Get Them While They’re Soft And Yielding (3)
If you missed it in the comments, here’s a little creepiness from schools in British Columbia:
When [parent] Kansas Field Allen heard about the posters, she was shocked. She asked her son to take photos of them so she could post about it on social media and get feedback from her peers. “I’d say 95 per cent of the people are in favour of having the posters taken down, and that’s from all races,” Field Allen said.
The posters in question, which appear across the school district, include this one:
And note,
The project was never communicated to parents.
And so parents only discovered the campaign – which asserts that white pupils are complicit in an “invisible system of privilege” – when their children began complaining about it. And note too that, despite Ms Downs’ theatrical confession that she, like all pale-skinned beings, has “unfairly benefited” from her “white privilege,” albeit in ways that aren’t made clear, she hasn’t seen fit to resign from her presumably unearned position as Superintendent of Schools.
Regarding an unearned sense of entitlement, it occurs to me that the people with grading leverage, official status and other institutional backup, including access to taxpayers’ earnings, and who presume to be the unilateral arbiters of “privilege” – resulting in campaigns of racial shaming aimed at other people’s children and without parents’ knowledge or consent – these creatures might also have some “privilege” worthy of scrutiny.
But maybe that’s just me.
It would be nice if just once lefties kept their race hangups to themselves.
In a saner world, these things would be recognised as what they are – racist, divisive, insulting and somewhat creepy. A kind of psychological abuse. At the very least, a massive overstepping of boundaries.
And the insult isn’t just aimed at children (and parents) who happen to be white. Continually telling minority children that they’re oppressed by dark, “invisible” forces, and forever being wronged – and thereby offering ready-made excuses for almost any kind of failure, inadequacy or discontent – doesn’t strike me as healthy either. It sounds like a recipe for paranoia, resentment and an avoidance of responsibility.
Related, this.
“I have unfairly benefitted from the colour of my skin. White privilege is not acceptable…
…though, heh, I’ll continue to enjoy my superintendent’s salary and benefits of course.”
But maybe that’s just me.
No, it’s not.
The recent shift to discussions of “privilege” is interesting because it essentially acknowledges that there is very little to no evidence anywhere of overt discrimination, thanks to legal parameters which have been in place for almost half a century. Where affirmative action concentrated on ostensibly increasing opportunities for some, “privilege” is a means of punishing those of the disfavored group, by destroying opportunities.
Speak for yourself, buster.
The project was never communicated to parents.
I wonder why. /sarc
It’s like a cult.
@Clam
It’s
likea cult.FTFY
“The project was never communicated to parents.”
Teachers seem to think that they are not accountable to parents: rather, they see themselves as superior beings engaged in a noble project to subvert and destroy the culture around them.
Cultural Marxism – putting the Cult into (western) culture since 1923.
Instead of saying ‘I have unfairly benefitted from the type of skin I have’, it should have read, ‘I have unfairly benefitted from the type of degree I have’.
It’s good to know that the right had organized to prevent state “education” decades ago and that this is all just a bad dream. It’s mighty good to know that indeed.
Teachers are not accountable to parents: rather, they see themselves as superior beings engaged in a noble project to subvert and destroy the culture around them.
FTFY.
It would be nice if just once lefties kept their race hangups to themselves.
The “hangup” is that all that cultural Marxism hasn’t destroyed civilization yet. They’re keeping nothing to themselves and that’s the point.
Incidentally, I’ve just added a third, quite telling video to the recent post on Jordan Peterson’s attempt to speak at Queen’s University.
It scarcely needs pointing out that there’s an irony here. The accusation of “privilege” is used by woke-lings in ways that those same woke-lings might otherwise denounce as a “microaggression,” an “invalidating behaviour” – or might if they were inclined to be even remotely consistent. After all, it’s an attempt to erase the role of accomplishment, effort and ability. A way to tell an unfashionable subset of people – generally white ones – that the fruits of their labours, and of their parents’ labours, are undeserved. And that by dint of simply existing, and regardless of any actual behaviour, they are suspect, sinful, an affront to “social justice.” And therefore must be humbled and atone.
The Superintendent must resign immediately and return her undeserved earnings. Not because of “white privilege” but because of her evident stupidity and self-importance.
Speaking of racial shaming campaigns, don’t forget this one:
And on much the same tip, this and this.
But remember, kids. “Social justice” is only about politeness.
At one time I’d have thought this couldn’t happen over here in Britland, but now we know better.
Oh dear, it seems I done a faux pas. Here’s what I was trying to link to: https://www.rt.com/uk/421038-black-white-uni-racist/
The project was never communicated to parents.
The lack of transparency in public education has been the norm for almost three decades and I’ve seen it in various guises in my profession. Hiding things is step one. If one or two sets of parents discover what’s going on, they are ignored or marginalized and their children are discretely punished. If a large group or parents protest, there may be a walk-back or nominal admonitions to the instigators along with professions of ignorance and innocence by the higher-ups. Then the worthies wait for things to blow over, at which point, things begin anew. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So we must eagerly await the announcement that noted beneficiary of unearned privilege Teresa Downs has not only resigned from her unfairly achieved role as Superintendent of Schools, but that her place has been taken by an intersectionally oppressed person of colour (insert as many woke descriptors as required).
Anyone else expect we’ll be waiting a long time?
Teachers seem to think that they are not accountable to parents: rather, they see themselves as superior beings engaged in a noble project to subvert and destroy the culture around them.
Citation required!
You have checked to see if teachers were consulted about the posters by Ms Downs before libeling an entire profession, no?
Most teachers are not engaged in any such struggle. Even in the most of PC of places most teachers pretty much stick to teaching their subject as best they can. I’ve not actually met a single teacher of the sort you describe in my dozen years in schools. Nor have my children been taught by any.
I am in constant contact with parents — initiated almost always be me. My schools have been equally as open to parental involvement as they could be. If anything modern schools are far more open to parents (in my school days, parents were much more often told to butt out, as the school knew best).
Loony PC teachers exist, and they make a lot of noise (“empty vessels” and all that) but it does no-one any good to exaggerate their numbers. You take potential allies — us teachers that despise the PC nonsense of the identitarians — and turn us into potential opponents by stupidly grouping us with our enemies.
I may well be wrong, and live in an area where the vast majority of teachers are not politically active, but I doubt it. I’d like to see your evidence that the majority of teachers despise parents and seek to subvert society please!
I’d like to see your evidence that the majority of teachers despise parents and seek to subvert society please!
Reality says that:
1. Central collective education should be disallowed on face.
2. When central collective education becomes involved, creep happens.
3. Cultural Marxism is a definite thing with definite goals.
4. The two have no preventative standing between them.
5. Indeed, because of this want, sh*t happens. To wit.
6. To create such an inherent, liberal barrier, education must be wholly privatized.
Are you not therefore arguing some form of conditional exception fallacy? That luck and/or the public sense of any one academic outcome at any given time are a sufficient formulation? Because the above tends to defeat that assertion.
Oh dear, it seems I done a faux pas.
From the article:
We discuss why white people accrue advantages and benefits simply due to the color of their skin, and how whiteness as a discriminatory force is as prevalent today as it was 400 years ago.
Let’s see if I understand:
The English, who are white originate in NW Europe, create a new country, England – literally ‘The Land of the Angles’ – about a thousand years ago and after much bloodshed, strife and pain manage to get it in a state which suits them very well.
Fast Forward to the 20th century and African and Asian people, entirely voluntarily, move to England and within a short time start complaining that the English seem to do better in England than said Africans and Asians.
As Thomas Sowell said: ” When people talk about ‘white privilege’, they’re really talking about white achievement.”
I miss King of the Hill.
Sorry, carry on.
Citation required!
I think it becomes fairly obvious once one begins burrowing into the modern Educational Industrial Complex. It may well be true that in some places, the rank and file of the public school teachers are ambivalent about the all the SJW trends seeping into their schools and may very well have good relationships with parents. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that all of this comes from above and teachers have little choice in implementing the curriculum mandated by a school district. If a teacher objects, s/he runs the risk of losing his/her job or being treated badly until s/he decides to leave.
After all, it’s an attempt to erase the role of accomplishment, effort and ability. A way to tell an unfashionable subset of people – generally white ones – that the fruits of their labours, and of their parents’ labours, are undeserved. And that by dint of simply existing, and regardless of any actual behaviour, they are suspect, sinful, an affront to “social justice.” And therefore must be humbled and atone.
From David. All true, and it’s worth remembering that in declaring property and and other fruits of labor undeserved, the Left are also trying to invalidate title to anything and everything they would be pleased to get their hands one. Self-abasement of their victims would be wonderful, but the Left also wants license to seize or control other people’s labor and resources. (Only starting with cushy and overpaid sinecures for their own.)
After all, who can complain of expropriating, to greater or lesser degrees, those who don’t really deserve anything they’ve owned or achieved?
And the best Kafka-trapping part of it is that, if any of the victims protests, it’s just further proof of their participation in the “privilege” conspiracy.
After all, who can complain of expropriating, to greater or lesser degrees, those who don’t really deserve anything they’ve owned or achieved?
In 2012, while professing his “belief in social justice” (and thrilling to the prospect of “shutting down private schools,”) the Guardian’s George Monbiot disdained people he doesn’t know, or know anything about, but nonetheless regards as having “undeserved advantages,” by which he means their earnings. At first I assumed it must be some comically inapt phrasing, but then I realised that, for Monbiot, even a person’s earnings can be dismissed out of hand as entirely unrelated to effort, skill, foresight, sacrifices, etc.
But only if they earn more than he does, oddly.
I think it becomes fairly obvious once one begins burrowing into the modern Educational Industrial Complex. …this comes from above and teachers have little choice in implementing the curriculum mandated by a school district. If a teacher objects, s/he runs the risk of losing his/her job or being treated badly until s/he decides to leave.
Why, you speak almost as if of an intellectual and psychological agenda.
But there’s more. I’ll ask the complex’s educators what legal proscriptions their institutions of learning have against interfering with parental custody, for example, at any level whether physical or otherwise?
…though, heh, I’ll continue to enjoy my superintendent’s salary and benefits of course.”
“Nonetheless, I demand you hire a person of color for this position after I retire.”
So no actual evidence Ten, just a stream of “obviously”s that Laurie Penny might spout in reverse?
Most countries have a more centralised school system than the US. They also do a better job. It’s not centralisation that’s the problem — the US university system.is wildly decentralised and more afflicted than anywhere else with SHE’s.
Try again. With facts this time.
Here’s a fact. Perhaps as many as one in four members of teacher unions voted for Trump. And that’s union members, so you’d imagine it’d be higher in non-union members.
There’s no doubt teachers lean left. But this farcical assertion that they’re collectively on the verge of Communist is just loopy.
Sorry, more afflicted with SJWs.
more afflicted than anywhere else with SHE’s.
Sorry, more afflicted with SJWs.
Heh. As I’m sure I’ve noted before, the psychology of “social justice” devotees seems to overlap with that of the archetypal ‘mean girls’ from school. The ones who would target a classmate for having an unfashionable bag or the wrong kind of shoes. The fact that so many of these warriors are female is not, I think, coincidental.
@Chester
What would suffice as evidence for you? On these pages, we’ve had posts about the nightmare of “restorative justice.” We’ve had posts about the slow death of the Edina, MN school district. IIRC, we’ve had posts about teacher’s unions advocating against homeshooling and private education. We’ve had posts about colleges of education requiring fidelity of SJW principles to graduate with a teaching degree. We’ve had posts about middle school teacher Yvette Felarca, leader of the radical BAMN! group carting her kids to various leftist demonstrations.
As I said above, the fact that some teachers are not enthusiastic or that some public school districts have not (yet) succumbed to these external pressure, does not mean the pressure doesn’t exist. Even your fact of 25 percent of teacher union members voting for Trump, still means that 75 percent voted for someone else, a statistic which doesn’t seem to support your umbrage at first blush.
Try again. With facts this time.
When, while ignoring the repeating question about inherent structural limits, one oscillates between demanding facts and peddling opinions, it tends to identify the snark too. Like it’s coming from a proponent of the obvious problem who knows it is.
The state institution is an inherent conflict of private interest waiting to happen. That’s a third try, with facts, to appeal to obvious reason. Schools are like all into reason, right?
Most countries have a more centralised school system than the US. They also do a better job. It’s not centralisation that’s the problem — the US university system.is wildly decentralised and more afflicted than anywhere else with S[JW]’s.
You keep appealing to the same assertions and fallacies. Most countries have a more centralised gun laws than the US too. They also do a “better job” violating what in the US are rights, not shooting one another, being dogmatic about shooting one another, and making a nice shellfish paella. It’s not anti-rights laws that’re the problem — the US legal system is wildly decentralised and more afflicted than anywhere else with anti-rights government tyrants.
And?
It always amuses me when people lecture the English, of all people, about colonization. The island’s been invaded so many times by so many different ethnic groups that all of the 18th century could be seen as nothing more than payback.
I may well be wrong, and live in an area where the vast majority of teachers are not politically active, but I doubt it.
I’ve known at least a dozen teachers well enough to know their personal habits and political leanings, and every last one of them had no problem at all teaching the transparent agitprop in the curriculum. Because they believed it. They don’t have to be “politically active” to believe in their own innate moral and mental superiority and teach accordingly.
And it may well be regional; it is well known that the teachers’ unions in Ontario are arm-in-arm with the Liberal party. The unions teach Liberal party talking points, that gets the Liberal elected, the Liberals give the unions favorable contracts. Teachers who don’t play along are subtly nudged into less desirable positions or out of the profession altogether.
Fidelity to the unions’ political goals trumps everything else, including competence. One of them once asked me if I could configure their family’s wifi router not to broadcast when they weren’t using it, because of the “radiation”. She was a science teacher. I’ve had primary school math teachers ask me how to calculate 60% off of a retail price because they couldn’t find the calculator app on their iPhone and couldn’t do it in their head.
I’ve known at least a dozen teachers well enough to know their personal habits and political leanings, and every last one of them had no problem at all teaching the transparent agitprop in the curriculum.
Likewise, though I’ve known a fair number who weren’t necessarily on-board, were nonetheless compliant for fear of hurting their careers. Even with teacher protection/tenure laws on the books, teachers can nonetheless be punished in various subtle ways, such that rocking the boat is not professionally expedient. Teachers themselves may care about their students, the students’ parents and the quality of the service they provide, but administrations tend to have different agendas.
I disappeared down the rabbit hole of David’s archive links about 6:15. It’s now 8:30.
It would be nice if the Supt. of Schools knew how to spell “benefited”. But I suppose privileged folks can be excused from knowing anything.
It’s now 8:30.
If that’s not a fun evening, I don’t know what is.
@ Hector
“Instead of saying ‘I have unfairly benefitted from the type of skin I have’, it should have read, ‘I have unfairly benefitted from the type of degree I have’.”
This is amusing because most people with the relevant degrees, certifications, etc could be seen by the general public to be benefiting unfairly from the latest version of public administration. It has been taken over by a network of progressive thinkers promoting fellow travelers over those with relevant skills or traditional morals.
What better way to definitively signal membership than spending tens of thousands of dollars and several years at the best indoctrination centers? Now they’re not ready for the job as originally defined, but are certainly prepared for the “noble project to subvert and destroy the culture around them.”
http://www.unz.com/isteve/nyt-nice-white-lady-teachers-are-practically-george-zimmerman-level-racists/
Even your fact of 25 percent of teacher union members voting for Trump, still means that 75 percent voted for someone else, a statistic which doesn’t seem to support your umbrage at first blush.
Okay, let’s be fair: voter turnout is usually around 50%, so 25% voting for Trump, 25% voting for Her, and 50% not voting for anybody is within reason and still supports Chester’s notion of teachers not being uniformly leftist. But given the constant leftward ratchet of public institutions and the everyday experience of most parents, I feel safe in saying that it’s the teachers’ burden to demonstrate they don’t differ significantly from the norm as a group.
@Daniel Ream
I apologize for being unclear. My point was that pointing to 25% of X is conservative, whatever “X” is, as evidence of some sort of conservative wave doesn’t seem particularly persuasive. Further, even among the portion which is not “uniformly leftist” to use your term, many are probably just keeping their heads down and not make trouble for themselves. I suspect that’s true even among the right wing teachers, because again, this stuff comes from above.
Alright. I admit it. I have benefited from unearned privilege.
The year I joined a rather unique school, the privilege of walking was amended to walking on grass.
According to the Public Sector Executive Compensation Report for fiscal 2016/17, Ms Down’s total compensation for that period was $163,340.
Also:
The Gold Trail School District has received approval from the Human Rights Tribunal allowing preferential hiring to persons of Indigenous ancestry. The District may give preference in hiring to persons of Indigenous ancestry who possess the necessary qualifications over other applicants until such time as the percentage of staff of Indigenous ancestry in the School District is equal to the percentage of students of Indigenous ancestry in the School District.
I think she should pack up her “White Privilege” and surrender her $163,340 compensation. There must be a person of indigenous ancestry ready and able to fill her shoes.