Is this a message of Hope and Positivity? Is it appropriate? (school, Michigan)

[Speleothem]

Originally Posted by Leo58

So we're talking about teacher trainings, not student curricula? That certainly puts a different perspective on it.

Let's say the school conveyed this information about Kendi (I had to look him up myself; I'd never heard of him). To give the teachers an idea of what Kendi's philosophy is, they might quote where he said racism and capitalism are integrally linked. OK; the teachers are adults, I don't think they need to be spoon-fed arguments against Kendi's ideas. If I was learning about Karl Marx, I don't think I would need someone to simultaneously tell me about the downside of marxism.

So, depending on the grade level they teach, the teachers might never say anything about Kendi or his ideas. In a high school economics class, where the teacher was discussing capitalism, she might mention critiques of capitalism, including Kendi's and Marx's. Then the students could have a robust discussion about the merits and faults of capitalism. That would be a great class, IMO.

If you've never even heard of Kendi, then you're not very well informed about CRT, are you?

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by ClaraC

So, I'm truly curious, and am asking sincerely.

Do you believe that only things that are positive should be taught?

So, no Holocaust, no Black Plague, no McCarthyism, . . . and on and on?

I'm asking sincerely.

You do understand that there is a difference between historically accurate fact and propaganda and/or "creative non-fiction," right?

I can write an essay on exactly the same historical topic in both a historically accurate way and a persuasive way that aligns with my opinions. Personally, I prefer to read the former and nearly always refuse to read the latter. Unfortunately, a good deal of books and essays concerning "history" are written as persuasive, cherry picked, essays.

[BusinessManIT]

Racism, pure and simple, tinged with hatred.

[sholomar]

I can't imagine the people teaching this stuff are normal, happy people with families wanting the best for everyone. These have to be people who have psychological issues or unhappy and want to spread unhappiness to others.

Either that or they are brainwashed. Take example number 1... people in power tend to oppress others. That would be a less biased way to state it. The people in charge tend to oppress those below them because it's human nature to do so. This could be applied right down to the school boards that were masking up kids from an illness they didn't get seriously ill from, and all that covid overreaction ended up being pointless, as many of us said it would right from the start.

To equate it with "whites" is misleading. If anything I'd equate it with "the rich" but then you'd have people calling for communism. Communism isn't the answer to the problem of concentration of wealth. You could also equate it to nannies, but truth be told any large herd of people with similar beliefs will tend to want to stick to their own and get others to assimilate to their way of thinking. It's called human nature. The left, the elites, the world bank, are not immune to this. They are just people. They think they know best. They seek to control others.

Number one is used to justify the rest of the statements in this list, and almost all of them are false.. outright lies or statements just made up with no factual basis to them. The people peddling this crap are the ones that should be "cancelled" for spreading misinformation, if that's what we are going to start doing these days is to attack "misinformation" because this is exactly that. Don't let these people control the narrative and tell you they have the science or the facts on their side. What they are doing is cherrypicking and twisting the narrative like humans like to do.

[ChrisC]

Originally Posted by GuyNTexas

Wonderfully stated, and very true. But I think the greater issue being overlooked here in the ongoing arguments about the content of CRT, is the understanding of the purpose and motives behind CRT.

The ideological foundation of CRT promotes the premise that Western Society is based on “white supremacy” and that the entire structure of Western Society is designed to maintain that hierarchy, keeping white people at the top, while keeping people of color at the bottom. That’s the basic definition of CRT ideology. So, while thinking people immediately recognize the extreme absurdity in such asinine claims like “math is fundamentally racist”, it certainly fits within the overall narrative that everything is structurally racist, right? This is a trick. This is psychological warfare 101, which intends to convince people to accept a much broader fallacy that everything is racism, thereby paving the way for more specific claims to be accepted without critical examination, such as math being a weapon used by white people against black people. The subtle message between the lines in claiming math to be racism, is the very Orwellian concept that “ignorance is strength”.

The greater question is, why is such an inflammatory and divisive ideology being promoted by the leftists? The answer is very simple … this is just another of the many examples of the age old tactic of “divide and conquer”, and the truth is, CRT is just the latest weapon used in this war of conquest being waged upon free Western Society, by elitists whose goal is to replace free society with their totalitarian system of a One World Government, which controls every aspect of life, including what we must accept as truth, and what we are not allowed to even think, let alone speak about openly or privately.

Long before CRT came to light, we saw a similar assault on the minds of children from the public education system, with “common core”. Common core mathematics, for example, was literally a direct mind control dumbing down of school children who were being taught to seek estimated results for a mathematical computation, rather than accurate results. CRT and Common Core have direct connections … both twist logic and common sense into a pretzel shape, both are constructs promoted by the left, and both have insidiously evil motives.

It’s all designed to create divisiveness, and make people as stupid as possible by convincing them to accept the most ridiculous and absurd ideas without thinking twice.

Sadly, the overall tactic is working quite well with a large number of people, even though CRT itself has become a failed exercise. But it does illustrate what a disaster public education has become, and how it is no longer a tool for education, but a weapon to destroy children’s minds.

This is all true. And one of the things that tells me these people are not really serious about their literal claims (and, rather, have ulterior motives) is that even though they "recruit" their converts via pure emotion, their emotional arguments aren't all that well thought out, even though they seem to be working in way too many cases. Although there are many whites and blacks that buy into this nonsense, I think the majority of normal, reasonable whites and blacks do not buy into it at all.

The claim is "systematic racism" that is holding blacks unjustly down in a society dominated by "demonic" white people. The CRT propogandists' solution to the problem doesn't make any sense at all. If I were in an abusive relationship where I felt my wife to be evil and she abused me constantly, I certainly would want to be AWAY from that woman. I would want nothing to do with her. If I were a resident in a nation that I truly thought was out to kill me, I would want to either be away from that nation or want the nation to be "balkanized" so I could peacefully coexist with "my people."

Because the CRT folks certainly do NOT preach that the nation should be split or that blacks should be given their own "kingdom," my opinion is that they do not really want a solution to their (made up in the first place) "problem." As you say, they simply want to drive a wedge between different segments of society. Ultimately, what they want is for them to control the entire ball game.

Originally Posted by Leo58

I don't know what you are getting at. I certainly don't believe that math is racist, and I've never claimed that it is. It's basically impossible for an objective set of logical rules to be racist.

So I wanted to find out, who is saying math is racist, and what do they mean by that? A quick Google search yielded this article:
https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/tec...ion/index.html

in which the case is made that people use math, statistics and algorithms to make decisions every day which may unfairly hurt people of color. I find that very believable.

So it's not that "math" is racist. It might not even be that the people using math are racist. But the outcomes of using math as a tool in that way can be racist. It's like saying ships are racist because ships were used to bring slaves to America.

When someone says something you disagree with, it's always helpful to try and understand what they are saying before you go off on a rant.

I suppose you've never looked the videos up of the "math is racist" protesting by leftists or the moronic writings of these people. No, they actually believe math itself is racist. Mainly because they likely failed math class and they are steamed. If they'd spend a hundredth of the time they spent dinking with their phones doing their math homework, there wouldn't have been a problem.

Now, the side issue you bring up here is a different matter. Yes, there are those who caterwaul that legitimate statistical methodology which makes conclusion contrary to their political beliefs is "racist." But that is par for the course. Everything they disagree with is "racist."

Originally Posted by ClaraC

Are you saying it's untrue, or are you saying it's unflattering and might be upsetting, and therefore that observation shouldn't be made?

Look at this history of the world. White people have gone to other countries/continents, and taken over. Time and time and time and time again. Truth hurts.

Originally Posted by DXBtoFL

Well - so has everyone else. Native Americans came from Asia to "take over" the new world. Indian tribes were in a constant state of warfare against each other for lands. Same with African tribes (you should read about tribal politics in African nations, it's a real eye opener). History is filled with stories of aggressive empires and movements of populations. The Mughals conquered India. The Arabs conquered the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. The Turks later conquered much of the Arab lands. Ghenghis Khan built a huge and violent empire spanning most of the Euroasian land mass. The Japanese conquered Korea and much of North China. China's dynasties are a sequence of warrior tribes taking over the country and establishing a new dynasty. Even today China's rulers suppress ethnic minorities across China and the Muslims in western China.

I guess the truth hurts.

Originally Posted by ClaraC

You're talking about skirmishes on lands bordering their own, mostly.

I'm talking about getting in a ship and going to another continent to colonize it.

You can look at white behavior in one of two ways - we're the only race with the imagination and wherewithall to reach out and conquer, or we're aggressive busy bodies who take what's not ours.

Two sides of the same coin.

Now your are refining the way in which one has taken over - missing the point.

If others had the same technology, tactics, means, etc. they would have done so as well - it's human so stop highlighting as an exclusive aspect what WHITE people have done as some intrinsic factor that only resides in them and using it as a political tool. You are mad that white people were better at it huh!

And there is no such thing as 'white behavior' - clearly not even a generalization but an absolute racist charge. And your stupid false dichotomy is indicative of your lack of 'imagination' - so you must be an 'aggressive busy body.'

So tell us - how many things have you taken that is not yours? And why are you so aggressive sticking your nose in everything?

Originally Posted by GuyNTexas

I have a sincere question for you … are you a person of color, or a virtue signaling, self loathing white person?

The latter!

Originally Posted by ClaraC

For an art class? Hmm. I do know that in many districts, they do something I believe is called "aligned curriculum", where if you're studying WWII in history, you use WWII in math problems, and in art, etc.

I do support unpopular teachings, actually, if what's being taught is true.

And your examples of teachings were extreme in the OP.

Teaching white colonialization is the truth. You can teach it positively - look how incredibly smart and brave and adventuresome these civilizations were, as well as the terrible negative of the atrocities. It's all true.

You support lies that masquerade as history and is being used for political propaganda to cause division.

To think that this thread is about teaching truthful negative (according to out modern standards) history is laughable. You luv changing the goal post huh?

[Goodnight]

This was all contrived propaganda by the GOP, unfortunately it has mobilized some parents and voters. Total misinformation campaign to divide and made life miserable for school boards and administrations, I guess this will be the GOP platform in November and beyond.

[michiganmoon]

Originally Posted by Goodnight

This was all contrived propaganda by the GOP, unfortunately it has mobilized some parents and voters. Total misinformation campaign to divide and made life miserable for school boards and administrations, I guess this will be the GOP platform in November and beyond.

Everything I stated is true.

It is either naive or dishonest to think that these things don't happen at some of the 100,000 public schools.

Hiw many leftists do you see voting against the message. You see ignorant denials. Very little leftists saying the teachings are wrong