Mom in Va. who lived through Cultural Revolution addresses school board regarding Critical Race Theory

[Sneezyone]

37 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

And yet it captures a certain truth, no? How much sophistication do we expect from a kid? "My life is treated as less valuable by the government and by a substantial segment of the population" is a bit much to expect from a kid. 

 

You know, I always figure that part of my job as an adult is not to lie to kids. I tell my kids honestly what I see as their strengths and weaknesses -- not as a "you'll always be like this!" thing, but because it's information they can act on, and kids know whether you tell them or not. 

A kid saying something like is aware of the truth of what he's feeling whether you affirm it or not. All you can change is whether the kid trusts you.

This part. On what planet is gaslighting a best practice? This isn’t about interrogating dissociative thoughts. The child isn’t pathological because they’ve observed a pattern of behavior. Who is ‘they’? ‘Are you sure ‘they’ don’t care? How have ‘they’ hurt you, specifically? That is a violation all over again. The child is in distress because the events/feelings are actually distressing. This stuff is distressing.

What it would mean to be in a school that ‘was built for you’ is to have your feelings validated as rational and to be given the tools to deconstruct and/or channel them in constructive ways, e.g. personal excellence and change-making. *That* works. Going from feeling disempowered and powerless to empowered and powerful, not shuttling them off to a shrink so they can be convinced it’s really not so bad, no worries. Some things are objectively, reasonably, bad and their feelings are there to inspire action.

[LucyStoner]

1 hour ago, Melissa Louise said:

I posted that link a while back.

I thought it was a good article at the time. 

 

I realized my goof when Plum posted a response to you, me and Pam.  The main writer is interviewed on this week’s episode of Blocked and Reported.  

[Melissa Louise]

Just now, LucyStoner said:

I realized my goof when Plum posted a response to you, me and Pam.  The main writer is interviewed on this week’s episode of Blocked and Reported.  

Your link is more likely to be read, so no drama 🙂

Yep, listened to that the other night. 

[Not_a_Number]

30 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

This part. On what planet is gaslighting a best practice? This isn’t about interrogating dissociative thoughts. The child isn’t pathological because they’ve observed a pattern of behavior. Who is ‘they’? ‘Are you sure ‘they’ don’t care? How have ‘they’ hurt you, specifically? That is a violation all over again. The child is in distress because the events/feelings are actually distressing. This stuff is distressing.

What it would mean to be in a school that ‘was built for you’ is to have your feelings validated as rational and to be given the tools to deconstruct and/or channel them in constructive ways, e.g. personal excellence and change-making. *That* works. Going from feeling disempowered and powerless to empowered and powerful, not shuttling them off to a shrink so they can be convinced it’s really not so bad, no worries. Some things are objectively, reasonably, bad and their feelings are there to inspire action.

I'm going to have these conversations with my own kids at some point. I'd guess they will be lucky enough not to experience discrimination themselves while we're in NYC, but a cursory study of history will probably raise certain questions for them about where Jews fit into the world... 

[SKL]

3 hours ago, Melissa Louise said:

You can validate the emotion without validating the thought. Imo. That's kind of how psychiatry and clinical psychology work. A good school counsellor ( the appropriate person to provide more extensive support ) is used to helping students in this way. 

It's wild to.me that after decades of trying to break down racial ( and other) stereotyping, any child could be exposed to an adult who amplifies stereotypes. 

It's at that point ( and not before ) I diverge from current trends in education. It doesn't empower any child to encourage a belief that they are hated. 

Children generally trust adults who are kind to them in their moments of distress. Simple kindness is rarer than you think in schools.

Thank you.

And while it's outside the scope of this thread, I must say I feel for children who hear that kind of talk at home, regardless of what color they are, but especially if they are in a minority group.  It's like my childhood friends being told they shouldn't expect to do well in math because they were girls, or they shouldn't expect to go to college because they weren't rich or intellectually gifted.

My other unpopular opinion is that I find it disturbing that many people on this thread actually agree with these beliefs, and these are the people who think they care the most about these kids.

Edited July 12, 2021 by SKL

[Melissa Louise]

13 minutes ago, SKL said:

Thank you.

And while it's outside the scope of this thread, I must say I feel for children who hear that kind of talk at home, regardless of what color they are, but especially if they are in a minority group.  It's like my childhood friends being told they shouldn't expect to do well in math because they were girls, or they shouldn't expect to go to college because they weren't rich or intellectually gifted.

My other unpopular opinion is that I find it disturbing that many people on this thread actually agree with these beliefs, and these are the people who think they care the most about these kids.

It's absolutely bizarre to me that we've spun so far round that the concept of 'they' are like 'this' is now justice. 

'They' aren't like anything. That's the basis of challenging prejudice. 

We are in a very racially diverse school, and there is no way in this world anyone is allowed to stereotype like that, whether it's a 'positive' stereotype - all Asian kids are smart - or a negative one - all Aussie girls are sl**s, all Muslims are terrorists, all boys are a pain in the ass. 

They're discouraged from stereotyping other classes - all kindergarten are babies, all of Year 4 are dumb, Year 6 are rule breakers.

Every single time, back to the same message. Validate the emotion, explore the thinking. 

This is CBT 101. 

I don't know why ppl are getting in a knot about it. Unless they think only 'sick' people can use cognitive strategies as part of dealing with distress, and they have some ableism going on. 

 

 

[SKL]

Yeah, I'll just say I'll have the ass of anyone who tells my kids their race (or any other demographic) determines anything about their value or ability.

Edited July 12, 2021 by SKL

[Sneezyone]

2 hours ago, SKL said:

Thank you.

And while it's outside the scope of this thread, I must say I feel for children who hear that kind of talk at home, regardless of what color they are, but especially if they are in a minority group.  It's like my childhood friends being told they shouldn't expect to do well in math because they were girls, or they shouldn't expect to go to college because they weren't rich or intellectually gifted.

My other unpopular opinion is that I find it disturbing that many people on this thread actually agree with these beliefs, and these are the people who think they care the most about these kids.

For the umpteenth time, the message that life sucks, discriminations exists, and sometimes you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good to go half as far undergirds A TON of the successes and breakthroughs minorities have had. None of that = you’re less valuable or less capable because X. It means, ‘I see you. I hear you. I know your worth and I know what you can do so don’t let the burdens and barriers get you down…WORK!’ It is nothing like the bolded straw man, an oft repeated and still spurious comparison. 

Don’t feel bad for kids who hear ‘I feel you, push through anyway’, feel bad for the ones who are told, ‘Everything’s fine, dear, you’re just imagining things’. They’re the ones internalizing systemic issues as personal problems/failings and ignoring everything else that comes out of the speaker’s mouth as untrustworthy. 

Someone asked earlier in the thread what kinds of messages have helped and would make schools more welcoming, historically and in my own family, those are it. They may not be effective in the context of a majority individual’s experience where it’s assumed and understood that problems are born of happenstance. They work in the context of overcoming systemic barriers to success.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[KSera]

2 hours ago, SKL said:

And while it's outside the scope of this thread, I must say I feel for children who hear that kind of talk at home, regardless of what color they are, but especially if they are in a minority group.  It's like my childhood friends being told they shouldn't expect to do well in math because they were girls, or they shouldn't expect to go to college because they weren't rich or intellectually gifted.

My other unpopular opinion is that I find it disturbing that many people on this thread actually agree with these beliefs, and these are the people who think they care the most about these kids.

That’s not what anyone is saying at all. None of this is about telling kids they aren’t every bit as capable and deserving of succeeding as any other student. What are you seeing anywhere on this thread suggesting “many people on this thread actually agree with these beliefs?”

[Sneezyone]

I’ll just say this too while I’m at it…

MLK is lionized all over the world and yet no one deigns to misunderstand what he meant when he talked about the ‘white liberal’ as a group. No one pretends to misunderstand who the ‘they’ was that activists were railing against. Being willfully ignorant when a child uses that same language to describe what he’s seeing/feeling is a choice, an invalidating one.

[Not_a_Number]

2 hours ago, Melissa Louise said:

It's absolutely bizarre to me that we've spun so far round that the concept of 'they' are like 'this' is now justice. 

'They' aren't like anything. That's the basis of challenging prejudice. 

We are in a very racially diverse school, and there is no way in this world anyone is allowed to stereotype like that, whether it's a 'positive' stereotype - all Asian kids are smart - or a negative one - all Aussie girls are sl**s, all Muslims are terrorists, all boys are a pain in the ass. 

They're discouraged from stereotyping other classes - all kindergarten are babies, all of Year 4 are dumb, Year 6 are rule breakers.

Every single time, back to the same message. Validate the emotion, explore the thinking. 

This is CBT 101. 

I don't know why ppl are getting in a knot about it. Unless they think only 'sick' people can use cognitive strategies as part of dealing with distress, and they have some ableism going on. 

Well, how would you like a student who is frustrated by the fact that society on average treats him different to react? What would he be allowed to say that wouldn’t result in you trying to argue him out of his feelings?

[Sneezyone]

This popped up in Politico today, a brief summary of how Mexican American students and families fought for and received court approval to give their children more information about their own history as part of court-ordered desegregation. This was after former AZ Governor Jan Brewer sought to ban Chicano studies programs. For those interested in other ethnic groups… https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/07/11/tucson-unified-school-districts-mexican-american-studies-program-498926

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Melissa Louise]

52 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

Well, how would you like a student who is frustrated by the fact that society on average treats him different to react? What would he be allowed to say that wouldn’t result in you trying to argue him out of his feelings?

I wouldn't argue him out of his feelings at all. 

Distress has several components - physical, affective and cognitive. 

At school, I mainly look after the first two, and try not to inadvertently reinforce any cognitive distortions that may be being expressed. 

But when I was dealing with my own kids, I also routinely dealt with cognition. 

If it were my kid saying that 'they all hate me because I'm brown', after dealing with the physical and emotional need ( hugs, glass of water, tissues, listening to child ), at some later, calmer point, I'd address the belief contributing to the distress as well.

Firstly, it's unlikely 'they' all are of one mind. That's unhealthy thinking.

Secondly, it's likely that other children have in the past shown they did not 'hate' my kid. In fact, it's likely s/he is liked by several others. It's good for kid to have evidence that they do, in fact have friends and allies. 

If there was a specific hateful kid or group, I'd try to get more info. What are the hateful behaviours ? I'd book a meeting with whomever was in charge to discuss these harmful behaviours and require them to be dealt with.

When I've had these convos ( esp with one particular kid) I'd often find out she was feeling angry about things in the broader culture. Beauty standards were big for her at one time. I helped her write letters to the editor to teen magazines calling then on their always white models as away of her processing racist beauty standards. 

If a teacher, under the guise of validating her feelings, had agreed with her that it was reasonable to believe 'they' hate her b/C she's brown - without any evidence that this is the case,and both student and teacher relying on mind-reading - I would find that psychologically clumsy behaviour, and I wouldn't be very happy about it.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Melissa Louise

[Sneezyone]

Only one person in this thread said the child felt ‘they hated’ him. It wasn’t the person who actually spoke with the child. The child said ‘they’ didn’t ‘care’. There is, in fact, plenty of evidence for a child to draw that conclusion. If people REALLY cared, they’d do something about the proliferation of handguns. If people really cared, they’d have done something to repair the damage of redlining in and around Memphis. If people really cared, they’d increase funding for family support services in the area. If people really cared his brother’s death would merit more than a footnote in a local paper or blurb on TV about gang violence when he wasn’t even in a gang. All of those ‘people’ are ‘they’. The child wasn’t talking about a singular incident but about an observed pattern of policy and practice.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Danae]

50 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

I wouldn't argue him out of his feelings at all. 

Distress has several components - physical, affective and cognitive. 

At school, I mainly look after the first two, and try not to inadvertently reinforce any cognitive distortions that may be being expressed. 

But when I was dealing with my own kids, I also routinely dealt with cognition. 

If it were my kid saying that 'they all hate me because I'm brown', after dealing with the physical and emotional need ( hugs, glass of water, tissues, listening to child ), at some later, calmer point, I'd address the belief contributing to the distress as well.

Firstly, it's unlikely 'they' all are of one mind. That's unhealthy thinking.

Secondly, it's likely that other children have in the past shown they did not 'hate' my kid. In fact, it's likely s/he is liked by several others. It's good for kid to have evidence that they do, in fact have friends and allies. 

If there was a specific hateful kid or group, I'd try to get more info. What are the hateful behaviours ? I'd book a meeting with whomever was in charge to discuss these harmful behaviours and require them to be dealt with.

When I've had these convos ( esp with one particular kid) I'd often find out she was feeling angry about things in the broader culture. Beauty standards were big for her at one time. I helped her write letters to the editor to teen magazines calling then on their always white models as away of her processing racist beauty standards. 

If a teacher, under the guise of validating her feelings, had agreed with her that it was reasonable to believe 'they' hate her b/C she's brown - without any evidence that this is the case,and both student and teacher relying on mind-reading - I would find that psychologically clumsy behaviour, and I wouldn't be very happy about it.

 

 

 

 

I feel like we’re reading two different threads.  The post that started this particular line wasn’t about a kid feeling like nobody wants to play with them because they’re different. It was about a kid noticing that shootings involving white students get more national attention than shootings involving black students.   

[Carol in Cal.]

34 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

Only one person in this thread said the child felt ‘they hated’ him. It wasn’t the person who actually spoke with the child. The child said ‘they’ didn’t ‘care’. There is, in fact, plenty of evidence for a child to draw that conclusion. If people REALLY cared, they’d do something about the proliferation of handguns. If people really cared, they’d have done something to repair the damage of redlining in and around Memphis. If people really cared, they’d increase funding for family support services in the area. If people really cared his brother’s death would merit more than a footnote in a local paper or blurb on TV about gang violence when he wasn’t even in a gang. All of those ‘people’ are ‘they’. The child wasn’t talking about a singular incident but about an observed pattern of policy and practice.

In context, not so much.  In context, the child was talking about a big outpouring of horror and sympathy in one case and not in the other.  That’s a fair critique and it needs to be addressed, but your laundry list is not proof of lack of addressing it.  A bunch of partisan political action proposals such as you are proposing is not in play in either case on either side.  It is interesting to go through the thought exercise of what someone who is not your political match would have as a laundry list.  I’m not sure what it would be, but it might be Midnight Basketball, and encouraging churches to work physically in the area a la the Nehemiah Project, and encouraging involvement of fathers, and offering parenting classes, and increasing grants to job training programs.  

The truth is, I would not entirely reject or entirely endorse either laundry list, but the truth also is, there was no political laundry list from the shootings in Colorado comparable to yours or in opposition to yours.  The policy laundry lists are separate issues, and tacking either one onto this incident is untrue to it.

Also, the Columbine incident was not a gang one. It got more attention because it was so unique and new.  My view is that we should be a lot further along with the gang warfare s**t than we are, because it has been around for a long long time.  But I can see why Columbine was news.  It was because it was a new kind of thing.  Having said that, I agree that the news media reports as if it expects POC violence but not White violence, which is messed up.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Carol in Cal.

[Melissa Louise]

45 minutes ago, Danae said:

I feel like we’re reading two different threads.  The post that started this particular line wasn’t about a kid feeling like nobody wants to play with them because they’re different. It was about a kid noticing that shootings involving white students get more national attention than shootings involving black students.   

They don't care about brown people, was the original statement, I think? They being the white student cohort? 

It's the same deal. 'They all' statements are rarely helpful.

Probably some of the white kids don't care. Some are ignorant. Some are overwhelmed with other issues. Some care. 

This is because white children, like all other cohorts of children, vary in empathy, knowledge, capacity. 

It is two different convos because I'm talking to the people I don't have on ignore ( and presumably, vice versa). 

 

[Sneezyone]

46 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

In context, not so much.  In context, the child was talking about a big outpouring of horror and sympathy in one case and not in the other.  That’s a fair critique and it needs to be addressed, but your laundry list is not proof of lack of addressing it.  A bunch of partisan political action proposals such as you are proposing is not in play in either case on either side.  It is interesting to go through the thought exercise of what someone who is not your political match would have as a laundry list.  I’m not sure what it would be, but it might be Midnight Basketball, and encouraging churches to work physically in the area a la the Nehemiah Project, and encouraging involvement of fathers, and offering parenting classes, and increasing grants to job training programs.  

The truth is, I would not entirely reject or entirely endorse either laundry list, but the truth also is, there was no political laundry list from the shootings in Colorado comparable to yours or in opposition to yours.  The policy laundry lists are separate issues, and tacking either one onto this incident is untrue to it.

KIDS AND PARENTS AREN’T STUPID. Urban homicide isn’t a priority, just a convenient deflection for some (to avoid the assault weapons and illegal/straw sales issues) and pet projects/initiatives don’t have broad community reach or significant funding. The things I listed are indications a child might look to or hear about in the home and use to determine whether or not people really care about his/her plight. This is one of those times where I encourage you NOT to take my word for it. Go talk to a bunch of people living in affected communities and see what *they* say. As a kid in such a neighborhood, I’d have said the exact same thing and meant it with every fiber of my being. By 10 years old, I knew very well how my neighborhood was perceived and how much what happened there didn’t matter.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Carol in Cal.]

4 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

KIDS AND PARENTS AREN’T STUPID. Urban homicide isn’t a priority, just a convenient deflection for some (to avoid the assault weapons and illegal/straw sales issues) and pet projects/initiatives don’t have broad community reach or significant funding. The things I listed are indications a child might look to or hear about in the home and use to determine whether or not people really care about his/her plight. This is one of those times where I encourage you NOT to take my word for it. Go talk to a bunch of people living in affected communities and see what *they* say. As a kid in such a neighborhood, I’d have said the exact same thing and meant it with every fiber of my being. By 10 years old, I knew very well how my neighborhood was perceived.

As is often the case you are arguing with something that I didn’t say and not taking up the points I actually made, which is that your laundry list is flawed and whether it happens or not has little to do with whether people care about a gang killing even if it is ‘collateral damage’ to the actual gang stuff, a phrase I hate.

[Sneezyone]

1 minute ago, Carol in Cal. said:

As is often the case you are arguing with something that I didn’t say and not taking up the points I actually made, which is that your laundry list is flawed and whether it happens or not has little to do with whether people care about a gang killing even if it is ‘collateral damage’ to the actual gang stuff, a phrase I hate.

They were EXEMPLARS, not an exhaustive list. I’m sure you can come up with your own and take issue with that too.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Carol in Cal.]

1 minute ago, Sneezyone said:

They were EXEMPLARS, not an exhaustive list. I’m sure you can come up with your own and take issue with that too.

Answering a kid with lengthy policy stuff that takes years to implement is not going to satisfy the immediate issue on any level.  There needs to be support right in the moment and from then on.  The policy stuff needs to happen but it’s not going to address this kid.  

[Sneezyone]

7 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

Answering a kid with lengthy policy stuff that takes years to implement is not going to satisfy the immediate issue on any level.  There needs to be support right in the moment and from then on.  The policy stuff needs to happen but it’s not going to address this kid.  

Did I say answer the kid like that? No. No, I did not. My EXEMPLAR reply to the child was quite different. Feel free to reread it. I offered the list of EXEMPLAR policies/practices by way of explanation for why a kid might reasonably believe that no one cared. Having lost my own sibling in a similar incident when I was 18, yeah, it’s a perfectly reasonable belief. I wouldn’t expect a 10 yo to articulate those feelings or a rationale as well as an adult but dismissal isn’t an appropriate response in either case.

ETA: whenever the pushback is this strong, methinks me struck a nerve.

Edited July 12, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Danae]

28 minutes ago, Melissa Louise said:

They don't care about brown people, was the original statement, I think? They being the white student cohort? 

It's the same deal. 'They all' statements are rarely helpful.

Probably some of the white kids don't care. Some are ignorant. Some are overwhelmed with other issues. Some care. 

This is because white children, like all other cohorts of children, vary in empathy, knowledge, capacity. 

It is two different convos because I'm talking to the people I don't have on ignore ( and presumably, vice versa). 

 

I doubt it.  Since the statement was “they only care because they’re white kids. They could blow up our school and it wouldn’t make any difference”  and presumably his fellow students would care about their own school being blown up.  “They” the national media and its audience only care because “they” the Littleton victims were white. “They” the school shooters could have attacked the student’s school and it would have been tut-tutted as gang violence.  None of the “they”s in that paragraph referred to the student’s classmates.

[Melissa Louise]

1 hour ago, Danae said:

I doubt it.  Since the statement was “they only care because they’re white kids. They could blow up our school and it wouldn’t make any difference”  and presumably his fellow students would care about their own school being blown up.  “They” the national media and its audience only care because “they” the Littleton victims were white. “They” the school shooters could have attacked the student’s school and it would have been tut-tutted as gang violence.  None of the “they”s in that paragraph referred to the student’s classmates.

Ok.

I was wrong. 

I'm sorry. 

[Fritz]

10 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

KIDS AND PARENTS AREN’T STUPID. Urban homicide isn’t a priority, just a convenient deflection for some (to avoid the assault weapons and illegal/straw sales issues) and pet projects/initiatives don’t have broad community reach or significant funding. The things I listed are indications a child might look to or hear about in the home and use to determine whether or not people really care about his/her plight. This is one of those times where I encourage you NOT to take my word for it. Go talk to a bunch of people living in affected communities and see what *they* say. As a kid in such a neighborhood, I’d have said the exact same thing and meant it with every fiber of my being. By 10 years old, I knew very well how my neighborhood was perceived and how much what happened there didn’t matter.

I am perplexed as to why BLM makes no noise about this. Their focus is only on, the small by comparison, number of blacks killed by the police. If you weren't killed by a police officer they don't appear to care. Week in and week out we see high numbers of homicides in pretty much all the major cities and yet not a peep from BLM. Ulterior motives? Btw, as I am sure your are aware these homicides are not likely to be committed with legally purchased weapons. I do wonder what their lack of concern says to black children about how much their lives matter to BLM.

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Fritz

[Sneezyone]

4 hours ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

Stop using 'black-on-black' crime to deflect away from police brutality

Bringing up 'Black on Black Crime' Is Racist

It perplexes me when this is raised an issue like it's insightful and new and hasn't been discussed like a million times already. 

It's perverse that I prefaced my comments with "Urban homicide isn’t a priority, just a convenient deflection for some" only to have that confirmed almost immediately. I'm tempted to ask how things are going with opioids and white on white crime but that isn't relevant either. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if a white child expressed the same sentiment for similar reasons.

[TravelingChris]

On 7/6/2021 at 3:43 PM, Ordinary Shoes said:

I had a long argument with someone about segregation academies. He'd never heard the term before. He kept insisting that the small, private, "Christian" schools founded in the south in the 1960s and 1970s were opened for religious reasons. He linked to "about" sections on school websites to make his argument. 

There is so much ignorance about racial history in this country. I was born in Oklahoma in the 1970s. My town still had segregated schools when I was born. What? Did anyone ever discuss that? Of course not. I knew that an old, unused school building had been the "black" school but I was shocked to learn that the schools were still segregated long after Brown. 

 

I started kindergarten in 1968.  I lived in Arlington, VA.   That was our last year of segregation.  

[Fritz]

18 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

It's perverse that I prefaced my comments with "Urban homicide isn’t a priority, just a convenient deflection for some" only to have that confirmed almost immediately. I'm tempted to ask how things are going with opioids and white on white crime but that isn't relevant either. It wouldn't surprise me, however, if a white child expressed the same sentiment for similar reasons.

I get that BLM are racial grifters and really have little interest in "black lives". What I don't get is why no one calls them out on it. Their agenda to defund the police is most harmful to those they claim to represent. This seems especially harmful to black children who live in those cities that are seeing these senseless murders (often including children) week after week. What does that say to black children when they have heard and seen BLM burn and loot their cities in the name of BLM and are completely silent about these soaring murder rates in their neighborhoods?

 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/13/going-grifting-via-black-lives-matter/

The fentanyl epidemic and the resulting deaths are rising at an alarming rate. The current political party in power endorses both defunding the police and open borders allowing for both of these issues to increase. I think we can guess how concerned they are by the increasing deaths from these issues.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-sees-800-incase-fentanyl-coming-across-border-1594690

 

[Fritz]

https://nypost.com/2021/07/14/california-school-district-mandates-ethnic-studies-course-based-on-crt/

A small school district has become the first in California to enforce mandatory “ethnic studies” lessons based on critical race theory, including for preschoolers — setting aside $40 million to implement it.

The board of trustees of the Hayward Unified School District in the Bay Area voted unanimously late last month to approve the program for all grades, starting in preschool — making it a “graduation requirement” by next year.

The Hayward board approved $40 million to to cover recruiting, training and materials for the policy — despite community fears that it could encourage antisemitism, Jewish News Syndicate noted.

 

The policy is being pushed throughout the state, with San Diego Unified School District expected to approve a similar plan later this summer, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Salinas Union High School District, meanwhile, recently hired “Rethinking Ethnic Studies” author R. Tolteka Cuauhtin to prep its teachers to implement a similar course — paying $1,500 an hour.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-ethnic-studies-gold-rush-11626129598

 

High-school students in California could soon be required to take at least one semester of something called “ethnic studies” to graduate. The California Senate Education Committee holds hearings this week on Assembly Bill 101, which passed the lower house 58-9 in May. If A.B. 101 becomes law, it will line the pockets of a waiting diversity industry with hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, as well as federal coronavirus relief money.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Congress passed the Cares Act in March 2020. The legislation provided $2.2 trillion of financial assistance to individuals, businesses and state institutions. Of that $2.2 trillion, $16.2 billion was set aside for primary and secondary education. The California Education Department received $2 billion.

These funds were intended to cover a variety of difficulties caused by pandemic-related budget shortfalls. The U.S. Department of Education recommended that the money be used to prevent teacher layoffs, preserve mental-health programs, and improve school ventilation. But the feds also urged state education departments to use the money to “advance equity” given the “disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color.” This opened the door for California to spend its federal windfall in a way that most Americans would likely find reprehensible.

Sacramento lawmakers passed a bill in 2016 requiring the state Board of Education to create a model curriculum in ethnic studies and recommend that each district make the curriculum required learning for grades 9-12 beginning in the 2021-22 school year. The first draft of the ethnic studies model curriculum, or ESMC, provoked a public outcry when it was published in August 2019. While the bill stipulated that the model curriculum should prepare students to appreciate the contributions of all cultures, it contained significant anti-Semitic sentiment, such as a poem insinuating that Jews control the media. The proposed curriculum even went so far as to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, an anti-Israel lobby.

The state Board but added explicit references to critical race theory and neo-Marxism. The introduction of the new curriculum states that ethnic studies is “housed in the conceptual model of the ‘double helix’ which interweaves holistic humanization and critical consciousness.” In a footnote, the idea of “holistic humanization” is tied to the work of Tara J. Yosso, a widely cited critical race theorist. “Critical consciousness” refers to Paulo Freire’s theory that people must become aware and critical of oppressors (mainly white males) to bring about a Marxist revolution.of Education produced a new version of the model curriculum. It removed the outright anti-Semitism,

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/black-lives-matter-blames-us-praises-cuban-regime-social-media-erupts

The common denominator here is their support of Marxism., which seems to be their real intent. Seems like the parent in the OP was exactly right.

[SlowRiver]

A lot of the critical academic voices in terms of CRT have talked a lot about the fact that groups like BLM focus on only certain types of problems while ignoring those that affect racialised communities most - gang violence etc - and in fact that the ideas like defunding the police tend to be extremely unpopular in those communities.

But this kind of gets to what the problem is, at least in high school level programs. If they are presenting a CRT perspective as if it is the only approach, they aren't teaching appropriately. because it's not the only way of thinking. Any more than it would be ok to teach with a humanist, or Jewish, POV undergirding everything. If the students aren't ready to explicitly understand that there are different perspectives, and be exposed to them, then they aren't ready to be taught as if one of those perspectives is undoubtably the truth, either.  If you can read Coats in the classroom they should also be capable of reading West or Reed or McWhorter, all of whom, from different perspectives, take a different POV than Coates and are in some cases explicitly critical of him, in a more or less friendly way.

At a university students should, simply by taking classes from different people, be exposed to different perspectives, which they then have to sort out for themselves. Unfortunately that is something that is becoming a challenge which is a serious problem for academia, but that's a different kind of problem than high schools have, and lower level schools for children, where the school itself has to do much more interpretation for students and is acting much more within the limits of what parents believe.

Ultimately, as long as more and more parents see their kids learning things they really disagree with, we'll see parents trying to use whatever tools they have to stop it. And that is likely to be a broad spectrum approach.

[Fritz]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/biden-admin-promotes-radical-group-critical-race-theory-schools

The Biden administration's guidance for school reopening promoted a radical activist group’s handbook that advocates for educators to "disrupt Whiteness and other forms of oppression."

 

The Department of Education linked to the Abolitionist Teaching Network’s "Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning" in its handbook intended to help schools reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend how they should spend billions of dollars they collectively received through the American Rescue Plan.

The Abolitionist Teaching Network’s website includes links to various materials and media that include language often associated with critical race theory, though the group avoids using the exact phrase.

"Abolitionist Teachers" should "[b]uild a school culture that engages in healing and advocacy. This requires a commitment to learning from students, families, and educators who disrupt Whiteness and other forms of oppression," the group states in its guide.

 

 

"If you don’t recognize that White supremacy is in everything we do, then we got a problem," Love, who also chairs the board of directors, said. "I want us to be feared."

Edited July 21, 2021 by Fritz

[Danae]

9 minutes ago, Fritz said:

 

The Department of Education linked to the Abolitionist Teaching Network’s "Guide for Racial Justice & Abolitionist Social and Emotional Learning" in its handbook intended to help schools reopen after the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend how they should spend billions of dollars they collectively received through the American Rescue Plan.

That sounds like a great resource, although I can’t find where it’s actually linked in the DOE document.

[ktgrok]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:10 AM, Fritz said:

I get that BLM are racial grifters and really have little interest in "black lives". What I don't get is why no one calls them out on it. Their agenda to defund the police is most harmful to those they claim to represent. This seems especially harmful to black children who live in those cities that are seeing these senseless murders (often including children) week after week. What does that say to black children when they have heard and seen BLM burn and loot their cities in the name of BLM and are completely silent about these soaring murder rates in their neighborhoods?

 https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/13/going-grifting-via-black-lives-matter/

The fentanyl epidemic and the resulting deaths are rising at an alarming rate. The current political party in power endorses both defunding the police and open borders allowing for both of these issues to increase. I think we can guess how concerned they are by the increasing deaths from these issues.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-sees-800-incase-fentanyl-coming-across-border-1594690

 

"Defund the police" generally means to put more money into social services, mental health, and training vs tactical weapons. That's the stuff that helps with addiction problems. 

And the current political party sure as crap doesn't endorse open borders. 

As for why one group focuses on one issue, why do ANY groups focus on one issue? Why don't Mothers Against Drunk Driving focus on lead poisoning? 

[Fritz]

1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

"Defund the police" generally means to put more money into social services, mental health, and training vs tactical weapons. That's the stuff that helps with addiction problems. 

And the current political party sure as crap doesn't endorse open borders. 

As for why one group focuses on one issue, why do ANY groups focus on one issue? Why don't Mothers Against Drunk Driving focus on lead poisoning? 

How's the defunding working out so far in those cities that have implemented it?

 

[Frances]

4 minutes ago, Fritz said:

How's the defunding working out so far in those cities that have implemented it?

 

A few years ago, the WSJ had a feature article about a successful program in Eugene, Oregon that uses mental health experts as first responders, rather than police, in some instances. It’s my understanding that some other cities are looking to do something similar.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mental-health-experts-not-police-are-the-first-responders-1543071600

[TravelingChris]

BLM supports the Cuban Commie Govt, when video of the protests show that a lot of the people protesting were African-Cubans.

[Wheres Toto]

19 minutes ago, Fritz said:

How's the defunding working out so far in those cities that have implemented it?

 

It's generally considered to have been successful in Camden NJ.

[Pen]

47 minutes ago, Fritz said:

How's the defunding working out so far in those cities that have implemented it?

 

not well afaik

 

Camden nj apparently has more policing, (not actually defunded but disbanded and restarted differently as article below explains)  and is still dangerous in comparison to other places in nj, though less dangerous than it had been 

https://progressive.org/latest/camden-didnt-defund-police-department-kalet-200630/

[Not_a_Number]

5 minutes ago, Plum said:

I think there would be a lot of support for funding mental health and addiction support services. Homeless and property crime would decrease significantly if we could get mental health and social services under control.  Ideally the police should be able to focus solely on crime and not social services and mental health. 

Calling that Defund the Police is more like calling MADD Defund Automobiles. We have many uses for both police and automobiles. Just because they are used improperly doesn’t mean we should eliminate them. 

I do think that the slogan is tremendously unhelpful. 

[LucyStoner]

Defund is a crappy slogan (if we find ourselves having to *explain* a *slogan*, then it’s not doing its job well).  

And anyone who thinks the be all and end all answer is more social services and more “mental health resources” doesn’t have enough experience actually accessing those resources (or trying to access those resources) to understand that they are every bit as marred by systemic issues as the police.  Social services have been absolutely *awful* to the most marginalized members of my family and CPS was full on weaponized against my sibling by his abusive ex husband- the CPS workers flat out didn’t care about the history of DV and they sided with the person who looked the most middle class on paper (despite that person being an abusive AF functional alcoholic who has admitted to doing things like breaking down a three year olds door).  In another situation, CPS did nothing to help my niece and nephew when their abusive father was in the home but once it was just my SIL, they showed up for every thing and completely browbeat her.  In researching this I learned that there is evidence that CPS appears more likely to steer clear of cases where there’s someone in the home that poses a risk to them (the abusive dad) but to become very picky when the HOH doesn’t pose a threat to them (my tiny SIL).   

A bunch of middle class 24 year olds doing their stint at the state to get their MSW paid for can in fact do a lot more harm than good.  The more marginalized someone is, the crappier they tend to get treated in social work and mental health spaces.  In general, the poor people I know don’t want social workers on their doorstep anymore than they want the cops.  

Edited July 21, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Not_a_Number]

8 minutes ago, LucyStoner said:

Social services have been absolutely *awful* to the most marginalized members of my family and CPS was full on weaponized against my sibling by his abusive ex husband- the CPS workers flat out didn’t care about the history of DV and they sided with the person who looked the most middle class on paper (despite that person being an abusive AF functional alcoholic who has admitted to doing things like breaking down a three year olds door).  

That's absolutely reprehensible 😕 . How in the world did this happen?? 

[LucyStoner]

13 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

That's absolutely reprehensible 😕 . How in the world did this happen?? 

15 years ago if asked for my opinion about CPS, I would have said underfunded people trying to do good work and I believed that if CPS was removing kids they had a good reason/it was the right call.  What I have observed in the last decade has shown me that sometimes, and not just rarely, they get it horribly, horribly wrong.  Often times the primary target in DV looks less stable on paper- my sibling’s situation isn’t a one off. 
 

It doesn’t help that in my state, CPS workers are in fact quite often just working there for long enough to get their grad school covered and then they bounce for better jobs.  Friends who are social workers and foster parents have told me this. This isn’t shocking - who would want to work for CPS when they could earn far more for the much safer job of private counseling or adoption home studies?  How newly graduated middle class people without kids are supposed to make the right calls in these nuanced and complex situations is beyond me.  Kids are more likely to end up in foster care if they are from poor or black and brown families.  A social worker wields a lot of power in these situations and power doesn’t always get used for good.  

Edited July 21, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Danae]

10 minutes ago, LucyStoner said:

15 years ago if asked for my opinion about CPS, I would have said underfunded people trying to do good work and I believed that if CPS was removing kids they had a good reason/it was the right call.  What I have observed in the last decade has shown me that sometimes, and not just rarely, they get it horribly, horribly wrong.  Often times the primary target in DV looks less stable on paper- my sibling’s situation isn’t a one off. 
 

It doesn’t help that in my state, CPS workers are in fact quite often just working there for long enough to get their grad school covered and then they bounce for better jobs.  Friends who are social workers and foster parents have told me this. This isn’t shocking - who would want to work for CPS when they could earn far more for the much safer job of private counseling or adoption home studies?  How newly graduated middle class people without kids are supposed to make the right calls in these nuanced and complex situations is beyond me.  Kids are more likely to end up in foster care if they are from poor or black and brown families.  A social worker wields a lot of power in these situations and power doesn’t always get used for good.  

So enough money to hire and retain experienced people might be a good thing.

[Carol in Cal.]

3 minutes ago, Danae said:

So enough money to hire and retain experienced people might be a good thing.

Or they might join a really messed up culture and succumb to it.  

[LucyStoner]

5 minutes ago, Danae said:

So enough money to hire and retain experienced people might be a good thing.

The same could be said of the police force.  Community policing that is shown to work costs more money and requires more personnel.  

And the bias that mostly middle class social workers bring to their jobs which results in women of color disproportionately losing their kids would not be erased by more money.  Acting like the police are the only biased system or that “social workers and mental health agencies” are an easy solution to the endemic issues communities face is nothing more than wishful thinking.    

Edited July 21, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Wheres Toto]

1 hour ago, Pen said:

not well afaik

 

Camden nj apparently has more policing, (not actually defunded but disbanded and restarted differently as article below explains)  and is still dangerous in comparison to other places in nj, though less dangerous than it had been 

https://progressive.org/latest/camden-didnt-defund-police-department-kalet-200630/

And I can find articles that would describe it as defunding and reworking so....🤷‍♀️

Adequate funding, additional training, proper training for the job to be done (whether that's policing, counseling, social work, whatever), checks on the system to avoid discrepancies in the treatment of poor/brown/black people, community involvement (that seems to be a big part of things in Camden) - all seem like things that could help. 

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, Frances said:

A few years ago, the WSJ had a feature article about a successful program in Eugene, Oregon that uses mental health experts as first responders, rather than police, in some instances. It’s my understanding that some other cities are looking to do something similar.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-mental-health-experts-not-police-are-the-first-responders-1543071600

Orlando now has a mental health first repsonder program as well. 

[Fritz]

28 minutes ago, LucyStoner said:

15 years ago if asked for my opinion about CPS, I would have said underfunded people trying to do good work and I believed that if CPS was removing kids they had a good reason/it was the right call.  What I have observed in the last decade has shown me that sometimes, and not just rarely, they get it horribly, horribly wrong.  Often times the primary target in DV looks less stable on paper- my sibling’s situation isn’t a one off. 
 

It doesn’t help that in my state, CPS workers are in fact quite often just working there for long enough to get their grad school covered and then they bounce for better jobs.  Friends who are social workers and foster parents have told me this. This isn’t shocking - who would want to work for CPS when they could earn far more for the much safer job of private counseling or adoption home studies?  How newly graduated middle class people without kids are supposed to make the right calls in these nuanced and complex situations is beyond me.  Kids are more likely to end up in foster care if they are from poor or black and brown families.  A social worker wields a lot of power in these situations and power doesn’t always get used for good.  

I think this likely very true as well as the tendency to return children to white repeat drug offenders. It is maddening!

[LucyStoner]

55 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Orlando now has a mental health first repsonder program as well. 

We have a program here that pairs diversion for mental health and poverty related low level crime with social service connections.  It’s a good program (I know people involved in running it personally). I’m not opposed to social services but it’s just a much more complicated landscape than “less policing, more mental health”

[LucyStoner]

4 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

Yes, remember those children who were murdered by their adoptive parents who drove off the cliff? I read a lot of commentary about that when the story came out. It was terrible. Some of the children had family members who wanted to take them but CPS refused. 

I read about the how the adoptive parents tried to create an image that they were saviors of these disadvantaged, African American children. 

Much of the discussion at the time was about the biases against AA families and towards white, middle class people. 

The children’s aunt lost custody because she allowed the mom to visit them.  IIRC, those poor children had been removed for neglect and poverty related reasons- not abuse.  
 

Foster parent payments are much larger in my state than the amount of direct cash assistance moms receive on welfare.  Not always, but some of the time cash to the birth families would solve a lot of the issues that get kids removed when it comes right down to it.  The only times CPS ever escalated against my SIL were for poverty related things like not having utilities.  When I realized how hands off they had been when the abuser was still in the home, it angers me.  

There’s a big push to place with kin but I can’t help but think that that is not at least partly motivated by the lower cost to the state.  The payment to kinship foster placements in my state are about 1/6th of the payments to licensed foster parents.