Joint Statement Against Critical Race Training – Legal Insurrection Foundation Joins Coalition of 24 Other Organizations
“Perpetuating this bankrupt ideology in real life leads to perverse discrimination, disempowerment and victimhood by virtue of race.”
In February, 2021, the Legal Insurrection Foundation launched criticalrace.org — a website that catalogues critical race training in higher education. Since it was unveiled to the public, we’ve added over 100 more schools, having researched a total of almost 350 institutions of higher education. We also have added K-12 resources.
The site has grown tremendously, as has our work load. We have many new and exciting components that we look forward to showing you soon.
Our deep dive into critical race training and its frightening prevalence in every cultural venue has led us to many other people and groups working in their sphere to push back against this outright Marxist, divisive, and racist theory. So we are proud to join a coalition of 24 other organizations also working to expose and push back against CRT. Many thanks to the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation for putting this particular Joint Statement together.
Don’t Divide Us!
Joint Statement Against Critical Race Theory Using Race to Divide
Americans
We are a coalition of 25 organizations, representing a diverse group of civil rights leaders, academics, community activists and ordinary citizens. Coming from vastly different racial, ethnic and political backgrounds, we are united by our common values and shared identity as Americans. We are committed to promoting values of equal rights, equal citizenship, individual merit and liberty, against the divisive invasion of critical race theory in every aspect of our public life.
Critical race theory (CRT) is a contested and explicitly political theory that examines all social relations, economic governance and policy outcomes through the prism of race and prescribes race-centered solutions to all social problems. While CRT, with its academic sub-variants and derivatives, should be judged as a scholarly subject of inquiry, it has increasingly become a monolithic dogma that informs broader cultural and political trends attempting to reshape and reengineer our society toward illiberal group think, equal outcomes, and collectivism.
CRT and its pleasant-sounding derivatives — diversity, equity and inclusion, anti-racism, racial sensitivity, racial healing, critical pedagogy, critical awareness, social emotional learning and so on, are underlined by a common thread of placing race, racism, and racial struggles at the center of our national dialogue and public institutions. The doctrine paints a grim, inaccurate, and discordant picture of our history and present, challenging the very foundations of the liberal order, distorting our basic virtues of equality and merit, and purporting to dismantle free markets. Perpetuating this bankrupt ideology in real life leads to perverse discrimination, disempowerment and victimhood by virtue of race.
As a broad-based coalition, we wholeheartedly support teaching cultures and history including slavery, racism and discrimination in a balanced, unabridged, nuanced and constructive fashion. We welcome meaningful efforts to build understanding and appreciation for different cultures and ethnicities in our diverse country. But we strongly oppose attempts to use race as a wedge to divide Americans and denigrate our great country. In this spirit, we stand firmly against CRT and its egregious manifestations in our schools, workplaces, and governments. We call upon you and all like-minded individuals to join our growing coalition for a genuine movement to safeguard democratic values of equality, liberty and unity.
Don’t divide us!
Alliance to Protect Children
AMCHA Initiative
Better Milpitas
Californians For Equal Rights Foundation
Chinese American Citizens Alliance Greater New York
Concerned Parents of San Diego
Educators for Quality and Equality
Eagle Forum of California
Equal Rights for All-Pac
Fair Education Santa Barbara
For Kids & Country
Free Black Thought
Informed Parents of California
Irvine Equal Education Association
Legal Insurrection Foundation
Moms for Liberty
National Association of Scholars
Parents Defending Education
Protect Our Kids
San Diego Asian Americans for Equality
Silicon Valley Chinese Association Foundation
TOC Foundation
US Asian Art & Culture Association
We Save America
Whittier and La Habra Precinct Patriots
If you are concerned about Critical Race Training, please reach out to us via the contact form at criticalrace.org.
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Comments
This has been festering in the US for over 25 years in some form or another. It has recently metastasized with the BLM and other race-baiters and fueled by white-liberals who are sucked into an ideology that, on surface, sounds like it’s about positive change – but on closer scrutiny is hateful, divisive and neo-racist. Don’t let the slick packaging fool you my friends.
Bottom line is that it will take many years to fight this ideology that has become entrenched. Millions of people have been fooled into accepting it.
“It is easier to fool a man – than to convince him that he has been fooled”
— Mark Twain
This isn’t about anything noble. This is about fascism arriving under the pretext of bullsh-t.
This is communist horror, rammed down our throats before our very eyes:
Biden Executive Order Mandates Divisive, Unscientific Race ‘Training’ At Every Level Of The Federal Government:
https://dailycaller.com/2021/06/26/biden-executive-order-crt-diversity-equity-government/
The way social things actually work is always surprising, and good theories provide insights rather than cynicism. Far from something needing correction, it’s unconscious attunement to be appreciated.
Generally the discoverers of such stuff like the system they’re analyzing, e.g. easy-to-read Erving Goffman, or hard-to-read Jacques Derrida.
Academics found the superficial imitation of those handy for analyzing systems they didn’t like, and the result is the crap we see today. But race isn’t in fact what holds society together so their stuff is just plain a bad reading.
The inclination, though, as in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” is that anything that finds evil anywhere is the best tool for seeing how everything really is, because it’s easy to pull off. They fail to be suspicious of race as their unquestioned good though. They’re not seeing evil in their own system, so failing to discover the only insight that might actually be a good reading.
“they’re not seeing evil in their own system”
They fully embrace evil, showing a complete lack of morals and ethics..
Levinas on Heidegger, conclusion
It is impossible to be stinting in our admiration for the intellectual vigor of “Sein und Zeit,” particularly in light of the immense output this extraordinary book of 1927 inspired. Its supreme steadfastness will mark it forever. Can we be assured, however, that there was never any echo of Evil in it? The diabolical is not limited to the wickedness popular wisdom ascribes to it and whose malice, based on guile, is familiar and predictable in an adult culture. The diabolical is endowed with intelligence and enters where it will. To reject it, it is first necessary to refute it. Intellectual effort is needed to recognize it. Who can boast of having done so? Say what you will, the diabolical gives food for thought.
15 November 1987
I may have mentioned here before my own insight gained by reading “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”
The author drives himself to a literal mental breakdown attempting to find a place where he can fit “quality” into known philosophical frameworks without giving rise to paradoxes. After his breakdown, he has an epiphany; if he constructs a new philosophical framework in which the basic principle of the universe is “quality,” he can fit all the other philosophical frameworks around it, as views and facets.
The insight I gained was somewhat different — it had to do with how axioms, religious beliefs, and worldviews affect our lives and behavior. Namely, if the rest of the world doesn’t mesh properly with some issue that you consider important, one’s instinct is to make that issue the central tenet of your life philosophy — then you can treat everything else as subsidiary to it.
And that’s precisely what Democrat racists have done with racism.
I am pleased to see that the Eagle Forum continues, in that I worked with Phyllis Schlafly for about 20 years. She was a smart lady, and her guidance on political tactics were invaluable.
The great Liberal principles upon which this country was founded, are equal rights under the laws, and due process of law, are fruitful, fair, and well worth preserving.
Critical Race Theory is nothing but institutionalized injustice based on skin color.
Check the news and you will see that CRT is a subliminal message for blacks to kill whites.
Do you think that this is an attempt to blunt black on black murder by redirecting such antisocial behavior towards whites and Asians?
It tells them white people are evil. Whites have hurt us. We have a right to be angry. They deserve to be hurt. Now we have the power. Our lives matter. It’s payback time. It’s okay to hurt them now.
That is true — by definition. However, while race is an important factor in American history and American society, it is certainly not the only influence.
Notably, the comments tend towards accusations of fascism or communism. A bit of history:
“we will not be intimidated by the vultures of the liberal left-wing press. We will not be deceived by their lies and distortions of truth. We will not be swayed by their brutal attacks upon the character and reputation of any honest citizen who dares stand up and fight for liberty.”
And that is what paints a grim and discordant picture of American history and present.
Your post is bereft of anything but ambiguous generalities… except in the middle section, where it specifically accuses the opposition of “accusations of fascism or communism,” then cites a sample criticism in which (glaringly) neither term is mentioned. “Liberal left-wing press’ doesn’t even tickle a slander meter.
Time for me to chuck a few more FRNs at LI Foundation. Good work, folks.
henrybowman: Your post is bereft of anything but ambiguous generalities
Not so ambiguous or general to be bereft of meaning. While critical race theory examines history and society through the prism of race, it is not the only form of critical analysis.
henrybowman: except in the middle section, where it specifically accuses the opposition of “accusations of fascism or communism,” then cites a sample criticism in which (glaringly) neither term is mentioned.
It’s from a speech that would easily fit on the pages of this or other right-wing blog.
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1951-/speech-by-george-c-wallace-the-civil-rights-movement-fraud-sham-and-hoax-1964-.php
Zach,
The name of the theory is Critical Race. That is the name chosen by its advocates. Sure some were wise enough to attempt to soften that by using Equity or Inclusion or the old standby diversity. The goals and principles didn’t change only the marketing strategy.
The problem with CRT is that it conflates issues and problems of economic and social class, which in modern society are rooted in cultural differences, with those of ‘race’.
CRT minimizes and discounts the the progress from our Founding to the present day in which the promise and aspirations that all men are created equal and must be treated equally before the law, has been realized.
Slavery was legal and widespread at the founding as was the ideology of superior and inferior breeding based in part but not exclusively upon ‘race’. Why would we want to return to classification and division into competing tribes based on immutable characteristics?
Here’s a brief and incomplete refresher on our National journey to fully realize the founding principles.
Importation of slaves banned in 1808. Emancipation proclamation in 1863, Juneteenth and passage of the 13th amendment in 1865. Followed by the 14 th and 15th amendments.
At this point the newly freed former slaves were as free to be exploited by the elite as everyone else. Share crop, tenant farmers, laborers and miners of every description were routinely exploited.
This form of debt bondage existed in agriculture until mechanized farming made their labor redundant. It continued with company towns throughout the rural areas in mining and textiles.
The TVA was particularly effective and transformative. Providing not only construction jobs but electricity and water works to an entire region previously neglected. This lifted everyone.
The post WWII era brought about the GI bill. This earned benefit allowed millions of families to purchase homes and pursue higher education for the first time.
Then came the civil rights era which ended systematic exploitation and oppression based upon ‘race’ by the enactment of laws, CT decisions and the use of Federal troops and the DoJ to enforce the same.
Schools were integrated, workplaces were integrated. Places of public accommodation were integrated. Today the last bastions holding out are the private clubs and gated communities of the elite.
I went to integrated public schools. I served in our integrated Army. I played organized and unorganized sports with children, teens and adults of every background.
The ‘race’ based exclusion ended prior to my birth. The remaining challenges faced by non elite of all stripes is in acceptance of those cultural norms and actions which create the conditions necessary for success in modern life.
Namely, graduate HS, get a job, keep that job until a better job is offered, get married, stay married, do not have children until you are married, reject consumerism and delay gratification, continue education throughout your life and career, do not commit crimes.
I would submit that failure to adopt one or more of those tenants of the culture of success will decrease one’s ability to enter and remain within the middle class.
Unless we are going to claim that a member of a particular group lacks the agency and intelligence to adopt these boring cultural traits then the path to success is open to everyone.
CommoChief: The name of the theory is Critical Race.
Critical theory in general concerns an analysis of social problems through societal structures and cultural assumptions.
CommoChief: The problem with CRT is that it conflates issues and problems of economic and social class, which in modern society are rooted in cultural differences, with those of ‘race’.
Perhaps, but you are apparently arguing that there are no social, cultural, and economic vestiges from America’s racist past. Considering people still fly Confederate Flags, you might consider Faulkner’s salient reminder: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
CommoChief: The post WWII era brought about the GI bill.
The GI Bill was instrumental in building the post-WWII middle class. However, the implementation of the GI Bill was racially disparate. This returns us to the point you made previously:
CommoChief: Statistically, nearly every person born to married parents who both posses college degrees and higher Nathan average dual incomes will fare better than born to parents who lack those things.
That’s right! And that means the descendants of people who were denied equal opportunity are more likely to fare worse. Now you got it!
Zach,
Exactly! The descendents of those shipped to North America involuntary regardless of ‘race’. The descendents of those who were forced to provide labor to and for the benefit of the elite.
My family were involuntarily rounded up in their home country, put onto crowded ships with inhumane conditions, delivered for sale to the elites in North America.
They were forced to labor to ‘repay’ a debt they hadn’t agreed to undertake as indentured servants. When they died still ‘owing’ the dent was transferred to their children and on and on.
Let’s bring this to modern times. None of my grandparents graduated HS, only one sent to 8th grade. All were born in homes without electricity or modern plumbing.
My father didn’t graduate HS. He was what was called in the 1950’s a juvenile delinquent. He joined the Air Force, and completed a GED. Then he continued to reform himself and adopt the cultural norms of middle class success.
Upon his discharge he joins a police department. Then attended community college, the University then law School. over the course of a decade while employed full time and on the evening shift of the PD.
There are tens of millions of families who have a similar past and similar experience. These are not fanciful stories of Alger; up by the boot straps.
We now have publicly funded K- 12 and extremely affordable community college. Nor is the GI Bill the only path to higher education. The generous Pell Grant and tens of thousands of scholarships and work study programs provide a pathway to higher education.
The opportunities to succeed exist and have existed for at least 50 years. They remain available to those who will grasp them.
Systemic denotes official and unofficial policies backed by the force of law with all the apparatus of the State behind it. We don’t have systemic racism in our Nation. Far from it. We have state sponsored affirmative action programs which work in concert with the open opportunities to level the playing field for all.
We do have individuals and tiny groups who are continue to cling to the outmoded notions of ‘race’ and group rights v individual rights and individual merit.
Some of them may fly the Confederate Flag while others demand the adoption of a worldview which is predicated upon ‘race’.
Each is guilty of wishing to classify, divide, segregate, reward, punish, accept and reject based upon the Tribe that the proponents choose to forcibly categorize them into.
I prefer a free and open society. One where we reject group labels and prejudice. One where each individual is free to accept or reject conventional norms.
One where each person, having chosen freely, is then allowed to rise or fall on their own individual ability, unconstrained by the prejudice of others.
You seem to want something different. A vision in which individuals are punished or rewarded based on some group identity. Where their personhood and agency is forcibly stripped, subjugated and subsumed by an artificial construct of ‘race’.
Thankfully our Nation has moved beyond such. You will not succeed in your quest to turn back the clock and replace our individualism with Maoist laced notions of Soviet era propaganda regarding ‘race’.
CommoChief: They were forced to labor to ‘repay’ a debt they hadn’t agreed to undertake as indentured servants.
Indentured servitude is not the same as chattel slavery, and the descendants of indentured servants nearly always were accepted into the larger society. But the descendants of chattel slavery were oppressed for generations *after* the end of slavery.
You yourself pointed out that the success of the preceding generation has a large impact on the success of the current generation.
CommoChief: We do have individuals and tiny groups who are continue to cling to the outmoded notions of ‘race’ and group rights v individual rights and individual merit.
The Dukes of Hazard were proudly flying the Confederate flag in the 1980s — on network television. In 2003, there was a significant controversy in Virginia when there were plans to erect a small statue of Abraham Lincoln. And, of course, people have defended Jim Crow-era statues of Confederate figures very recently.
CommoChief: You seem to want something different. A vision in which individuals are punished or rewarded based on some group identity.
We are just pointing out certain facts about American society. That great strides have been made doesn’t make these facts disappear. You can argue the best way forward involves stressing individual achievement, but pretending systemic racism doesn’t exist is contrary to fact — as you yourself granted.
Zach,
You are woefully inaccurate. The children inherited the debt and were forced to provide labor to pay it off. They were legally constrained from leaving until they did so.
Once free of the debt they were left to fend for themselves in large part. Most couldn’t afford land so they went to the frontier; into KY, OH, TN and Alabama. Alternatively they went to marginal or unproductive land in the locality.
These squatters were then dispossessed by the elite who held title or grants to the land as the expansion west occurred. This cycle was repeated up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. Very commonplace.
The forcible removal of the 5 Civilized Tribes in the SE to OK followed the same pattern. It was simply a concentrated action of what had occurred previously and since.
Flash forward to the ratification of the post Civil War amendments. Now poor landless persons of every ‘race’ was free to ..become a tenant farmer or to share crop to the elite landowners.
Of course the small yoeman farmers like my family had issues paying taxes during the reconstruction era and lost title to their land and moved downward to become tenant farmers.
No banks would lend to tenant farmers or share crop. So they were forced to borrow the cost of seed and tools ECT from the elite landowners. Many times they were dispossessed shortly before harvest. This was a return to a vile but profitable habit imported from English landowners.
These circumstances applied to everyone who didn’t have capital or the ability to borrow on realistic terms. Everyone was equally vulnerable and equally exploited and oppressed by the elites of the day.
These practices continued in agriculture until mechanized farming displaced excess labor. In mining and light manufacturing they continued in the form of ‘company towns’. Same principle, the workers were paid in script redeemable at the company store. Basically ending in the mid to late 1970s.
We should point out here that neither New Jersey nor Delaware were among the 27 States who voted for ratification while South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama did so. Some of these geographic and cultural prejudices don’t always hold up under close scrutiny.
The trappings of bad history are unfortunately still displayed. Though the right to display them is a fundamental freedom. As is the freedom to oppose them.
Personally I don’t support the use of the Confederate ‘stats and bars’. It’s historically redeeming features have been too sullied by the vile acts of a few. Nor do I support the continuing display nor monuments erected in the civil rights era.
However, those monuments erected prior to roughly WWII are not tainted by the controversy of a reactionary placement during the Civil Rights era. It is important to distinguish them for preservation.
If you refuse to acknowledge that slavery based on race ended with the Civil War and passage of the post Civil War amendments in the 1860s then you are rejecting history.
Certainly ‘black’ Americans were not magically transported to an era of widespread and near universal acceptance such as is currently the case.
They were raised to the level of the non elite ‘white’. All were subjected to another long period of oppression and economic exploitation.
Legal barriers were put into place to preclude all from exercising the franchise. They were all excluded from and ostracized by the elite and the growing middle-class. All had derogatory names and outlandish prejudices heaped upon them.
The barriers to entry into the middle-class which exist today are exclusively cultural. Those in poverty who repeat the errors of their parents will not rise.
This fact is easily seen among the people I grew up among. The poor kids who adopted the positive aspects of middle-class success became successful. They entered and maintained themselves in the middle-class. Their children will be able to reach higher or fall lower based on their own choices.
The new deal, great society and war on poverty have produced a plethora of programs to help the poor overcome their obstacles.
Coupled with the availability of free public K – 12 education, GI bill, work study, publicly funded programs like upward bound, mentoring programs, adult literacy programs ect the only reason for someone to not acquire a HS or equivalent education followed by trade school or community college is personal choice.
Despite the existence of these programs people can and do make bad choices. They decide to hang out with the gangs because they are impressed by the lifestyle. They close to become sexually active and father or become pregnant.
Unless you are advocating for the removal of the children of the ‘persistent poor’ and their placement into middle class homes where they will be nurtured in and held to the cultural expectations of middle-class mores and discipline I don’t see how this can change.
Of course simply removing the current children would need to be accompanied with a forced sterilization program to preclude the necessity of future removal.
I don’t think that’s either legal, moral or in any way acceptable. People must have the liberty and freedom to make individual choices in their lives for good or for ill.
You seem to want to enact a consequence free, utopian system. That doesn’t exist and has never existed. IMO such a system would be directly at odds with our constitution.
CommoChief: The children inherited the debt and were forced to provide labor to pay it off. They were legally constrained from leaving until they did so.
Which is just the same as chattel slavery, whereby children were enslaved in perpetuity.
You then correctly note the great strides that has been made in civil rights. You have done so several times, but the claim at issue is the existence of systemic racism. Yes, people make bad choices, but when people are suffering the effects of generations of oppression, those bad choices have more dire consequences. (And some bad choices are actually rational given the environment.)
Zach,
Please be so kind as to provide three examples of what you consider to be systematic racism.
CommoChief: Please be so kind as to provide three examples of what you consider to be systematic racism.
• The old boy network: While it is natural and reasonable to hire those you know, and people recommended by trusted friends and colleagues, when a society has a history of racism, this leads to continued racial disparities — even if no one is racist. If a few still have racial views, the racial disparities can continue for generations.
• First past the post elections combined with gerrymandering: First past the post dilutes minority votes. Gerrymandering exacerbates the dilution.
• Blacks receive harsher penalties for the same crimes as Whites. Blacks have lower starting capital in life, at least in part due to past discrimination. People with ethnic Black names are less likely to receive a callback on job applications. And for something more up-to-date: facial recognition software results in more false criminal positives for Black faces than for White faces. (There’s an interesting side-story about this: https://petapixel.com/2015/09/19/heres-a-look-at-how-color-film-was-originally-biased-toward-white-people/ )
Zach,
Old boy network – exclusion based upon limiting hiring to those persons who are either known personally to the person doing the hiring or to those who have a referral from another person within the old boy network is certainly possible.
As you state, it makes sense to rely on personal knowledge of the applicant or the personal knowledge of the applicant in the form of a referral, reference letter from another trusted member of the network.
What you have described isn’t exclusion by ‘race’. It is exclusion by membership in the network. All those outside the network are equally subjected to the exclusion.
First past the post/gerrymandering – Not sure I understand. Congressional districts, for instance in some States, have been created with ‘majority minority’ intent. These districts concentrate ‘black’ voters within that district while decreasing the number of ‘black’ voters in the remaining districts.
This has the perverse effect of minimizing and to de-emphasize the importance of a candidate seeking those votes in the remaining districts. This dilutes the overall impact of ‘black’ voters.
Of course that’s only true if we assume that all ‘black’ voters are monolithic in their political ideology and the issues of the day.
I am not going imply that each person who holds the franchise isn’t capable of forming individual opinions and then exercising their franchise in a manner unique to themselves.
I believe every voter can exercise the franchise in the same manner as everyone else; on the basis of their own personal examination of the issues and the candidates.
Harsher penalties. At sentencing the prior criminal record is a factor so anyone with a criminal history would likely receive a longer sentence than a first time offender. That’s not a factor of ‘race’, it’s a factor of criminal history.
In addition it could be a result of the relative quality of the defense. If one person has the financial means to hire the best criminal defense Attorney and underwrite the costs of a vigorous defense they are likely to have a more favorable outcome than those who do not.
What you seem to be doing in these examples is conflating economic and social status with ‘race’. All these issues are more correlated with with other factors. Even the gerrymandering is an example of where ‘race’ was inappropriately applied,
IMO, the creation and maintaining of congressional districts by ‘race’ as an affirmative measure to increase ‘black’ representation has, quite possibly, lowered overall political power based upon a purely ‘racial’ view.
The logic of the creation of ‘minority’ majority districts is one which assumes everyone of that ‘race’ is monolithic in their political views. Further it assumes that no member of a minority can be elected to Congress without these ‘race’ based districts due to overt racism in society at large.
In simplest terms it is a condescending and paternalistic view of members of these groups. It suggests that absent these special districts that no ‘white’ candidate would seek to represent the needs of their ‘black’ constituents. These special districts, so goes the logic, will result in the election of ‘black’ Congressman. This is deemed necessary because, under this theory, only a ‘black’ Congressman can provide true representation to other ‘blacks’. That seems pretty racist to me.
CommoChief: What you have described isn’t exclusion by ‘race’. It is exclusion by membership in the network. All those outside the network are equally subjected to the exclusion.
If a society exhibited historical racial disparities, then the old boy network will tend to perpetuate the racial disparities. So, even when legal segregation ended in the 1960s, and making the giant leap that absolutely no one had any lingering racist feelings, the White manager wanting to hire for his store talks to his White friends in his White neighborhood who are part of his White country club who attend the same White church. This is the result:
https://soaddictedtofresh.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tumblr_muptxftyvx1qducpxo1_500.jpg
If some people still harbor ill-feelings, then the disparities can persist for generations.
Zach,
Where a particular individual encounters ‘race’ based discrimination in attempting to secure employment they have an actionable claim.
There are any number of public interest law firms who bring these type of suits. Most Law Schools offer assistance in the triage of these and other sorts of claims and where their is sufficient evidence of a valid claim, refer the individual to a firm or Attorney who will take the case on Pro Bono.
Additionally you continue to conflate ‘race’ with economic and societal class inequality. The poor person of any ‘race’ lacks access to and affiliation with the old boy network.
Equally those who choose not to establish an association with the old boy network wouldn’t be eligible to receive the benefits of the association.
You assume that every ‘white’ person benefits from these associations by virtue of ‘race’. That is not the case. The barriers to entry within a country club are economic and social in orientation.
Many have entry fees, some in the tens of thousands of dollars. Additionally there are ongoing flat fees for maintenance of physical plant and staffing. Plus of course the costs of meals, greens fees ECT.
Most exclusive private organizations have actively sought to recruit a broader spectrum of membership. That’s why the recent story surrounding SEN Whitehouse beach club and yacht club were newsworthy.
It was jarring to see a US Senator maintain membership in two private organizations that seem to still be ‘whites only’ in 2021.
On a personal note, I could easily join the local country club. For the record it has been integrated for at least three and half decades. I choose not to do so. I hate golf, I have a small pool and pond at my home for swimming, I can’t play tennis anymore due to combat injuries and I am a better than average cook.
There simply isn’t any value in the membership to justify it financially. Others make the same choices.
CommoChief: Additionally you continue to conflate ‘race’ with economic and societal class inequality.
Blacks were historically excluded from the hiring network by racism. We provided an example. A&P instituted a hiring policy that was racially neutral on its face, hiring by internal referral. So what happened? They kept hiring Whites, even in Black neighborhoods. Managers hired people they associated with and were familiar with. That’s why we had this:
https://soaddictedtofresh.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/tumblr_muptxftyvx1qducpxo1_500.jpg
Color barriers don’t go away because you can’t see the guy with the sign protesting.
https://www.azquotes.com/vangogh-image-quotes/62/37/Quotation-Stephen-Colbert-Now-I-don-t-see-color-People-tell-me-I-62-37-95.jpg
Zach,
Ok all I saw was a historical photo with what looked like a late 1940’s (?) auto taken in B/W v color for any reference to date. Lets say it was from 1961 for lack of any date.
That was 60 years ago. More than two generations, when calculated as a 25 year interval. So prior to the successful conclusion of the Civil rights era.
I am more than happy to work with you to condemn a ‘color’ barrier. However, the mere assertion that ‘race’ or ‘color’ is to blame won’t be enough.
Economic and social class distinctions and the acceptance and adherence to middle-class mores, conventions and discipline account for disparities in modern life.
A child of married parents, each with 4 years of University, reared in a household with habits of thrift, delayed gratification and industrious behavior which stresses the importance of education, common courtesy, charity, fair play, self restraint and most importantly fosters an attitude that everyone is equal before the law and is worthy of respect until they prove otherwise,…. those children will be more likely to succeed in life.
Children reared in households which don’t offer the same will be less likely to succeed.
This isn’t a an issue of ‘race’. These are cultural values that anyone can adopt and foster, even when their own childhood lacked them.
Back to A&P. Ok so they excluded those not part of the network. Similarly situated individuals of every race would also be excluded.
No doubt there is an elite. That elite is overwhelmingly ‘white’. They are the beneficiaries of the exclusionary systems they themselves created and perpetuate. They are wealthy and have been for generations.
Of course new members gain entry by individual accomplishments if they are willing to adopt the customs and constraints of the elite. Not otherwise.
Look at our two recent Presidents. Obama has definitely been accepted into and embraced by the elite. DJT…not so much. His brash behavior, speaking style, worldview and refusal to modify his style denied his entry.
No question that both are highly successful and have greater wealth than 99% of the Nation. Both enjoy the advantages that wealth brings. Only Obama enjoys the cloistered atmosphere of the elite in which the media members of the elite work to protect or shield their peers from controversy.
Look at H Weinstein and how long his vile behavior was known to his peers but tolerated and unspoken of. Same for Epstein. Bill Clinton, Bill Gates.
The recent revelations about SEN Whitehouse and his long-standing membership in two ‘white only’ private organizations will likely illustrate this point. In six months will any media organization ask him about these organizations? A year from now? Check, it was over a decade ago that the issue last surfaced with scant attention, if any since.
Why? An example of how the elite work to protect and support their peers. Only the membership of the elite enjoy true ‘privilege’.
The rest of us, regardless of our background, are on the outside looking in at the privilege they enjoy for themselves and deny to the rest.
Their children will gain admission to the Ivy League or other top schools irrespective of academic merit. The ability to personally make a $5 million endowment or better yet an ancestor who founded the College has tangible benefits exclusive to the truly privileged.
Having gained admission they are now themselves on the cusp of becoming members of the elite in their own right. Four years of undergraduate work another three in Law School followed by a decade in the DoJ, five years in private practice at a white shoe firm and the future is bright.
Next is an appointment to a low level State Dept post or maybe DoD then off ramp to become a Federal Judge. Perhaps instead an appointment as a US Attorney for a few years then back to DoJ HQ to become a deputy director of a particular division.
Following that position it’s either become an ambassador or a lobbyist or some out of the way sinicure if the person is truly stupid and can’t be carried or propped up any further.
If personally bright then a run for Congress in a safe district upon being anointed by their party. A Senate seat to follow but they could parlay the Congressional seat into a statewide race for AG then either a top fair DoJ position or a run at GOC or Senate. Maybe a cabinet appointment.
All the while their mistakes and missteps covered up and handled quietly. Non disclosure agreements mandatory with the cash settlement. Those paid from the income of their board of directors seats.
That is privilege. Many of the same families have enjoyed this or similar levels of privilege prior to our Independence. The membership isn’t static. Some fall out but most are looked after by the others. New financially uber wealthy and political figures join. More recently the membership became more diverse.
You and I and the 99% will not be considered for membership. The elites prefer to keep the lower orders divided and squabbling among ourselves. If we stopped and united we might notice the long con the elites have used to enrich themselves and oppress and divide the rest of us.
CommoChief: However, the mere assertion that ‘race’ or ‘color’ is to blame won’t be enough.
We provided a *mechanism* that perpetuates racial disparities in a society with a history of discrimination.
CommoChief: More than two generations, when calculated as a 25 year interval. So prior to the successful conclusion of the Civil rights era.
The A&P protest was in the 1960s. The point was that A&P had policy that was race neutral on its face, but the result was the perpetuation of racial disparities. That’s the fact of the matter, and the fact doesn’t go away because you find it uncomfortable.
Consider an even simpler example. A society is racially segregated, and Whites hold all the best jobs. Now, per the magic of CommoChief’s imaginary history, racism suddenly disappears one day. So, what do you see the next day? Whites hold all the best jobs. That’s what you see.
(Could be wrong on the date of the photo. But the point remains.)
Zach,
The A&P example you cite, let’s stipulate that it occurred in the 1960 since we don’t have a date. That’s over sixty years ago, which can’t be reasonably described as ‘overnight’.
It was prior to the adoption of the truly transformative Civil Rights legislation. Legislation which was opposed in many areas.
The Federal government then and now uses the apparatus of the state to achieve compliance. It is unquestionably true that less enforcement occurs in 2021 because opposition is practically non existent compared to 1960.
Back to A&P, I don’t find an accurate and comprehensive examination of our past uncomfortable. Rather theses events must be illuminated as examples of where we were v where we are as a Nation.
I agree with the track meet analogy for the most part. We instituted affirmative hiring practices in government as well as the private sector. Our Colleges and Universities continue to deploy affirmative action in the admissions process.
Those policies were implemented and are maintained today to mitigate exactly the conditions you describe as an unequal starting point.
A key problem with CRT/Equity is that it’s adherents seem to ignore or minimize these facts. They also tend to ignore the very similar plight of poor ‘whites’, poor ‘latino’ and poor ‘asians’.
All poor people were opposed and marginalized by the elites. All were denied access to our financial system, forced onto marginal, unproductive or otherwise unwanted land. All had lesser educational opportunities. All were outsiders looking in.
To say that any particular individual possess power and privilege due to their melanin content is historically inaccurate outside the era of kkk. Even then poor rural ‘whites’, ‘Asians, and ‘Latinos’ were equally excluded from the banking system and were equally oppressed with their ‘black’ neighbors by land owning elite who regularly defrauded the tenant farmers, share crop, miners, railway workers ECT.
Thankfully, these practices have been eliminated. Anyone can open a bank account and apply for a loan. Employers are legally precluded from ‘racial’ discrimination. Our judiciary enforces contracts.
A climb out of a family born to persistent poverty is not easy but the opportunity to do exists. Free K – 12 education, childcare assistance, food subsidies, school breakfast and lunch programs, health care, transportation subsidies, housing programs, Federal tax credits for the ‘poor’.
All any individual needs to do to succeed in the USA is:
1. Obtain a HS education
2. Obtain a job, keep the job until they are offered a better paying job
3. Don’t commit crimes
4. Get and stay married
5. Have children only when married
6. Reject consumerism and delay gratification
Those six things are the entry point into a middle-class life. They are not exclusionary. The children of parents who do those things will be even more successful than their parents if they do likewise.
The parents who adopted these actions will have a generation of wealth building in the form of a home and perhaps investment account; 401K, 403B, or the universally available IRA.
The adoption of these values two generations or more ago results in the creation and transfer of the savings from generation to generation.
Recall as well that in the pre Civil rights era that segregation had forced many ‘black’ communities to create a parallel to the systems they were excluded from. Small business and tradesmen, public employees like teachers that were ‘black’ and nearly exclusively served the ‘black’ communities.
Not every ‘black’ Citizen was starting from behind. In some respects, members of the ‘black’ middle-class were starting ahead of poor ‘whites’, ‘asians’ and ‘latinos’.
CommoChief: It was prior to the adoption of the truly transformative Civil Rights legislation.
However, your question asked for an example of systemic bias. We provided several.
CommoChief: The adoption of these values two generations or more ago results in the creation and transfer of the savings from generation to generation.
That didn’t always work so well.
https://cdn.britannica.com/14/219014-050-EC1EEC52/ruins-Tulsa-Oklahoma-race-riots-June-1921.jpg
CommoChief: I agree with the track meet analogy for the most part.
Then you agree that systemic bias can occur, but that it is no longer a significant factor, or at least there may be more relevant issues. Whew. Of course, we couldn’t have that discussion when you didn’t acknowledge that systemic bias can occur.
Zach,
Agreement with the plain fact that everyone begins the journey at a different starting point doesn’t mean I agree that the primary, secondary or even tertiary cause of the differential is one of ‘race’.
You provided examples of historic instances of bias. You didn’t provide any current examples. The example of A&P occurred prior to the Civil rights era. It isn’t applicable today except to demonstrate the vast strides our Nation made in terms of outlawing discrimination based upon ‘race’.
Bias absolutely still occurs. However they are not based or centered on ‘race’ codes that legally create, perpetuate and maintain a system of oppression and exclusion based upon ‘race’.
Though the adherents of CRT/Equity certainly seem in favor of reestablished ‘race’ based systems of categorization. One which favors or disfavors, includes or excludes, celebrates or scorns based upon the single factor of ‘race’.
I would submit that if one is a 35 year old grandparent who were themselves the grandchild of a 35 year old grandparent who is raising their grandchild because the child’s parents are absent due to death, incarnation, lack of fitness or by choice, who lack a HS education or job skills, with their own criminal history……
……it is immaterial what that person’s ‘race’ is. They have much larger issues than that.
The individual is responsible for their individual choices. It can’t be otherwise unless we eliminate individual liberty.
If a person chooses to adopt the very low threshold of behaviors that lead to a middle-class life they have chosen wisely.
If they reject those behaviors they have chosen less wisely.
My recommendation would be to examine the choices of each individual. Where they have chosen wisely and encounter provable ‘race’ based discrimination in housing or lodging or public accommodation or employment or lending then we should encourage the individual to achieve the remedy offered by our many Civil rights laws and enforced by our judiciary.
Many Civil rights organizations and public interest law firms do this pro bono. Ability to pay isn’t a barrier.
When an individual has made a series of bad choices resulting in a cascading effect of negative outcomes they should begin their quest with an internal review of their own actions and choices.
Modification of those behaviors from the unproductive to productive is within the purview and choice of each individual. Focusing on what is within the control of the individual based on their own decisions before looking for external causes would seem appropriate.
To disagree with this prescription is to deny the individual agency of people. It sends a signal that you believe that an individual, due to their ‘race’, is incapable of making wise decisions and must be protected, shield and coddled by a paternalistic and condescending system enforced by law and administered by those who are more fit to make decisions in their stead.
That sounds pretty racist. Almost as if the proponents of CRT/Equity were plagiarizing the beliefs of John C Calhoun, G Wallace and other racist segregationist. They also believed that ‘blacks’ were subhuman and incapable of functioning in our Nation.
I certainly don’t believe that. Based upon your arguments you seem to.
CommoChief: You didn’t provide any current examples.
Oh gee whiz. Do you or do you not recognize that systemic bias can exist, and has existed in the past. You seem to keep trying to sidestep the question.
CommoChief: Though the adherents of CRT/Equity certainly seem in favor of reestablished ‘race’ based systems of categorization.
No. What critical race theory does is examine racial disparities in terms of systemic biases. Many on the right refuse to acknowledge that systemic biases exist, even in the past. It seemed we had reached some sort of agreement on that point, even restated where we might still differ, but then you sidestepped again.
Dr. King even describes the problem in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice”. In other words, change is uncomfortable; consequently, those with power will tend to resist change.
Consider a very simple example: A society is strictly racially segregated, and Whites hold all the best jobs, including those in management. Now, per some magic, racism suddenly disappears one day. Strom Thumond sings Kum ba yah with the hippies, and Lester Maddox breaks bread with Dr. King. So, what do you see the next day? Whites hold all the best jobs. That’s what you see. That’s systemic bias.
Now stop there. Do you agree that systemic bias can exist as a vestige of a history of injustice?
Zach,
Of course bias existed in the past. Individual prejudice and institutional systems of oppression based primarily on ‘race’ but also on economic and social class.
Poll taxes and literacy tests served as legal barriers to those unable to pay and unable to pass due to outright illiteracy or limited educational availability.
They were used by the elites of the day to ensure that political power remained in the hands of the elite. Later they slightly adjusted tactics to foment tribalism between poor people based on ‘race’ lest they unify and evict the elite from political power.
Those systems of oppression have been prohibited since 1964. Addition protections were added in subsequent years. The legal prohibition against those systems were vigorously enforced by the DoJ including Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne Div to Little Rock.
These prohibitions haven’t expired they remain the law of our Nation. There are plenty of advocacy groups and law firms whose reason for existence is using these laws to prevent discrimination by ‘race’. The DoJ has an entire division dedicated to enforcing Civil Rights.
The systems were dismantled. They don’t exist today. They haven’t existed in decades. The kkk has been shattered. The sad sack remainder are like some version of Napoleon exiled to St Helena. They exist but are neutered, their claws drawn and fangs removed.
What does exist is elite privilege based on wealth, social position and political prominence. You continue to conflate the actions of the elite with ‘race’.
We are not going to agree about the worth or worthlessness of CRT/Equity.
IMO any doctrine which views the world and it’s inhabitants through the prism of ‘race’ is a racist doctrine.
I am done attempting to convert you. It’s a free country and you are certainly entitled to form and express your opinions. Even when they are repugnant to me. That is part of what makes the USA better than any alternative.
CommoChief: Of course bias existed in the past. Individual prejudice and institutional systems of oppression based primarily on ‘race’ but also on economic and social class… Those systems of oppression have been prohibited since 1964.
That’s wasn’t the question.
Here’s a Look at the Shocking White Privilege, Gender Equity Lesson Plans Used To Indoctrinate Your Kids
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/outrageous-look-shocking-white-privilege-gender-equity-lesson-plans-used-indoctrinate-kids/