Adherents of the wokeism religion are currently engaged in an effort to promote woke segregation in America’s classrooms. As if it weren’t already bad enough that they are trying to present far-leftist ideas regarding gender, sexual orientation, and race to K-12 students, they also seek to convince young people that racial segregation isn’t so bad after all. As with the vast majority of wokeist ideas, this one is ostensibly intended to help oppressed minorities but will have more negative consequences in the end.
Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a complaint with the Department of Education against a South Carolina middle school last Thursday, Breitbart News reported, after it announced plans to hold racially segregated events to “talk with students about how to cope with being a student in a predominantly white school.”
Pickens Middle School said it would be hosting lunches with a special guest speaker in which students would be separated based on skin color. Naturally, white and Asian students were not invited to these special lunches because they are not oppressed enough.
PDE’s complaint alleges that the school is in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“For a district to racially segregate students – in order to hear from a speaker renowned for lecturing on ‘unity,’ no less – is insult to injury, and sends students the opposite message,” PDE President Nicole Neily said to Breitbart News. “It is immoral and unconstitutional for districts across the country to treat students differently based on skin color, regardless of the administration’s intent.”
It was only after an outpouring of outrage from parents that the school began to reconsider its plans. At first, its leadership claimed the events were merely an “opportunity for students of specific minority groups to ask questions to the speaker surrounded by others like them – to create an increased sense of security for them to be open and candid.”
The school also explained that one of its core beliefs is that it believes “the cultural diversity promotes full development of the individual and society.”
Pickens Middle School is not the only learning institution that is trying to resurrect racial segregation in the name of wokeism. Several districts across the nation have attempted to employ similar events and programs. Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts came under fire after it announced it would hold events only for Asians and other students of color. The district recently settled a lawsuit filed by PDE.
One of the more sneaky ways progressives are trying to institute segregation in K-12 schools is through racial affinity groups, which are used to supposedly provide minority students with safe spaces to discuss various topics. Affinity groups were originally intended to provide places for students with certain interests to gather together. But the racialized versions of these groups specifically discriminate against students based on their race.
Aside from being blatant violations of the Constitution, woke segregationist practices are another way that progressives are foisting pernicious ideas on nonwhite Americans. The idea that black and brown students require space to discuss matters while “surrounded by others like them” is part and parcel of how white progressives think of minorities.
When I was in school, it never occurred to me, as a black male, that I could not express ideas or ask questions if there were too many white folks in the room. In fact, considering the opinions or views of white people as a group never even occurred to me, and it certainly did not influence my ability to participate in conversations. Indeed, I have never met another black person – or any other racial minority for that matter – who was too afraid to make their opinions known because of the presence of white folks.
But this is the society the hard left seeks to build, and there are plenty of news stories and other types of content demonstrating that this has become a troubling trend, especially on college campuses. To put it simply, the hard left wishes to create a generation of black and brown Americans that is mentally weak, hypersensitive, and plagued by feelings of victimhood. The notion that one would be apprehensive about standing up and expressing an opinion or asking a question because of their skin color is a terrifying reality to folks like myself, who want better for minority Americans.
Yet, the far left specifically targets nonwhites with this foolhardy claptrap, convincing them that white people are somehow the ultimate judges of what opinions a melanated person can or should have. In essence, it is they who are promoting the idea that white Americans are superior and that minorities are inferior. Sounds like white supremacy to me.
