So Many Fs
“The kids don’t even want this stuff,” says [high-school English teacher, Kali] Fontanilla, noting that the ethnic studies course replaced a much more popular health class – in the midst of a pandemic, no less. “Most of them are just like, ‘Why do we have to take this class?’”
Robby Soave on when classroom race-hustling doesn’t impress the kids.
As the classroom in question is in Salinas, California, where the children in question are overwhelmingly Hispanic, and therefore supposedly oppressed, and supposedly hungry for “critical race theory,” you can imagine the complications. It turns out that when Hispanic children turn up to learn English as a second language, they’re not overly thrilled to find their time being spent on “institutional, internalised, ideological, and interpersonal oppression.” Or at being told that, on account of not being white, they may suffer from “intergenerational trauma.” Or spending class time on a “privilege quiz,” in which they must rank their imagined victimhood, while comparing “intersectional rainbows.”
However, the disaffection of supposed beneficiaries seems unlikely to deter adult enthusiasts.
Beginning with the class of 2030, all public high school students in California will now have enrol in the same sort of course that Fontanilla’s students already took.
Ms Fontanilla, who happens to be black, isn’t impressed either. Cultivating victimhood and racial resentment is not, she feels, an ideal use of her students’ time, or indeed her own. Believing that parents had a right to know exactly what their children are being taught, she wrote a letter of protest to the school board. It was read aloud during a meeting at which parents were present:
“I do not appreciate constantly being pandered to and treated differently because of the colour of my skin, especially since I did not have the freedom to not go along with it,” Fontanilla wrote, warning that the curriculum was an attempt at left-wing indoctrination. The statement elicited cheers from other parents attending the meeting. In response, the school board prohibited anti-CRT comments at its next public gathering.
And if the air of somewhat creepy condescension isn’t sufficiently obvious,
[Fontanilla] recalls that during the summer of 2020, in the midst of the George Floyd protests, the Salinas administration informed its black teachers – Fontanilla included – that they would be honoured with a gift… [It] included an “I Love Being Black” sticker, and a letter with an ancient African greeting that “acknowledges the god in me and stuff like that.” “It was just so weird,” she says.
Worth reading in full, I think. Oh, and if the dynamic sounds vaguely familiar, you may be thinking of this.
Update, via the comments:
Julia adds, “Brave lady. You just know she’s going to suffer for her heresy, don’t you?”
Indeed:
While she has received much praise for speaking out, Fontanilla has also endured considerable online harassment, including threats of violence. One told her to “have fun being a token black friend to racist conservatives your whole life.”
“They’re all basically white liberals,” she says of the harassers.
Fontanilla had already decided that she could not remain a teacher in the school district; she and her husband decided to move to Florida, where she hoped to find a better job.
You see, being so progressive, so unassailably righteous, they’re threatening violence against a black woman for disliking classroom racism. Specifically, a pernicious racial conspiracy theory that is taught to children as if it belonged in the same factual world as the date of the Moon landing or the atomic structure of palladium.
Oh, and if the idea of parents being actively deceived by leftist educators and administrators seems implausible, too fanciful to consider, then you have some catching up to do. Attempts to mislead parents, including bare-faced lies, aren’t exactly hard to find. It seems to me that when every middle and high school principal in a district is told to fabricate a fake curriculum so as to deceive parents, and thereby hide the indoctrination taking place – as happened in Rockwood, Missouri – then there’s a serious problem. To say the least.
And when the very same educators – the ones lying to parents about what’s actually going on in class – refer to “our children,” the term has rather presumptuous, indeed sinister, connotations.
[It] included an “I Love Being Black” sticker,
Just… wow.
Brave lady. You just know she’s going to suffer for her heresy, don’t you?
Can I have an ‘I love being white’ sticker…?
What?
Just… wow.
It does rather reveal the mindset in play.
Brave lady. You just know she’s going to suffer for her heresy, don’t you?
You see, being so progressive, they’re threatening violence against a black woman for disliking classroom racism.
It turns out that when Hispanic children turn up to learn English as a second language, they’re not overly thrilled to find their time being spent on “institutional, internalised, ideological, and interpersonal oppression.”
I am reminded of when I used to live in Santa Ana, CA, which is 90%+ Hispanic. In 1997, the local school board had Nativo Lopez. While on the school board he attempted to bypass law and have the wee Latinx tots taught primarily in Spanish. His biggest critics were the parents, many of whom were illegal aliens, who wanted their kids taught in English only as they saw that as the only way their kids could get ahead in the US. He was eventually recalled.
How dare they want more for their kids’ futures than working on a gardening truck or cleaning houses.
I want an “I love being black” sticker
I’m not black, which is why I want one.
“Students will rank their various identities with corresponding coloured strings to create intersectional rainbows…”
One String to rule them all. And in the darkness bind them.
Racial Grievance Theory in practice.
The slides in the high school lesson, after defining gender identity as “your psychological sense of self,” pivoted to “non-human examples of variation,” specifically citing clownfish, common reed frogs
Now children can be “educated” into foregoing food. After all, there’s no reason why they can’t photosynthesize since trees do.
It might also explain all their furious attempts at self-pollination.
Some background on Salinas. Until the 1970’s it was a typical Central Valley ag town. Around 10% Hispanic. Very few Californios. The decedents of the native Spanish population before 1840’s. Most of the Hispanics came from Mexico with the Bacero progammes of the 1940’s and 1950’s and gained residency due to their kids.
Salinas is now 90% Hispanic,the vast majority either illegals or the (grand) children of illegals. Or the minority who got status in the 1986 Amnesty. Most Hispanics in Salinas have been there less than 50 years. And since the 1980’s had full access to all state and federal progarmmes and all could benefit from the race based quotes and discrimination. No matter how many Propositions were passed by the voters in the 1980’s and 1990’s to stop this.
What makes this situation even more ludicrous is the illegals are overwhelmingly dark skinned mestizo or indio who suffer from serious institutional racism back home in Mexico and Central America. Ask the ones from Chiapas,Campeche or Yucatan just how they have been treated by the blancos and light skinned mestizos from Mexico City over the last few centuries.
The Califorios about 4% of California’s population before the 1940’s often got shabbily treated but no worse than any other group without political clout at the time. The poor white ag workers were treated just as badly. But almost none of the kids in Salinas are Califorios. They are almost all recent arrivals from Mexico and Central America.
Another relevant fact is that the kids of Central America immigrants have the same educational success in California as back in their home countries. The (very few) blancos do very well. The mestizo kids do OK. And the indio kids do very badly. Got nothing to do with race (or intelligence for that matter), its all about home culture. Just like back in Mexico or El Salvador.
WTF!? (NFBSK)
WTF!? (NFBSK)
If anyone’s getting aroused by this thread, there will be a surcharge.
If anyone’s getting aroused by this thread, there will be a surcharge.
David’s posts generally have an antaphrodisiac effect.
Ofcom has launched an investigation into the BBC after evidence emerged that the broadcaster may have falsely reported that Jewish victims uttered “anti-Muslim slurs” when attacked by a group of men
Remember folks, akshually racism is Prejudice + Penis + Power + Perception + …
Oh damn. Now I’ve forgotten the updated definition of racism. Pileus Cornutus was it?
By teaching kids this racial crap they guarantee that multiculturalism will fail.
Failing multiculturalism is a good because it was never meant to be. We do better in our own countries with our own cultures.
So I suppose that is the upside to the Lunacy of multiculturalism.
So, thank you racist teachers and school boards you help us remain who and what we are through trying to make us all hateful sheep.
It ain’t workin’ for ya.
Now I’ve forgotten the updated definition of racism.
The once-left-leaning ADL has gone full woke.
Which would, by their new definition, make their own organization racist cuz “Jews are white”
“the Salinas administration informed its black teachers – Fontanilla included – that they would be honoured with a gift…”
Californian schools still bravely shouldering the white man’s burden, I see.
Meanwhile, in Australia.
The once-left-leaning ADL has gone full woke.
And so, their redefinition simply begs the question, several in fact, is bizarrely non-reciprocal, and suggests that only one racial demographic can ever be found guilty.
Again, wokeness is corrupting. It eats away at realism. It stupefies.
Again, wokeness is corrupting. It eats away at realism. It stupefies.
What do we call people, like Kali Fontanilla above or this former Bryn Mawr girl who “wake up” from being “woke”?
Meanwhile, in Australia
Ah the white man, appropriating those indigenous race tracks for his own supremacist pleasure.
What do you mean “what’s a wheel”?
The once-left-leaning ADL has gone full woke.
Ah yes, that was it. Prejudice+Penis+Power+Palor.
What do we call people … who “wake up” from being “woke”?
I think it’s “de-programmed”?
If you wanted to create real racism where it was only very mild or absent before, have the chosen minority burn cities down and bust up stores, give them special treatment, don’t punish criminals, call whites racist with no proof, and harass white children. Because that is exactly what is happening.
Let’s not forget that every hour spent teaching kids to hate white people is an hour not spent teaching them math, science, computer science, languages, etc.
That’s the truly obscene part of this. Leftists care more about ideological indoctrination than genuine education. Their schools have become progressive madrassas.
Let’s not forget that every hour spent teaching kids to hate white people is an hour not spent teaching them math, science, computer science, languages, etc.
Also taught: “If black kids get bad grades it is the fault of white people.”
What do we call people … who “wake up” from being “woke”?
Red pilled.
WTF!? (NFBSK)
If anyone’s getting aroused by this thread, there will be a surcharge.
I’d say that “Cleavage Dining” stacks up quite well against much of the performance art showcased here regularly. Of course, I’m not saying that the next Sandrine Schaefer or Liu Susiraja will emerge from this group of artists, but let’s not be too hasty to judge.
Now do masks.
…let’s not be too hasty to judge.
Burnsie, I suggest that you and Karl embark on a long term project to curate such art projects and bring the best to David’s fine establishment.
Oh boy, if you looked at the news and thought “well, how bad can it’ll get?” then think about the U.S. rewriting the Constitution.
It’s called an Article V Convention. If 34 state legislatures pass the resolution, then lawmakers will gather to add amendments to the Constitution.
Requiring the feds to balance the budget? Return oversight of abortion laws to the states? Term limits for federal judges? More limits on federal power?
Right now, they’re halfway to the 34 state goal.
Now, I’m not saying it’ll happen, but if it does, it’s going to make Brexit look like the Batley Townswomens’ Guild reenacting the battle of Pearl Harbor.
Now do masks.
You mean like this?
pst – You got me, I clicked. The article needs more
barely concealed naughty bitssourced examples to be convincing.pst – You got me, I clicked.
I purposely chose an example where the URL itself would alert you as to the nature of the content. (That is one of the disadvantages of Twitter, Facebook, and other antisocial media platforms.)
Hopefully that link will lift the spirits of readers who have been brought down by the other links in this thread.
[ Contemplates self as benefactor of humanity. ]
If you wanted to create real racism
Um, yes? That is the goal. Bezmenov told us how this all works.
masks: people were outraged at the use of 3 masks for what is obviously a noble public service? Just shows that she gored a sacred cow by making light of masks. The Left has no sense of humor.
An update on the Twitter problem discussed 2 threads back.
Um, yes? That is the goal. Bezmenov told us how this all works.
When you’re a rational person, with a rational mind expecting the world to behave in a rational way it’s easy to be blindsided by the left’s ideology. The problem for the rational person is expecting anything a leftist says to make sense.
If you believe in the Marxist or Marxist/Leninist utopia at the end of the rainbow, then the only thing that makes sense is the complete disruption and overthrow of the existing system just to get the ball rolling. They don’t even care if they create real racism. They will create anything that destroys the status quo. Race and gender happen to be the intersectional soup du jour right now. If we somehow settle that, they will simply move on to something else.
That’s why we have neo-marxists. Marxism failed when the so-called proletariat’s economic needs and wants were satisfied under capitalism. The only hope for the left to win is in the abstract (and the more abstract the better) with things like race and gender. That’s why they’re alway’s f**king with the language.
A leftist is not an honest broker. He pretends that you and he are playing the same game, but you’re not.
If you wanted to create real racism
Somewhat related.
Oh, and if the idea of parents being actively deceived by leftist educators and administrators seems implausible, too fanciful to consider, then you have some catching up to do. Attempts to mislead parents, including bare-faced lies, aren’t exactly hard to find.
It seems to me that when every middle and high school principal in a district is told to fabricate a fake curriculum so as to deceive parents, and thereby hide the indoctrination taking place – as happened in Rockwood, Missouri – then there’s a serious problem. To say the very least.
Tinned brown bread?
So that’s a British thing? Looks like what in America is called Boston brown bread–slightly moist, flavored with molasses and (optionally) raisins. It was much more popular 50 years ago, with cellophane-wrapped loaves sold in bakery departments, but now only in cans.
What Steve E said. Exactly. Especially the language thing. And the rational thing. They need to be called out on all of it, not to change them but so that others see the obvious flaws. Like the chick with a dick in a tight bathing suit. They get away with what they are allowed to get away with. And soon. They are making far too many inroads to the minds of otherwise rational people.
It seems to me that when every middle and high school principal in a district is told to fabricate a fake curriculum so as to deceive parents, and thereby hide the indoctrination taking place – as happened in Rockwood, Missouri – then there’s a serious problem. To say the very least.
That.
A Liberal Argument for Slavery.
More here, where we learn about his other moral musings.
A “distinguished professor” of philosophy.
That.
Well, when the very same educators – the ones lying to parents about what’s actually going on when away from prying eyes – refer to “our children,” the term has rather presumptuous, indeed sinister, connotations. I’m trying to imagine being a parent and hiring, say, a piano teacher for my child and belatedly discovering that the piano teacher had been using the lessons to indulge in psychological child abuse and to inculcate bizarre and pretentious neuroses.
I would not be gentle with them.
“Just like back in Mexico or El Salvador.”
With family from SOTB (way south, to be sure), it’s amazing how whyte (wimmenfolk, especially) try to lump all Spanish/Spanglish speakers together. It’s especially fun to watch the attempts to lump “Black” and “Hispanic” together…
With family from SOTB (way south, to be sure), it’s amazing how whyte (wimmenfolk, especially) try to lump all Spanish/Spanglish speakers together…
Vast differences and plenty of conflicts.
…It’s especially fun to watch the attempts to lump “Black” and “Hispanic” together…
And lots of conflict and hostility between “black” and “hispanic” folks here in America. Did you folks hear about how blacks were violently ejected from Latino neighborhoods when the George Floyd riots began? Outsiders were not trusted and thus not wanted.
Vast differences and plenty of conflicts.
Shhh. Such truths are not to be mentioned, dontchaknow?
Shhh. Such truths are not to be mentioned, dontchaknow?
I can trust everyone here to protect my identity. Right?
[ Checks bank statements to see how long it’s been since I tipped David. ]
Shhh. Such truths are not to be mentioned, dontchaknow?
Here are some motivational posters to remind all comrades.
refer to “our children,” the term has rather presumptuous, indeed sinister, connotations.
And they don’t say “our children” in a nurturing, loving way. They say “our children” as in your children are our chattel.
A “distinguished professor” of philosophy.
I don’t really have a problem with philosophy professors contemplating such enduring mysteries of the human psyche as “But why shouldn’t I fuck goats?”.
Better there than in primary schools. Or on the supreme court.
I’d just be nervous about them founding animal appreciation societies.
They say “our children” as in your children are our chattel.
It does rather sound like a territorial claim.
See also, the recent indignation among leftist educators regarding parents who take an interest in what, precisely, their children are being taught. As if a preference for, say, chemistry or grammar over pretentious resentment and intersectional question-begging were some outrageous intrusion onto their turf.
Some of these vain and uppity creatures really do need reminding that they’re basically the hired help.
“A leftist is not an honest broker. He pretends that you and he are playing the same game, but you’re not.”
I’ve often said that modern Leftism is basically a societal hack, exploiting people’s natural tendency towards politeness (with “political correctness“), reason, and trust (everything else).
the idea of parents being actively deceived by leftist educators and administrators
From Robby Soave’s article:
The administrators even tried hiding it from one of their own teachers. Guess she wasn’t “black enough” to trust.
This is one heck of a read.
one heck of a read
Interesting. Point and counter-point
Darleen: every human and every society has flaws. There are two ways to deal with that: self-reflection and improvement (as the West has been doing for hundreds of years) or shame for our failings. This path of comparing us to the perfect condition leads in the end always to tyranny, whether during the French Reign of Terror or communism. It is a fatal conceit to imagine that some group can “perfect” society and human nature. Even God has not achieved that. As Sowell pointed out, no individual or group or government is wise enough even to set prices in the economy, never mind ordering all human relationships. The current elite in their great confidence are making almost everything worse rather than better. Thanks guys.
Karl,
Is that really a counter-point? Elizabeth hopes that Canadian Ruling Class has overplayed its hands while Michael just shrugs his shoulders and says the Ruling Class is way too entrenched to be shoved out regardless of their behavior.
I guess we’ll see.
The current elite in their great confidence are making almost everything worse rather than better.
And when their Progressive/Socialist/Woke/Left-name-du-jour ideology fails, all they’ll do is throw up their hands and say it wasn’t done the correct way. The True Scotsman fallacy or “Real communism has never been tried!” — please ignore the 100 million bodies.
Point and counter-point
Just about everything in that essay is patently false.
Karl,
The comment made by Michael Wilhelmson under that post comes much closer to the truth. The article itself is a bit of a stereotypical cartoon. YMMV
I know that we all flatter ourselves that the hubris of woke carries the seeds of its own destruction but the repeated election of patent shit-weasels like Justin “Blackface” Trudeau is demanding of some explanation.
Cuenco offers one. I do not endorse it, but dismissing it as a “stereotypical cartoon” is mindlessly self-indulgent.
the repeated election of patent shit-weasels like Justin “Blackface” Trudeau is demanding of some explanation.
Agreed, but that’s a topic for another discussion and doesn’t have anything to do with Cuenco’s overly simplistic explanation.
is mindlessly self-indulgent
[ Adjusts mountie hat and jodhpurs, drinks his timmies and harumphs ]
Canadian politics is not usually known for producing unruly sights like this one – not patently false.
The patron saint of liberal elites was, after all, re-elected last year and continues to rule over a country that prides itself on its inoffensiveness – not patently false.
The industry association representing truckers has disowned them … while a recent poll put nationwide popular support for the convoy at a paltry 28% – not patently false.
Its two main political cultures descend from peoples who were defined by their conspicuous non-participation in the great revolutions of the eighteenth century – not patently false.
the colonies that would become Canada were suspicious of mass democracy, more deferential to authority, and more mindful of communal obligations: they were said to be “more Tory than the King” – not patently false.
modern Canada was born in 1867 with the motto “peace, order and good government” – not patently false.
While American cities burned in riots over race and the Vietnam war, Canadians smugly congratulated themselves for living in “the peaceable kingdom” – not patently false.
The first Trudeau’s rise to power, much like the second, was greeted by fawning crowds and adoring fangirls .. and was dubbed “Trudeaumania” – not patently false.
Justin Trudeau is the face of a Machiavellian elite that can maintain itself in power by diffusing and pre-empting the pressures of revolutionary change – not patently false.
They will just have to accept that they are up against one of the most entrenched and hegemonic ruling classes anywhere in the Western world: the “Laurentian elites” – not patently false.
Why, it’s almost like you’re full of shit!
The world’s ruling caste must be getting legitimately nervous if Canadians are getting visibly angry.
Why, it’s almost like you’re full of shit!
[ makes popcorn, pours on maple syrup ]
Wasn’t “Freedonia” the name of the fictional nation in a Marx Brothers movie?
Wasn’t “Freedonia” the name of the fictional nation in a Marx Brothers movie?
Yes, Duck Soup: “You can leave in a taxi. If you can’t get a taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that’s too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff.”
Three balls on a stick.
One too many, or Is one missing?
Inscrutable.
I’m quite certain Ms. Fontanilla did not spell color colour.
[reads article] Yep
I do love the color you read into these stories, David. Ping
Three balls on a stick.
One too many, or Is one missing?
Inscrutable.
Pawnbroker
Ping
Bless you, sir. Thanks to group email chats and the foolproof miracle of predictive text, may you never realise, much too late, that you’ve been unwittingly sharing gossip with the very person about whom you’re gossiping, including a pointed reference to their recent weight gain.
Why, it’s almost like you’re full of shit!
It’s almost like you know nothing at all about Canadian politics or culture and are taking at face value the condescending pronouncements of the Canadian equivalent of the journalist/chattering class.
The truckers have collected one scalp already, I expect the second tomorrow, and have so far demonstrated the power and will to directly defy the RCMP, backed by a growing number of other blue collar, rural and trades folk.
The Ottawa municipality has been trying to get heavy tow services to remove the trucks in the city all week. Every single service has said “sorry, we’re out with COVID *cough* *cough*”
Continue to assume you understand what’s happening here. We don’t care.
Darleen @ 18.53
Sounds like a mission statement for the bbc.
Christopher Rufo, here.
Not entirely unrelated.
.. the condescending pronouncements of the Canadian equivalent of the journalist/chattering class.
Awww, did the nasty editor suggest that Canada might be a nation of inveterate cowards and lickspittles?
[ makes popcorn, pours on maple syrup ]
I hope this venue is not going to descend into Facebook levels of acrimony.
Speaking of which, what sort of heathen puts maple syrup on popcorn?
[ Raises nose in air. ]
what sort of heathen puts maple syrup on popcorn?
I thought it sounded rather nice. Mixed about 50/50 with butter, obviously.
I thought it sounded rather nice. Mixed about 50/50 with butter, obviously.
My God, I’m surrounded by heathens!
(But seriously, it does not actually disgust or offend me. I just needed something to sneer at in a comical fashion. You may notice that is a repeating pattern in my comments.)
Sneering at our lessers is like catnip to our blackened souls.
Maple syrup
Maple syrup
Thank you, I feel suitably blessed by the Canadian two-spirit dog.
Maple syrup
The truckers just want to date me.
Sneering at our lessers is like catnip to our blackened souls.
Please don’t take that to heart, David. July 4th just wouldn’t be the same without a “Happy Treason Day You Ungrateful Colonials” greeting. Not to mention periodic reminders of the Right Way to Spell and Pronounce Aluminum.
The truckers just want to date me.
A favorite liberal trope is indeed “you only criticize that because you secretly want it.”
There are people less than you? Kaum zu glauben!