Equity is a term which means the amount of some asset which is owned by you. Typically it referred to our homes and represented the difference between what was owned by the bank or Mortgage Company and you. As you paid down the mortgage your equity increased and it was this personal wealth that represented for most Americans their single most important investment. That definition is still true but recently the woke society has added a new definition of equity. No longer satisfied with equal opportunity, which was a major achievement of the 60s civil rights movements, they now want equal outcomes. If that sounds un-American, it is. It is the basis of socialism and Marxist philosophy. This places the group ahead of the individual. They have been very patient and clever in introducing this philosophy into America and they have been at it for a long time. Your first encounter may have been when in children’s sports you were told there should be no winners and losers. Hence teams were not allowed to keep score (although many of the kids knew who was winning) and everyone was given the same trophy, a participant trophy. Fortunately this concept did not continue in high school, college, or professional sports but the indoctrination had already begun with impressionable young minds, our kids. Nor did it stop there. This concept began to creep into all levels of education, including our colleges.
One book that was popular on college campuses (and often required reading) was The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It was suggested that I should read it which I did. I also wrote a short critique of the book. While the book made a few valid points it was based mostly on a flawed theory of a perpetual caste system in America. I was surprised that it fostered group progress and condemned individual achievement. Here is an excerpt from my critique:
However the greatest spin on the existing facts come late in the book when she says that affirmative action, extraordinary success of individuals such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama, and the predominance of Black Police Chiefs and officers actually hurt her thesis of an existing caste system. Some examples of this are shown below:
“This is where black exceptionalism comes in. Highly visible examples of black success are critical to the maintenance of a racial caste system in the era of colorblindness. Black success stories lend credence to the notion that anyone, no matter how poor or how black you may be, can make it to the top, if only you try hard enough. These stories “prove” that race is no longer relevant. Whereas black success stories undermined the logic of Jim Crow, they actually reinforce the system of mass incarceration. Mass incarceration depends for its legitimacy on the widespread belief that all those who appear trapped at the bottom actually chose their fate.”
Even affirmative action seems to be a problem for her, even though she admits that she was a beneficiary of the program. She states:
“Affirmative action, particularly when it is justified on the grounds of diversity rather than equity (or remedy), masks the severity of racial inequalities in America, leading to greatly exaggerated claims of racial progress and overly optimistic assessments for the future of African Americans. Seeing black people graduate from Harvard and Yale and become CEOs or corporate lawyers – not to mention the president of the United States –causes us all to marvel at what a long way we have come. As recent data shows, however, much of black progress is a myth. Although some African Americans are doing very well- enrolling in universities and graduate schools at record rates thanks to affirmative action – as a group, in many respects African Americans are doing no better than they were when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and riots swept inner cities across America.”
She further downplays that many cities now have black police chiefs and significant numbers of black officers. Rather than applaud their achievements she states the following in her book (page 250):
“How can you say the Oakland Police Department’s drug raids are racist? There’s a black police chief, and most of the officers involved in the drug raids are black”. If the caste dimensions of mass incarceration were better understood and the limitations of cosmetic diversity were better appreciated, the existence of black police chiefs and black officer would be no more encouraging today than the presence of black slave drivers and black plantation owners hundreds of years ago.”
It may surprise some that the achievements of individual blacks in recent years is viewed as bad by the author. But if you understand progressive/socialists, such as the author, then you would know that they believe in groups being treated as a whole, rather than based on the talents and work ethic of the individuals in the groups. The whole socialist progressive movement is based on groups, not individuals. Hence extraordinary achievements by individuals is not in their understanding of how the world should work. They believe all groups must be treated equally and individuals should fall in line and not strive to be better than others in the group. Clearly this is not what Martin King had in mind when he said we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. Judging by the content of our character means we need to judge people as individuals not as a group.
When I first reviewed this book, this concept of condemning individual achievement shocked me but I had not yet put it into the mix with participation trophies and such recent moves of education departments in lowering education standards because not all students were prepared to “compete” with everyone else. The States of California and Virginia have recommended that students not be allowed to take calculus until they are seniors, nor can they take preparatory advanced math courses to prepare them for calculus. These are coordinated moves to lower the education level of American students to achieve “equity”. This appears to be an attempt to make sure we have no extraordinary students and this plays directly into agenda for the Chinese Communist Party. As you may recall in my blog on K-12, I reported that the U.S. consistently scores lower than many other countries in benchmarks such as math and science. According to the Business Insider report in 2018, the U.S. education ranking was 38th in math scores and 24th in science. In the latest ranking (2020) we were rated 26th in the basic subjects of reading, math, and science. Proficiency in those subjects is the best criteria for rating the quality of K-12 education. The top five in that latest grouping were China, Hong Kong, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. The recommendations of California and Virginia will only make our competitiveness worse. Fortunately these recommendations have not yet been accepted and they have faced a great deal of push back as parents become better informed.
But there are progressive recommendations that have not only been accepted but are already in the K-12 system. These are the required courses (hope they did not eliminate math and science to make room for them) in Critical Race Theory (CRT). Interestingly CRT is similar to the caste system described in Michelle Alexander’s book first published in 2010. Each person’s role is considered to be either a winner or loser and that is determined by race and like a caste system they cannot change their position unless the existing system is destroyed. This is introduced at every level in K-12 and at the lower levels it is confusing and upsetting to the children. It divides the children by the color of their skin. This clearly not what Dr. Martin Luther King had in mind when he wanted us to be judged by the content of our character not the color of our skin. It is very divisive and is not good for the country and the kids.
Many kids have been coming home and telling the parents what is happening, in some cases bringing home the handouts which amazingly enough are produced by Black Lives Matter with the BLM logo on them. Parents are now attending school board meetings and pushing back on the woke agenda being presented at our schools. They are having some success as all of this comes out into the open.
This is a crucial time in our education systems. With the lockdowns and the woke agenda (equity, CRT, etc.,), as a nation we are falling behind in Global Competition. Find out what is going on and demand answers as to why they are pushing such agendas on our schools. Some of you may be older enough to remember the boastful Russian Leader Khrushchev who said we would become a communist country in 50 years and it would not be because of a foreign conquering army but it would be caused by forces within our own country. Is he the one that set this agenda in motion? It that happening now? Wake up America!
We need an educational system that honors our exceptional students as well as all students. Education is the great equalizer, not race. All of our children deserve a great education system. We have been a country of entrepreneurs, individual achievers, inventors, and hard-working citizens. We are indeed an extraordinary country, let’s not lose it! We need to get back to the basics, reading, writing, and mathematics. Wake up America!
Will Lannes