When I was in my early 20s, I had just started getting into politics. Back then, I aligned with the Democratic Party just by default – before I had any real understanding of ideology and political principles.
But even back then, I noticed that their narrative regarding race issues was a huge turnoff. It became one of the main reasons I stopped aligning with them. Even then, I could see how damaging their narratives regarding race could be if taken to their logical conclusions.
Today, we are seeing this happen.
Progressive ideology in the school system is having a deleterious impact on black students in a myriad of ways. From encouraging black students to adopt a defeatist mindset to using the issue of racism to enact policies that place them behind in the real world, leftists are working to harm those whose plight they claim to care about the most.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the school system, it will be an uphill battle to reverse the damage these people are inflicting on black students who deserve the same chances as all other American students.
I came across footage featuring a black mother speaking out against the proposed inclusion of “ethnic studies” in K-12 classrooms in Minnesota. As she addressed lawmakers, she echoed the sentiments of many black Americans across the country who believe that kids should learn about racism without being conditioned to believe they are helpless victims. She began:
“This bill requires that schools teach ethnic studies starting in kindergarten, and I am against this. You might ask, why in the world would a black person speak against ethnic studies? Because not everything that sounds good is good. The definition of ethnic studies right there in the statute says that there’s a connection between a person’s race and their stratification. The bill tells kids of color that they are stuck in a caste system based on their race. It also tells kids, and I quote, that institutions chronically favor white people and disadvantaged people of color.”
The mother said she is “sick of everyone denying the enormous progress we made in this country, acting like it’s 1930” and that America has gotten rid of its “race-based system.”
“This curriculum will not help kids of color succeed. All it does is remove any reason to try,” she said. “And I repeat that, it removes any reason to try. And this is not some theoretical crap. This stuff happens. These messages are very harmful.”
The mother then recounted an incident in which her high schooler’s band teacher “took 20 minutes at the beginning of class to talk about antiracism.”
She continued:
“He told the kids to look around. And then he said the black boys in the school would likely not live to retirement because of racism and the police. Another furious kid of color recorded this conversation, and so I was able to hear it for myself with my own ears. If this law is passed, teaching this hopelessness to kids of color will be mandated starting kindergarten.”
She then lashed out at the white and black lawmakers supporting the bill. “I can see why you white proponents of this bill might support it. It’s not your kids being told that they can’t succeed, and you get to shed some of your white guilt in the process. But you legislators of color, how can you? You made it despite the invisible boogeyman of systematic racism. You were voted in by a majority of white people. You hold some of the most powerful positions in this state, yet you want to tell my kids and other kids of color that they can’t succeed? It’s shameful. It’s terrible,” she said, asking them to reconsider their support of the measure.
What this mother described is happening in schools all across the country. Educators and school staff are constantly reinforcing the message that black children cannot succeed. This is due to school districts incorporating ideas inspired by Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other progressive concepts into their curricula.
She's not wrong. pic.twitter.com/3xERlEiNat
— Jeff Charles, Agent of Chaos🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) March 26, 2023
But it gets even worse.
School districts, especially in blue areas, have started lowering standards ostensibly to promote diversity and equity among the student body. They argue that decreasing academic requirements will make more room for nonwhite students and ensure they have a more equal chance of graduating. One black mother in Cincinnati has been speaking out against this trend in her community.
A Cincinnati mother of two told Fox News Digital that she is against any consideration of her kids’ college preparatory school lowering academic standards in order to increase diversity.
“So what problem are you trying to solve is really my question. To say we’re just going to solve the problem by lowering the bar doesn’t solve the problem. It doesn’t solve the issue,” Sylvia Nelson, a participant in the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) and Local School Decision-Making Committees (LSDMC) at Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), told Fox News Digital.
Nelson, whose two kids attend the college preparatory Walnut Hills High School in CPS, said that the issue is that the district is not educating the students as is needed to provide options for students.
Nelson said she believes that Walnut Hills High School does not have a “diversity problem.”
The fact that Walnut Hills currently has approximately 40% of Black students enrolled in the school seems to back up Nelson’s argument. The mother noted that someone may believe there is a diversity problem because CPS has 80% Black children, which does not reflect the demographic makeup of Walnut Hills.
“I just think the resources need to be focused on really making sure that the parents feel like they have alternatives and safe places and quality education for their kids beyond elementary school. And Walnut Hills is not the only place that can happen, it can happen in these other schools,” Nelson said. “I think that there could be more done to make sure that our kids are prepared for the rigor of a college preparatory school.”
“As an African American parent, I’m insulted because I don’t believe standards need to be lowered for African Americans to get into Walnut,” Nelson told a local news outlet on Monday. “It was under the auspices of having more African Americans at Walnut Hills.”
Nelson is right. Progressive efforts to lower standards have only made things harder for black students after they graduate. Many black high school graduates in cities like Baltimore, MD are unable to read or write at the typical level of proficiency, which means they are finding it harder to function in adulthood.
Nevertheless, leftists continue touting their approach to schooling black children. They are ensuring that black students are not up to par when they graduate high school, which jeopardizes the opportunities they have when they become adults. But hey, at least they will have a firm understanding of how racism means they cannot possibly hope to succeed, right? In fact, progressive approaches to education pretty much ensure that they won’t. At this point, it is far too difficult to believe this is not the outcome the left desires.
