As others have pointed out it's just the new white man way to complain about others. It's the new n word, welfare queen, woke, DEI. I have missed a few. What will be next when DEI runs its course?
During the 1960’s, our state issued songbooks contained such classics as My Old Kentucky Home and Dixie, which we sang with gusto. I think about that now and shudder. I now wonder what the six black students in our class must have felt.
There were no Black students in my public schools but I do wonder how the few Jewish students must have felt when we had devotions every morning and then stood by out desks and recited the Lord's prayer
Well, nearly everyone was Jewish where I grew up in Miami Beach and we said it every day. I always assumed it was from the Old Testiment but I just looked it up. What a surprise to me and my husband. But I can also say that there was a lot of prejudice against Black's and even though Miami Beach was 90% or more Jewish, there were places, like the golf course, that didn't allow Jews.
Excellent piece. I too never learned about these things until adulthood. And yet I still never understood why some people were so touchy about how the Civil War was told. Why hitch your entire psyche to being on the losing side?
But now that I see these efforts against DEI I can understand it. When you are raised with the worldview that you must be on top. When you believe not in the American Story of Democracy, but Blood and Soil, then you have to suppress other views by any means necessary. Because failure to do so means losing what little power you think you have. This is why I think it will be so hard to really penetrate the conservative ecosystem. Breaking their view of themselves as the elect would shatter their very foundation.
Don’t know source but had email today re. striking the word “gay” from documents. One result was change on photo of the Enola Gay airplane to just “Enola.”
Since the Senate has already passed it and assuming the legislature is going to hold a hearing on this, you should lobby to have Einav Keet testify. As she wrote: “…approaching the past honestly is as powerful an antidote as we have. Teaching America’s children about the indelible racism that is our country’s legacy and instilling national pride in them need not be an either/or proposition” https://www.phillymag.com/news/2022/08/27/german-holocaust-education/
Why did I have to reach my 70s before ever hearing about the Wilmington Coup or Tulsa or any myriad atrocities committed in my country? Why did a young mother write to me about her 5 year old boy coming home in tears because he was told he couldn't be a goalie because he was white ( an untruth I am sure --it was her interpretation) so he will feel bad forever? Why was I told by my best friend growing up that the Yankees had marched into her city during The WAR and she hated them every since --a hundred years later. It is high time we stopped with the elevating of white people over Black and indigenous people and anyone else who has darker pigment and accept each person as a child of God , created in God's image.
I grew up in NC during the 60's and I remember seeing the aftermath of a Klan rally one night on the way to Lake Norman on a fishing trip. We passed the remains of a smoldering cross as we drove past a field in Mooresville and it was a chilling memory that I never forgot. The history we were taught in NC public schools was heavily edited. The south was very insular and paranoid then, where even a white kid was viewed with skepticism if he didn't have a southern accent because his family came from the northwest. And it continues to this day, with the right wing backlash to 'cancel culture' and their claims of censorship. The truth is freedom of speech means that people who disagree with your free speech have a right to to publicly challenge it. That's not cancel culture. Corporations are free to oppose or support speech. Consumers are free to boycott products or peacefully protest. Only the government is prohibited from censorship.
It is the GOP that is engaged in censorship: Book bans, the criminalization of protest, the attempted erasure of our true history and the prohibition of the mention of gender, sexuality or scientific facts. To be clear DEI has been attacked from the right as a quota system which it is not. The 'Culture War' waged by the right who now control the governmental levers of power is a combination of censorship and propaganda and in a free society it is the press, the media, and the people's job to challenge it. Anyone whining about 'cancel culture' simply can't handle free speech.
Thomas I think you and I grew up in North Carolina around the same time. History taught in schools about the Civil War and its aftermath was all influenced by the "Lost Cause" which romanticized the Old South and the Confederates. Strains of that are everywhere still, sadly. Discrimination is a way of life here. New South indeed.
Do you have an example or link that supports the following from your article:
“To be fair to Republicans, they are able to push their anti-DEI agenda, in part, because of overreach from progressives. Some DEI trainings do the same thing the anti-DEI legislation does: suppress speech. They try to force a point of view and require so-called inclusive language that is often more divisive than unifying.”
Republicans are trying to destroy DEI initiatives because they’re racists and want to preserve their perception that white Christian cis-men are superior to everyone else. It’s obvious that they believe only straight white men should be in charge of everything.
Great piece. I appreciate this paragraph especially: To be fair to Republicans, they are able to push their anti-DEI agenda, in part, because of overreach from progressives. Some DEI trainings do the same thing the anti-DEI legislation does: suppress speech. They try to force a point of view and require so-called inclusive language that is often more divisive than unifying.
What’s happening now is heinous and horrific and so dangerous. And for the last decade or so, policing language by progressives and philanthropists became (almost) laughable - to the very communities it addressed.
As others have pointed out it's just the new white man way to complain about others. It's the new n word, welfare queen, woke, DEI. I have missed a few. What will be next when DEI runs its course?
During the 1960’s, our state issued songbooks contained such classics as My Old Kentucky Home and Dixie, which we sang with gusto. I think about that now and shudder. I now wonder what the six black students in our class must have felt.
There were no Black students in my public schools but I do wonder how the few Jewish students must have felt when we had devotions every morning and then stood by out desks and recited the Lord's prayer
Well, nearly everyone was Jewish where I grew up in Miami Beach and we said it every day. I always assumed it was from the Old Testiment but I just looked it up. What a surprise to me and my husband. But I can also say that there was a lot of prejudice against Black's and even though Miami Beach was 90% or more Jewish, there were places, like the golf course, that didn't allow Jews.
Excellent piece. I too never learned about these things until adulthood. And yet I still never understood why some people were so touchy about how the Civil War was told. Why hitch your entire psyche to being on the losing side?
But now that I see these efforts against DEI I can understand it. When you are raised with the worldview that you must be on top. When you believe not in the American Story of Democracy, but Blood and Soil, then you have to suppress other views by any means necessary. Because failure to do so means losing what little power you think you have. This is why I think it will be so hard to really penetrate the conservative ecosystem. Breaking their view of themselves as the elect would shatter their very foundation.
Don’t know source but had email today re. striking the word “gay” from documents. One result was change on photo of the Enola Gay airplane to just “Enola.”
I read about this a few days ago. Musk needs to go he's destroying what's left of our country. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing. It's sickening.
It's amost comical. Almost.
It's a bit more than that. They actually planned to remove the photos entirely.
https://www.newsweek.com/military-remove-enola-gay-photos-dei-rules-2041029
Since the Senate has already passed it and assuming the legislature is going to hold a hearing on this, you should lobby to have Einav Keet testify. As she wrote: “…approaching the past honestly is as powerful an antidote as we have. Teaching America’s children about the indelible racism that is our country’s legacy and instilling national pride in them need not be an either/or proposition” https://www.phillymag.com/news/2022/08/27/german-holocaust-education/
Terrific summary of the ugly attempt by Republicans to literally White Wash our history.
You make a compelling case, Thomas. Yours is a voice that must be heard.
I'm so grateful to you for your clarity, rightiousness, and bravery.
Keep it up, friend. I k ow I sprak for a lot of your viewers when I say you're helping me stay sane!
Why did I have to reach my 70s before ever hearing about the Wilmington Coup or Tulsa or any myriad atrocities committed in my country? Why did a young mother write to me about her 5 year old boy coming home in tears because he was told he couldn't be a goalie because he was white ( an untruth I am sure --it was her interpretation) so he will feel bad forever? Why was I told by my best friend growing up that the Yankees had marched into her city during The WAR and she hated them every since --a hundred years later. It is high time we stopped with the elevating of white people over Black and indigenous people and anyone else who has darker pigment and accept each person as a child of God , created in God's image.
I grew up in NC during the 60's and I remember seeing the aftermath of a Klan rally one night on the way to Lake Norman on a fishing trip. We passed the remains of a smoldering cross as we drove past a field in Mooresville and it was a chilling memory that I never forgot. The history we were taught in NC public schools was heavily edited. The south was very insular and paranoid then, where even a white kid was viewed with skepticism if he didn't have a southern accent because his family came from the northwest. And it continues to this day, with the right wing backlash to 'cancel culture' and their claims of censorship. The truth is freedom of speech means that people who disagree with your free speech have a right to to publicly challenge it. That's not cancel culture. Corporations are free to oppose or support speech. Consumers are free to boycott products or peacefully protest. Only the government is prohibited from censorship.
It is the GOP that is engaged in censorship: Book bans, the criminalization of protest, the attempted erasure of our true history and the prohibition of the mention of gender, sexuality or scientific facts. To be clear DEI has been attacked from the right as a quota system which it is not. The 'Culture War' waged by the right who now control the governmental levers of power is a combination of censorship and propaganda and in a free society it is the press, the media, and the people's job to challenge it. Anyone whining about 'cancel culture' simply can't handle free speech.
We've gone back to the 1920s. The parties have switched sides in the continuing war between the states. Lincoln's coffin is shaking.
Thomas I think you and I grew up in North Carolina around the same time. History taught in schools about the Civil War and its aftermath was all influenced by the "Lost Cause" which romanticized the Old South and the Confederates. Strains of that are everywhere still, sadly. Discrimination is a way of life here. New South indeed.
Do you have an example or link that supports the following from your article:
“To be fair to Republicans, they are able to push their anti-DEI agenda, in part, because of overreach from progressives. Some DEI trainings do the same thing the anti-DEI legislation does: suppress speech. They try to force a point of view and require so-called inclusive language that is often more divisive than unifying.”
Republicans are trying to destroy DEI initiatives because they’re racists and want to preserve their perception that white Christian cis-men are superior to everyone else. It’s obvious that they believe only straight white men should be in charge of everything.
Great piece. I appreciate this paragraph especially: To be fair to Republicans, they are able to push their anti-DEI agenda, in part, because of overreach from progressives. Some DEI trainings do the same thing the anti-DEI legislation does: suppress speech. They try to force a point of view and require so-called inclusive language that is often more divisive than unifying.
What’s happening now is heinous and horrific and so dangerous. And for the last decade or so, policing language by progressives and philanthropists became (almost) laughable - to the very communities it addressed.