimberlé Crenshaw and have discussed CRT with her. CRT is about the roots of racism in the US. It has nothing whatever to do with Marxism.
DeSantis is a homophobe, a racist, a bigot.
Do you really think that Liz Cheney or Adam Kinziger will take over the GOP?
Everyone with a shred of respect for the rule of law has been kicked out of or left the GOP. It is the party of Trump.
I have provided written sources to back up my argument that critical race theory is based on (and influenced by) Marxism. You, however, have not. Indeed, you claiming repeatedly (and in all caps, to boot) that it is not does not change that.
You have also refused to provide evidence to back up your claims that Governor DeSantis is a bigot, plus you have doubled down on your argument that the GOP is the party of Trump.
I know, from reading your Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch), that you have had a long and distinguished career in education (including serving as the assistant secretary of education, writing 22 books, and receiving quite a few honors and awards). As well, from looking at your blog and from how you have responded to my posts, it is clear that you are quite opinionated. Indeed, if anyone has earned the right to hold forth and state their views on politics and education, you definitely have.
Regardless, we do not agree on the issues we have argued about, and we likely never will, no matter how much longer we continue this discussion, and no matter the manner in which we do so. So, we will have to agree to disagree on these, and leave it at that. Farewell, then, and good luck with your blog and your classes.
Changing the subject, and for what it’s worth, I agree with your argument about Medicare Advantage (https://dianeravitch.net/2022/10/19/beware-of-medicare-advantage/), plus I respect the fact that you have changed your views on issues like testing and school choice based on new information (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch). As well, based on what I’ve read in the news here, I see no reason to disagree with your arguments about charter schools (https://dianeravitch.net/category/charter-schools/): All you have to do is read about EPIC charter schools here in Oklahoma (see here https://kfor.com/news/local/timeline-epic-charter-schools-years-of-alleged-wrongdoing/), or Ryan Walters’ salary from the Walton Foundation (which you’ve already covered at https://dianeravitch.net/2022/05/23/oklahoma-billionaires-pushing-charter-schools-and-vouchers-underwrite-salary-of-state-commissioner-of-education/), to see what’s really wrong with them in this state alone–and to understand better why Jena Nelson is leading him in the school superintendent race (https://www.kosu.org/politics/2022-09-28/new-poll-shows-jena-nelson-leads-over-ryan-walters-in-oklahoma-superintendent-race).
I don’t know enough about common core to feel comfortable giving views about it. But, it is interesting to me that you went from supporting it to opposing it, and is especially interesting how you indicate that it ignores the needs of several groups of students, such as ELLs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Ravitch).
Ron DeSantis passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is homophobic. That’s bigotry. Children of gay couples should not be shamed in school. He passed the STOP WOKE law, which makes it difficult IG not impossible to teach about our nation’s long history of racism. That’s bigotry.
I’m sorrr that I cannot convince you that the critical study of racism is not Marxist. It’s history. Attacking CRT intimidates teachers who want to teach accurate history. Were you aware of the Tulsa massacre? Did you learn about it in school or college? How many blacks people werelynched by mobs in America? Were you aware that the KKK held rallies in northern cities? All these facts—facts!—are part of CRT. I urge you to read RichardRothstein’s THE COLOR OF LAW to learn how present day housing segregation was created by federal and state laws.
Isn’t calling CRT Marxist just name calling, however inaccurate to avoid dealing with substance?
Proof that DeSantis is a shameless liar:
Outstanding response. You ran circles around this angry feminist.
I am a liberal, Democratic-Socialist. I graduated from college along time ago, and traveled the world at the same time – I supported myself in every way since I left home at 17 years old. I have only recently felt comfortable saying I am a democratic-Socialist, since Bernie Sanders came on the scene. And, people (not republicans), have ACTUALLY learned what it means. Americans are so uneducated, especially about the world outside of the United States. They don’t even know that Canada, and the Scandinavian countries are examples of this political genre – and not China, Russia, and other communist countries.
When I was young, and if you sympathized with “African Americans “, you called them colored people, and you were racist if you called them black. I was taught by my Native American father not to judge, and not to “see color”. Now, if you say colored, and not black, and you don’t give a shit about peoples skin color, and love everyone – you are not “woke”. I grew up in California which was called the melting pot, and I loved that about where I lived in San Diego. My first boyfriend was a Mexican, a surfer, and beautiful. I have never been anything close to racist. When I was growing up, “gay” meant happy in the dictionary, and then their was also the slang word “gay” which meant kinda silly, kinda weird, or just kinda of an exaggeration. To this day, I tell all my gay friends who I love – you cannot own the word “gay”. Sorry, but to change the meaning of words is, well, pretty “gay”. And, now on social media we do it on the daily. Sticks and stones people, sticks and stones. My name is Bretley. When I was little “old” people would tell me that Bretley was a boys name. I am female, and I was named after Bret Ashley, from Hemmingways, “ The Sun Also Rises”. My name is a combination of Bret, and Ashley. I have had my name mispronounced since I was born, and almost every time I introduce myself to people to this day. I have had several nicknames; Bret, Bratley, Bretles, Breastley, Bentley, and B-Hole…. The only thing I hate to be called is Brentley. It sounds ugly to me, and most everyone hears the “n” in my name that actually isn’t there. It’s because of the fancy car, and people hear what they want to hear. Right now, where I work, I told them call me B-hole if you want , but please do not call me Brentley – I hate it. So they call me B-hole, it’s silly it makes them laugh, and happy, and I don’t care what people call me, as long as it isn’t Brentley !!! Lol 😂
I love that we finally call men bitches too. I mean a bitch is a bitch, and everyone can be bitchy. It’s just a word, and being a woman, I have never owned it, well unless I was being one 🤷🏻♀️ By the way, cussing is scientifically proven to relive stress, and research says that cussing can be a sign of intelligence – look it up. Sticks, and stones.
The “woke” movement doesn’t have any intelligent, and or intellectual backing. You get rid of a word, don’t kid yourself, another shitty meaning of a innocent word will appear – I am waiting for a word like Banana to be banned 🙄Americans are looking for any reason to fight, and now we are banning books? Are you kidding me communists !! How do like that word? Dr. Zeus is a raciest – are you kidding me??? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard? With Social media, with all the dumb, and ignorant people who love to hate, you actually think the “woke” movement is bringing people together, helping with racism ?
Leave words, books, and history alone!!! You are just causing more reasons for people to hate on each other. I recently spoke to a Native American friend of mine who also believes the movement is “stupid”, and “dangerous”. Does his option count? Hello, of course the Black Lives Matter movement was awesome, well, until the black Woman who started the movement took everyone’s money who contributed. Oh America, when will we grow up…
America is two hundred years old, that’s like 2 mos. compared to the long histories of other counties in this world. Some of them have not learned much, but we are just ridiculous. Great ole America is just a young, and spoiled child in this world.
We are a capitalist society, and that means the upper 2% have all the money, and the bottom of that pyramid is where the poorest class is, and is kept down. That is the only way for a capitalist country to work… A Democratic Socialist country would mean free health care, and education for everyone. But, we can’t do that, that would be way to fair to everyone. Now we are headed to a two class society, with just the very rich, and the very poor, and no more middle class – just like Mexico. Mexico, where I spent so much of my life growing up, and visiting, being that I grew up in San Diego. Been there, seen it… I have been to Scandinavia as well. It was awesome to visit a country that wasn’t sexist, and resist like America is. No one sees what is really happening. It’s fucking scary. Watching the “Hand Maidens Tale” is horrifying, especially after the turn over of Roe vs Wade. We have so much more to worry about, then people raping innocent words, and renaming them. So much more to worry about … Wake up and smell the roses people.
BTW, I go on line, and read, and use the internet as an encyclopedia- but I do not belong to any social media apps. No Facebook, No instagram, No Tumbler, etc. I believe It is the down fall of the human race – Again, why don’t you actually wake up people !!! Do something that will actually help the situation that we are headed into to. Again, leave words, and innocent people alone!!! Let everyone be called what they want to be, be respectful, be kind, and wake up to the fact you can’t own words.
If we were actually a country that was woke, and people that cared, we would be in Ukraine saving an innocent country, and innocent lives, instead of worrying about Dr. Zeus books being racist. Children love his books, they teach love for everyone, and by no means cause racism 🙄 If we were a country that was actually woke, we would realize that we came to America because we wanted to be free to be who we wanted, but we then; should have not slaughtered the “free” people who lived here first, we should not have enslaved people from another country, and we should not tell people that we have to change the meaning of words every couple of generations to make ourselves feel better- cuz it doesn’t change a damn thing. Again, pretty sure the word banana doesn’t have much time left on earth. I mean it kinda resembles a penis? Such a joke.
P.S. I am also pretty sure since I do not agree with this article (I don’t use the word post) this response will never make it to the site, and will be deleted. This is what happens every time I do not agree with the “Woke” of America.
Bretley Danner
(AKA B-Hole)
Bretley,
Whether you know it or not, you are woke. Being woke means you are awake to injustice, to racism, to bigotry and you don’t like it.
There is no “woke movement.”
There are millions of people who would like our society to be more equal, more fair, more just.
If you agree, you are woke.
Unfortunately, there is a “Woke Movement”, and they are attacking words every day. People who claim to be part of the movement, and are on a rampage that is not, as I said, built on anything intelligent. My latest “favorite” is from a food critic from the washing post, who wrote we should no longer use the word exotic to describe food. She somehow turned the word exotic, into being racist? And, we must be sensitive to people of color? People who are exotic? What the hell is wrong with thinking people from cultures different then our own are exotic? It’s ridiculous. I was also attacked recently by a someone for saying one of my favorite places for Mexican food was in San Diego.
The person first said, “really, you are saying your favorite Mexican food is in San Diego, and not in Mexico?” I had to then remind him that San Diego is on the boarder of Mexico. And, when I explained how “they”, referring to Mexicans, brought their food recipes across the border a long time ago, and it transitioned into its own style of Mexican food. Prepared by Mexicans. He then yelled at me for using the pronoun “they”. Ridiculous!! There are so many damn pronouns for people today concerning their sexuality, that I cannot keep up. Again, making me a bigot.
I also was horrified, when for the very first time I tried to respond on an app. called Reddit, and was called a Troll, and kicked off immediately. Why? Because I would not agree that this really sweet, young woman, who said she was so due for a haircut cut after Covid was dying down, because her hair was so nappy – was a horrible racist. She was white, blond, and had straight hair. Again, nappy in the dictionary is a word for fabric that pills, and produces little balls on the fabric. Black people then began to use the word for their hair when it was all messy. I was the asshole, and the Troll for sticking up for her, and not calling her a racist, stupid, bitch. She apparently appropriated the word that only black people were allowed to appropriate, which is a crime. Not a mistake, maybe, but an actually crime. Give me a break.
Again, as I said, I am also a bigot for using the slang word “gay” as I knew it, and that has been around a lot longer then the word “gay” meaning homosexual. That’s fine that homosexuals appropriated the word for themselves- but they do not own the word. And, I am not a racist for feeling fine using it in three different situations, for three different descriptions of something. Gay happy, gay silly, and gay homosexual. I am actually wondering? Are we allowed to say homosexual anymore? I feel like I might be attacked for that?
You may be an intelligent person that understands- but there are a lot of stupid “sheep” people out there, that cannot intellectualize what you and I mean when we say “woke”. They are attacking innocent people that are not doing anything wrong. It’s dangerous… And, the books being banned for not being “woke” is absolutely disgusting. Dr. Zeus was also from San Diego, and his family actually stopped printing some of his books because the “woke movement, “ called them out for being racist. I guess they caved because they didn’t want all his books banned.
That’s attacking someone with a great imagination- ludicrous. I am pretty sure you understand where I am coming from. I think you might try using different, and old common words to explain yourself. You are not part of this unintelligent movement. I would stay away from the word “woke” if I were you. I will not be part of it myself.
Thanks for being you, and do want you want of course, but I will not join that train to nowhere… And, I will respond as such every time I hear it used in the way the “Woke Movement “ is using it. Again, look it up, there is a movement.
Sent from my iPhone
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People say whatever they want. You do. So do I. Don’t let it bother you. Laugh.
Respect is something one earns! You children should read and learn about the uncountable sacrifices people made for this great country during WWII. They never wined or complained. You kids cry over every little thing that doesn’t go your way. The rest of us set and laugh at all of you knowing some day you might figure life out!
Your Marxism WOKE crap is just that. CRAP! GOP Anti-Woke people will prevail. The more you teach this insanity, the harder it will be on your people when it is denounced. I hope it comes sooner rather than later. It’s just an extreme liberal fad that won’t last.
Jim Gray,
Woke means awake to truth and reality. Is that a problem for you?
Hi Diane, I find your essay interesting. But, I do not think you quite understand what “woke” means. The term woke is more complex than “being aware of injustice and inequality,” and while yes it applies in most minds to critical race theory, it’s not limited to that subject. Sadly, the dictionary is lacking in the actual definition and one must read published articles and books from CRT authors to truly understand what it is. Probably one of the easiest sources to understand the ideology of “wokism” if you will, is “Critical Race Theory: an introduction,” by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic. Of course, please understand that there are difference of opinions among those who subscribe to CRT, however this basic primer is typical and at least a good reference for those wanting to understand from a broad perspective.
There are four basic tenants. 1. “Racism is ordinary not aberrational or abnormal.” 2. Systems of oppression serve “important purposes both psychic and material for the dominant group,” namely white Americans. 3. “Race and races are the product of social thought and relations,” meaning they are created by white people to harm other non-white people. 4. Minority status “brings with it a presumed confidence to speak about race and racism.”
Basically what this is saying is that all inequality is to be understood as inequity (Critical theory, not to be confused with critical thinking as they are not even remotely related, is a redefining of words in many instances.) It means that any discrepancy, social, economic, class, etc. can be blamed on racism, without any proof or explanation. If a discrepancy is found, the fact that it exists is proof to CRT adherents that racism is rampant. Yet, when questioned how, what, or why, the person asking questions is labeled “racist,” bigot,” “ignorant,” etc. and completely ignored. But wait, if a concrete example cannot be produced, how is one to fix the source of racism or prove that it is happening?
All institutions were built by rich white men and are therefore racist. There is no explanation as to how they are racist. Simply the fact that they were created by the “dominant” group is proof enough. The United States Constitution is the most popular document to be attacked by CRT experts. Critical thinking be damned, who needs to provide proof or actually think for themselves? Racism exists! And it’s running rampant. But, if you can’t see it then you’re racist!
What this theory amounts to is the complete removal of individual risk. It doesn’t matter what someone has accomplished or done for themselves, everyone is reduced to the color of their skin. People are reduced to a group, whether it’s African American, white, Latino, LGBTQ, etc. People only exist in that group in which they identify in opposition to all others. Groups are understood as either oppressed (PoC, etc.) or oppressor (white, male). When one breaks down CRT and understands that it is breaking people into groups which then assigns value to that group depending on their oppressor or oppressed status, what does this sound like? It sound a lot like this definition: “the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.” I’ll let you look up the word, which is from the Oxford Languages dictionary.
So when schools apply CRT to their education and teach children who aren’t white that they will amount to nothing because they are oppressed and that if they are white they are automatically racist oppressors, even if they try not to be. Excuse me for saying, but if I had children I would be content with them learning unrevised history (one positive thing CRT has done is increase our understanding and learning of Ethnic groups, which I approve of, but placing judgement on the past accomplishes nothing especially since not a single person alive can remotely understand those times beyond what has survived), math, english, science, etc. God forbid if I had a daughter, she would be very confused if taught CRT. She would be both oppressed (woman) and an oppressor (European American heritage).
Schools have no business teaching ANYTHING related to sex and gender, whether it’s gay or heterosexual, marriage, relationships, etc. What business does the state have to tell families what is right and wrong. That should be a private affair among the family. Again, stick with the basics like math, english, science, history, etc. By the way, there is nothing in the bill “Florida Parental Rights in Education” that says “don’t say gay.” That term is misleading and completely wrong. Disinformation much? If you think I’m wrong, go read it. Where in the bill does it say discriminate against LGBTQ people? It simply says that the state through public education has no business teaching gender and sexuality to children. It’s quite simple.
You say the “1619 Project” is fact. What in it is fact? Prove it, using examples. Because, while the founding father’s were not perfect, there is not a shred of proof that the United States Constitution was created to keep the white man on top and the African American below him. Maybe you should read that document as well. I’d like to hear where it says that this should happen. Saying the founding father’s owned slaves and are therefore racist and anything they produce is racist is a weak argument and proves absolutely nothing.
You say the word fascism quite a lot as well. Have you looked up its definition? Because, I do not think you quite understand what it is. Facism defined by the Oxford says: “an extreme right-wing political system or attitude that is in favour of strong central government, aggressively promoting your own country or race above others, and that does not allow any opposition.” Ron Desantis is not telling people they cannot teach their children specific ideas, he is simply saying it’s not the place of the public school system to do so. So where is the censorship? Let’s talk about book banning since that tends to be the oft cited example of censorship. Have you looked at any of the books most people have problems with? Are you okay with your middle schooler reading about boys giving oral sex to another boy at the age of 6? Go pick up the book “Beyond Magenta” and tell me you’re okay letting children read it. As a study in college, fine. Maturity matters. CRT has no place in schools, it does not teach children about racism. It teaches them to become racist.
I will debate the “right-wing political system,” in this definition as “strong central government” is typically a liberal tenant, where-as conservatives tend to favor smaller government. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but all communist, socialist and Marxist based governments can only thrive through big government because it hinges on complete control (of ideas and beliefs) and propaganda. And this makes me think. Which government is forcing censorship? It’s not Ron Desantis. He’s just trying to make the schools focus on actual education rather than social beliefs of a particular group.
There is no “aggressive” push to promote the country or ones race (unless you buy into CRT). In fact, every where I turn, everyone is saying what a racist and terrible place we live in, except no one can tell me how. Can you?
Anyways CRT sounds like the opposite of Dr. King’s teachings. Dr. King fought and died for the idea that everyone be judged by the content of ones character not the color of their skin. CRT reduces everyone to skin color. Enough said.
You don’t learn about CRT by reading people who are critics, who twist words.
You learn about it by reading its founders, like Derrick Bell and Kimberlé Crenshaw. What you believe comes from critics, not from the CRT advocates.
Have you read the 1619 Project? I have. It’s breathtaking, especially Nicole Hannah-Jones long introductory essay. You don’t have to agree with everything she writes to admire the brilliance of her work. Historians have debated her claim that one of the reasons for the American Revolution was to protect slavery. Good historians come out on different sides.
You say there is “not a shred of proof” that the Constitution was meant to keep the white man on top. Are you aware that the Constitution said nothing about slavery and that it defined black men as 3/5 of a person for purposes of allocating representation. No one with education and a fair mind would say that blacks received fair treatment or equal treatment in the 18th century, the 19th century, or even for most of the 20th century. One could argue that black people don’t get fair or equal treatment today.
When people like you quote Dr. King’s hope that one day his children will not be judged by the color of their skin, it’s a sign of hypocrisy and insincerity. Even today, people are judged by the color of their skin, by their religion, and by other identities. America is not and never was color-blind.
Dr. King was expressing his hope that one day his wish would be true. I share that hope. But it’s not true yet.
I’m sorry this is laughable! Critical Race Theory: A Primer IS in support of CRT. They are definitely not critics, but advocates to educate people interested in understanding what it is. Read it. I simply provided a definition from people within the camp for you to consider. If you do not like their definition, perhaps you should reconsider “I am Woke, you should be too,” mantra. I can also site plenty of critics, but to truly understand something you need to read what the advocates actually say like Delgado and Stefancic. Where do you think Derek Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw found these ideas? It was through Herbert Marcuze, who immigrated to America where he promoted his studies of Critical Theory (the overarching school of thought that encompasses CRT) which is a reboot of Marxism interpreted through culture rather than economics. So yeah, Marxism, a branch of socialism, the same government model that many countries used to exterminate millions of people. Not a great track record.
I am not insincere. To say that making people aware of skin color, as CRT does, makes people colorblind is a contradiction. If people are to move past racism, people must move past looking and judging skin color. Judging someone by skin color is racism, pure and simple.
I am in NO way claiming that African Americans were even remotely treated fairly in the 18th, 19th and into the 20th centuries. Not in a single sentence did I say that or imply. Obviously, the model of slavery is terrible. I’m not even claiming that racism does not exist. Sadly, some people are incapable of moving past illogical judgments. What I have difficulty seeing is systemic racism. What current institutions are racist? Obviously, many institution discriminated in the past, but which ones do so today? Could the very obvious inequalities people experience be something other than racism? .
Most people aren’t willing to look that far. They see and inequality and it’s automatically racism, but no proof is provided. If there was, I would be right there with everyone to solve it, but no one can seem to explain how a particular institution is racist. If you cannot identify the problem there cannot be a solution.
I have read the “1619 Project.” Again, some great points were made, but the conclusions are not verifiable. The 3/5th’s Compromise while not perfect was a step in the right direction. It was slave owners specifically who hated it. The thing that I find so interesting, is that the Critical Theory movement is focused on all of the wrongs of the past, and making people pay reparations. Who is to pay? Who today is enslaving people in the United States? Up until the Civil War, Ever. Single. Nation. participated in slavery, including African Americans and Native Americans. Both groups captured members of rival tribes and sold them to Europeans. Europeans were likewise enslaved within Africa, the Middle East, etc. It was a terrible institution, but no one was exempt. It was not until Britain and the United States ended it. Conveniently, that fact is always omitted. It takes a long time to change society and somehow we are now moving backwards after there has been much progress made. Racism does not explain majority of the problems many of these groups face today.
I do not believe it is possible to make everyone “colorblind.” But if you listen to majority adherents of CRT they accuse the “colorblind” of being racist. Explain that. People were moving in this direction, again, CRT is forcing people to acknowledge and now judge others by skin color. Simply having lighter skin pigmentation makes you a racist. Period.
And people like me, huh? I simply used the same quote as you and demonstrated how the “woke” actually believe the opposite. This is why you do not know what it truly meant to be “woke.”
Woke means awake to injustice. CRT means understanding the historical roots of racial injustice.
Nothing more, nothing less.
You are very wrong. Woke means cultural Marxist, CRT is fight the so far unproven existence of current systemic racism through racism. Have fun with your brainwashed perspective! You give the rest of us something to laugh about. Thank you for actually sharing your nonsense in public.
Ceecee,
Are you asleep to the world?
Exactly, Diane. Well said. That you are so right about these matters is evidenced by the fervor of the attacks on you for saying such things.
Their only possible response is screaming, for they have no rational arguments.
CRT is white guilt shaming and black victimization. Nothing more, nothing less.
Crap-crap crap! No wonder this country is in the state it is in! Go stand on the corner and beg for money to pay for your student loans. How about doing some meaningful work instead of sitting on your FAT ass thinking- It’s not fair! It’s not fair!
Ed. They‘ve been spoiled and brainwashed into being that way. Hollywood, academia, MSM, raised with silver spoons and participation trophies.
Woke fascist bigots are the ones who threaten freedom and want a totalitarian rule. The United States was founded as a republic and not a democracy. Democracies always degenerate into a dictatorship which is what the Democrat elites want. If you truly open your eyes then you will see the hate and division in this country is coming from the left; coming from progressive liberals. It’s coming from the woke.
Fascism has always been and will always be a progressive liberal movement. There is no such thing as a conservative fascist. The Nazis were progressive liberals. The KKK were founded by progressive liberal Democrats. The nature of KKK beliefs is anti-conservative. Anyone who says the Republican and Democratic Parties switched is either deluded or a liar. The parties have never switched.
Being woke means to be a degenerate who wants to destroy the United States; destroy the republic for which it stands. I know who the true fascists are in this country and it certainly isn’t conservatives.
Keep in mind the KKK had great financial support from, the DEMOCRATS! 🤓🤫
SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUPPPPPP! FED WITH THOSE OF YOU TRYING TO TELL US TO CHANGE AND NOT HAVE A VOICE! THE VERY THING YOU ARE RAVING ABOUT IS WHAT YOU AND YOUR STEPFORD FOLLOWERS ARE DOING! YOU DON’T REALLY WANT EQUALITY, BUT FOR EVERYBODY TO SAY, THINK, AND DO WHAT YOU WANT! SO WHY DON’’T YOU WAKE UP AND REALIZE YOU AND THE STEPFORDS DON’ T WANT FREEDOM, BUT FOR EVERYONE TO CONFORM TO YOUR BELIEFS OR THEY ARE WRONG! GUESS WHAT!?ALL YOU HAVE CREATED IS SEGREGATION ONCE AGAIN. I WILL NOT CONFORM AND NEITHER WILL TRUE BELIEVERS IN FREEDOM AND EQUALITY. YOU AND THE STEDFORDS ARE THE VERY THING THAT YOU CLAIM TO BE FIGHTING AGAINST. WHAT IS NEXT? PUT ALL THAT DO NOT SAY BELIEVE, AND CONFORM TO YOU “WOKE” BELIEFS (NO MATTER WHAT YOU CHANGE THE ACRONYM TO ), IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS, GAS CHAMBERS, EXECUTE THEM, CLOSE DOWN CHURCHES, GET RID OF GOD, INDOCTRINATE CHILDREN, TAKE CHILDREN AWAY FROM PARENTS THAT DON’T BELIEVE AS YOU DO, CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION, CHANGE HISTORY, READ ONLY BOOKS THAT YOU FEEL ARE APPROPRIATE, PUT WARNINGS ON MOVIES , ONLY ALLOW SHOWS AND MOVIES THAT PORTRAY “WOKE” , CONTROL SCHOOLS , DO AWAY WITH VOTING.AND ALLOW THE STEPFORD WOKE TO CHOOSE WHO LEADS THIS COUNTRY , AND JUST REALLY BECOME HITLER …YES I SAID IT. THE ANSWER WILL BE NO!!!!! TRUTH, LOVE, FAITH, AND BELIEVING THAT EVERYONE HAS A GOD GIVEN RIGHT TO LIVE, AND WORSHIP, AND RAISE THEIR CHILDREN THE WAY THEY SEE FIT…WE WILL RISE UP AND SAY ABSOLUTELY THAT WE HAVE RIGHTS AND WILL FIGHT FOR THEM!!!! DON’T THINK FOR ONE SECOND THE STEPFORD WOKE “ WACK” WILL TAKE OVER. THERE ARE MORE OF US THAN YOU ARE TRYING TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK! WE WILL NOT BE CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE UNEDUCATED TO THE WORD “STEPFORD” IT REFERS TO BLIND FOLLOWERS WHO KILL OUT ANYONE WHO DOES NOT FOLLOW THEIR FAKE, CONTROLLING, GASLIGHTING, BRAINWASHING, DANGEROUS, IGNORANT, UNEDUCATED, LEADERSHIP BY NARCISSISTIC, SOCIOPATHS, MUDEROUS INDIVIDUALS WHO LIVE ONLY FOR DESTRUCTION , NOT HARMONIOUS INDIVIDUAL THINKERS, DOERS, AND LIFE AFFIRMING TRANQUILITY!!!!!!!!!!
Please take your meds, Sandra.
Oh thank you for that educated reply. Now I can share your blog and reply with all my friends how one of the WACK WOKE REPLIED!
You’re the one that needs those meds😩😫
Diane, you need to stop watching The View.
Harry, I have never seen The View.
Amen Sandra. They are fascist and completely blind due to their OUTRAGEOUSLY ELITIST IDEOLOGY. What does happen to us who won’t conform to their ideology? I will tell you where to find the answers ….in THE NON REVISIONIST HISTORY BOOKS! They must rewrite history as well, to pretend their ideology has never caused any damage. I will say this to the so called elitist on this site. YOU WILL NEVER LIVE TO SEE YOUR DREAM…I WILL DEFEND MY RIGHT TO THINK AND SPEAK THE WAY I WANT TO THE DEATH. YOU ARE TOTAL IDIOTS TO THINK OTHER WONT DO AS I WILL. Maybe you can get that transsexual to throw its heels at me or one of the other soft and squishy whiners your club is filled with, maybe they can lead the charge, but it’s NEVER ENDED WELL FOR ALL THE OTHER HISTORICAL ELITIST.
Thank you, Diane! xoxoxoxo
–Bob Shepherd, antifascist
Just because you place Antifa( oops, I meant anti fascism) next to your name…lol,lol,lol,lol…think the way we think or else! Nope, no fascism here…lol,lol,lol,lol,lol. Wow , that’s how fascism works, you’re so blinded by your elitist mores and ethos, you see no problem with forcing to believe and then eliminating all non compliant citizens. History repeats itself, only the names and dates change. You all are doing the exact same thing that Stalin and all the other evil socialists have done and you can’t see it at all. Your completely and utterly blind like they were, despite the body count.
I am definitely against fascists. This country went to war against fascism from 1941-1945.
Are you a fascist?
I actually know something about Stalin and Stalinism, Austin. I’ve studied this history. Something that I strongly suspect that you haven’t. Want to share with us a few of the books that you have read on Russian history of the 19th and 20th centuries? Just the top 12 or so.
Yeah, I thought so.
If I had a dime for every time people utterly clueless about a topic started pontificating about it on social media!!!!
And its “You’re completely and utterly blind as they were.” Your versus you’re. Like versus as. But if you check a third-grade grammar, you’ll learn the differences.
There’s a popular expression for what you did there, Austin. It’s “talking out your ____.”
Wow! What a nest of wasps you have here. (CAPITALIZE the word if you prefer.) The racism, hatred, and sheer blockheadedness of your “fans” is quite amazing. They talk but say nothing, SCREAM but have no idea what they are even screaming about. You are one brave person. But, unfortunately, none of them are listening, because they refuse to hear…
The regular commenters on this blog are rational, thoughtful people. I learn from them every day. They disagree civilly. I appreciate them. The haters are not regulars here. They slither in, spew venom, slither away.
I’ve got too many blogs I want to follow to keep up, but I may have have to try yours for awhile. I avoided it the first time because I like small blogs, not too many followers. But maybe I’m issing something…
I must be a regular to comment. Nope, no elitist attitude there. You people are pathetic. If I don’t say or think what you insist I must think and say, then I have no value….wow! You people are scary Marys for sure.
Austin—
Hopefully you’ll find this explanation of the difference between socialism & fascism, from the US military (not the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBS, etc.; or is the US military also a left-wing organization?), useful. https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/hrnm/Education/EducationWebsiteRebuild/RussianPropagandaAboutGermany/Socialism,%20Fascism,%20Capitalism,%20Communism%20Background.pdf Someone may support one of them, or neither, but not both. There are no “socialist fascists.”
There are a variety of opinions posted respectfully on this blog. There are sometimes even heated, but fairly (not even totally) respectful, arguments. The key word there is respect. You claim you’re rejected if you don’t agree with “everyone,” but you’ve posted some very inflammatory, personal accusations, up to something that could be interpreted as a death threat, without being blocked. Diane has even given you the opportunity to explain how “people like you must be removed permanently” isn’t a death threat.
The only thing that’s happened is people have disagreed with you; if you truly want dissenting opinions to be included, you should welcome that disagreement. Diane rarely bans anyone from posting here, & in several years as a regular here, I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve seen her ban. I’ve never seen her ban anyone for posting a contrary opinion, no matter how different from others. The only reason I’ve ever seen her ban anyone is for repeated extreme rudeness & hostility, including personal character attacks, as opposed to expressing a different opinion with reasons &, perhaps, also sources.
Thank you, Lenny. I’m hoping that Austin will clarify if his comment about “removing me permanently” is a death threat.
I’m also hoping he will explain whether he is a fascist since he despises those like me who oppose fascism.
[…] “What would you say about someone who is not WOKE? They are “asleep,” “unconscious,” “indifferent.” They are “Mind Closed, Mouth Open.”” – Diane Ravitch […]
I was taught woke ideology at home when I was very young by my ParentS: Love thy neighbor, be kind to others, respect your elders, share with others, etc. Schools should concentrate on teaching students reading, math, the sciences, and HOW to learn and think for themselves critically so as to better assimilate into this great society called America.
We need to move forward as one group. Not divided into groups of the oppressed and the oppressors. We ALL should celebrate our successes and our heritage instead of continuously being beaten down for our mistakes.
There are so many examples that America truly is the land of opportunity. We just need to focus on taking it. It’s there for the taking if keep looking forward instead of backwards.
Those are called Christian principles. You just relabeled them woke (woke, which means absolute nothing now a days). Meaning you can’t be honest nor straightforward with your answer. It’s Always some kind of spin and misguided definition to fit the modern definition of woke nonsense. It’s called, “ your narrative” and all must subscribe and live by “ your definition” or you’re labeled a such and such. That is out right Fascism! Live how I say or else!
Jesus Christ would not recognize your hatred as part of his creed. He preached faith, hope, charity, love thy neighbor. And he was Jewish.
You’re Just another fascist Diane, in a long line of Socialist elitist, who are responsible for 100 million deaths with this ideology you cling to. I bet, you’re gonna say what every other socialist fascist has stated, “ I’m different and we’re REALLY for the people”. Please Diane, break out the non rewritten history books and learn what “ your ideology “ has brought to millions….abject misery, squalor and starvation to the tune of over 100 million plus deaths. If anything Diane, people like you must be removed permanently.
Really? Is it better to be asleep and stupid?
why were you taking a nap old lady?did we wake you?did the big bad educated conservative frighten you?
See? Even stupid people get to comment.
Austin, is that a death threat? Yes or no?
so you didnt even listen to a word he said.smug to the bitter end liberals condescending and self righteous the only reason theyare educated is because they have a stranglehold on our universities. so dont play the victim were goinna remove youpermanently out of alot of things or schoiols our military our private lives take your brown asskissing liberal pinheaded ass back to berkeley and stay there.
Here is what it acronym stands for:
W hiney
O bnoxious
K ookie
E xtremeists
You are a scummy, parasitic, intolerant, arrogant bunch of morons. You can quote me on this!!!!!!!!!
Some people think it means
Whites
Obviously
Know
Everything
I prefer to think of it as:
Wide
Open to
Knowledge and
Experience
Stupid people think it’s a very bad idea to be WOKE. Let them keep sleeping and leave everyone else alone.
Woke people should be shot
Thank you. Asleep people should never be awakened.
What an examination of the meaning of Woke is this discussion. In my opinion woke has positive aspects like being aware of oppression but it also has illiberal aspects like cancel culture. Consider the famous Harpers Letter with signers including Noam Chomsky which criticized woke as having some illiberal aspects. Incidentally I’m a Democrat and I have always voted Democratic and I intend to do so in the future. While I have some problems with woke, I consider MAGA far worse.