The Hypocrisy of the Left – Reverse Racism: Part One

Gina Carano was fired from Disney when she posted a tweet warning about the dangers of demonizing your political opponents (never mind that Pedro Pascal tweeted something much more offensive yet still has his job). She posted a picture from Nazi Germany stating, “Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children.” Her point was valid. Any vilification of a complete group of people inevitably leads to hatred of those people by others. Sometimes it is warranted such as when we malign the Black Panthers, the KKK, or Nazis. However, it can also result in horrible atrocities against innocent people such as what happened during the Holocaust.

Our current American culture has grown far too comfortable with using these sort of dehumanizing tactics and rhetoric. When Ilhan Omar was asked by a Fox News reporter on 3/11/2019 whether she thought, “Obama is the same as President Trump,” she said, “Absolutely not. That is silly to even equate the two. One is human and one is really not.” That is an incredibly inflammatory, irresponsible, deplorable, and a dangerous thing to say. Prior to that Barack Obama referred to right-wing Americans as “bitter clingers,” and Hillary Clinton called them “deplorables.” 

In August of 2016, “The 8 White Identities” was posted by The Political Hat, and became one of the axioms of the Left. In 2018, Robin DiAngelo wrote the book White Fragility where she charged that all white people are, collectively, racist white supremacists (by the way, she looks exactly the way you would imagine). Ibram X. Kendi wrote How to Be an Antiracist, which is in and of itself a very racist book.

Back in July 2020, rapper Nick Cannon stated on a podcast, “White people are closer to animals.” In February 2021, Coca-Cola launched a new can design featuring the phrase “Try to be less white.” Also in February 2021, the principal of East Side Community School in the East Village in New York City sent out a graphic of the “8 White Identities” to parents encouraging them to become “white traitors” and “white abolitionists.” On 3/17/2021 writer and editor Damon Young wrote an article titled “Whiteness is a pandemic” where he states, “White supremacy is a virus, [and] like other viruses, [it] will not die until there are no bodies left for it to infect. Which means the only way to stop it is to locate it, isolate it, extract it, and kill it.” Let’s not forget the Pulitzer-winning now-debunked piece of garbage titled The 1619 Project by hack Nikole Hannah-Jones published by the radical Left-wing New York Times in August 2019. In it, she tried to imply that America’s true founding was one not based on the yearning to be free, but rather perpetuating African enslavement.

In February 2020, over 200 North Carolina public school teachers attended a conference in Wake County (should be changed to Woke County) only to be indoctrinated at taxpayer’s expense vis-à-vis a campaign entitled, “whiteness in educational spaces.” Journalist A.P. Dillon obtained documents showing that teachers were being instructed that white “cultural values” include “denial, fear, blame, control, punishment, and one-dimensional thinking,” and that, “whiteness perpetuates the (American) system of injustice.”

Our culture has now devolved to a point where there is a blatant anti-Caucasian poison infecting it. ‘Critical Race Theory’ – an abhorrent and racist philosophy - is being promulgated throughout our schools and universities, which according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis teaches, “…kids to hate their country and to hate each other…” vis-à-vis inculcating their mush-filled minds with nefarious and dubious concepts of “white privilege” and other racist terms and ideology. 

On 3/16/2021 Robert Aaron Long killed eight people at three different spa locations – six of them were Asian. He claimed to have a sex addiction, wanted to eliminate this temptation due to his shame, and states that he was not motivated by race. Nonetheless, thanks to our agenda-driven media, many people believe his motivation was racial in nature; however, to date, there is no evidence of this. Shortly after on 3/22/2021, a man killed 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder Colorado. Here is what some people were saying:

Activist and feminist author Amy Siskind tweeted on 3/22/2021 - “The shooter is (sp) was taken into custody. In other words it was almost certainly a white man (again). If he were Black or Brown he would be dead,” (by the way, this is the latest mindless catchphrase devised by progressives and regurgitated ad nauseam by their indoctrinated drones). The next day she found out it was not a white man, deleted her original tweet, and then tweeted on 3/23/2021, “Let’s mourn the victims, but not glorify the killer with the attention of having his name widely known.” One could surmise that her call to hide his Muslim-Arabic name was an insidious and lame attempt to avert calling attention to the fact the murderer was NOT a Southern white MAGA hat-wearing racist, but rather a ‘person of color.’ 

Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris on 3/22/2021 tweeted - “The Atlanta shooting was not even a week ago. Violent white men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country.” Then she discovered it was not a Caucasian man, deleted her original tweet, then tweeted, “I deleted a previous tweet about the suspect in the Boulder shooting. I made an assumption based on his being taken into custody alive and the fact that the majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by white men.” By the way, that last sentence is false. Mass shootings—those where more than four persons are murdered—are not predominantly committed by white males, but rather by black males. Incidentally, blacks are also seven times more likely to physically assault an Asian person than whites are, just FYI.

‘Journalist’ Uzair Hasan Rizvi - who describes himself as “debunking misinformation /fake news” - tweeted on 3/22/2021: “A poor white guy, who may have had a bad day or just a sex addict, killed at least 10 people in #Boulder. He was only apprehended and not choked or shot to death because he was not brown, black, or a Muslim.” 

Race and Inclusion editor at USA Today Sports Media Group, Hemal Jhaveri, who states that she hates “brunch” tweeted on 3/22/2021 - “it’s always an angry white man. Always.” Baby Bear CEO Jamie Grayson on 3/22/2021 tweeted - “Cis white men need to stop this mess.” ‘Internationally renowned journalist’ CJ Werleman tweeted on 3/22/2021 - “The suspected gunman in the Boulder, Colorado mass shooting is a white guy. Cue “mental issues,” “bad day,” “parking dispute,” or anything else other than what he most likely is – a white domestic terrorist.”

Denver school board member Tay Anderson (who is under investigation of a sexual assault allegation) tweeted on 3/22/2021 – “Aurora, CO – 12 dead, white male shooter escorted out alive. Charleston, SC – 9 dead, white male shooter escorted out alive. Atlanta, GA – 8 dead, white male shooter escorted out alive. Boulder, CO – 10 dead, white male shooter escorted out alive. See a trend?”

Pakistani-born American author Qasim Rashid tweeted on 3/22/2021 - “The white male mass shooter was arrested alive. #WhereWasHeRadicalized?” Then on 3/23/2021 he tweeted, “Colorado terrorist is a grown white man who killed 10 people including a cop. Cops arrested him alive & helped him to a stretcher for immediate care.” Actor and writer David Hoffman tweeted on 3/22/2021 - “I’ll bet anyone my salary right now that the shooter in Boulder is a right wing, MAGA, white male.” (As of this writing, we do not know precisely to whom Mr. Hoffman has donated his salary).

The following day (3/23/2021) the shooter’s identity became known. Twenty-one-year-old Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa is a Muslim immigrant from Syria (a country Biden recently bombed, just FYI). He shot and killed 10 (Caucasian) people including one police officer in King Soppers grocery store in Boulder, CO. According to journalist Andy Ngo, his “social media posts show an intense hatred of Trump & his administration’s immigration policies.” Suddenly, Twitter was inundated with a lot of deleted posts.

Author Dinesh D’Souza recently tweeted, “If six out of eight Asian American victims in Atlanta automatically made that murder spree a hate crime, what can we conclude not that we know all 10 of the Boulder shooter’s victims were white?” Then he added, “I eagerly await the Ilhan Omar pirouette. If a white guy does it, white supremacy is the presumed motive. If a Muslim does it, even while declaring a religious motivation, that motivation must be disregarded and Islamophobia is the danger to be carefully avoided.”

News Correspondent Jack Posobiec tweeted, “Early information from a national security agency suggests Boulder shooter planned to target the Trump rally in Colorado Springs, Feb 2020 but decided to wait until the next one on March 13 in Denver but it was canceled due to COVID, per WH official. CO GOP HQ was also scoped out, same with a few Christian, Catholic, & Mormon churches / LDS temples, not certain yet why he settled for market, per official.”

On 3/23/2021 political commentator, Vince Dao made the astute observation, “Notice how fast the narrative changed when liberals discovered that the shooter wasn’t a white guy…” Actor and screenwriter Eric Matheny posted,  “When you’re more saddened that a mass shooter wasn’t a 35-year-old white male in a MAGA hat than you are by the fact that 10 innocent people lost their lives in a grocery store, you are the cultural disease of which mass shootings are a symptom.” Author and opinion columnist David Harsanyi noted, “If the shooter is a white supremacist, the event is an indictment of all white people and America. If the shooter is an Islamist, it is a completely individual act that has nothing to do with ideology.”

Reactionary anti-white race-based discrimination has no place in the United States. To do the same sort of generalizing about any other group of people should be condemned and rightly so. Rather than regurgitating slogans like #blacklivesmatter, #stopasianhate, or #stophispanichate why don’t we all just post #stopallhate? Unfortunately, this seems unlikely since it is abundantly clear that the powers that be in the media, the education system, and in the political establishment want to fan the flames of division so that we the people continue to bicker amongst ourselves while they run off with all of the power and money. 

There exists, just for one example, a mandatory resident assistant training program at Western Carolina University. It asserts that “to put it simply, reverse racism is a myth. There is little to no empirical evidence to support systemic discrimination against white people.” I believe this article proves otherwise.

If we do not wise up and unanimously and unequivocally reject this attempt to indoctrinate us into loathing one another, then I fear the worst will occur. Abraham Lincoln warned, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." For decades now, conservatives have been warning of this seemingly inevitable circumstance given the trajectory of our culture and political climate. They have been met with skepticism and accused of being conspiracy theorists. I fear that if more Americans do not come to the realization that those on the Right have been prescient regarding this sinister trend, then Lincoln’s chilling prediction may soon come to pass.

Jean-Marc Bovee, PharmD retired

Ibram X. Kendi: How to Be an "Acceptable" Racist

Chapter One -- Definitions

Critical Race Theorist Ibram X. Kendi is a leading luminary in today’s culture. His book, “How to Be an Antiracist” is required reading at many public high schools and at most colleges and universities around the nation. Thousands of diversity consultants use his philosophy for an increasing number of ‘anti-white’ seminars in schools, businesses, government agencies—even the U.S. military. Corporations have bestowed hundreds of millions of dollars upon his work in the hope of eradicating racism in our society. He has received hearty endorsements from the Biden-Harris administration and the Democratic Party which helps ensure that his voice on race relations will remain the dominant one in our culture for quite some time. Despite acclaim, however, critics contend that his work is more accurately described as “How to Be an Acceptable Racist.” They see his ever-increasing popularity as un-American and divisive.  They charge his historical examples are fraught with error and his intentions are deliberately designed to destroy America’s founding principles. In today’s cancel culture, however, his few critics face the threat of censorship and livelihood. To simply question the basic tenets of his work almost always means such persons are accused of being extreme racists. Unfortunately, far from uniting the nation in the goal of achieving equal opportunity for all, Ibram Kendi’s work is used today to persecute some for the preferential advantage of a few.  It is as un-American as Mein Kampf or the Communist Manifesto. 

The foundational thinking of Dr. Kendi is apparent in the first, short chapter of “How to Be An Antiracist.” It is in this section where he identifies key terms and offers his view of past events in America’s history. It is important to clearly understand his ideological background in order to make sense of his convoluted conclusion that racism is endemic to all-white institutions. Kendi admits that he was a mediocre student in high school and that he “didn’t read much of anything in those years.”[1]  He grew up under the tutelage of parents who subscribed to Black Liberation Theology and who saw America’s core as racist and whose ideas could’ve gotten them “lynched by men in badges today.”[2]  

In his short biographical introduction, Kendi levels many inaccurate charges against the Trump administration which are attributed to Leftist sources that often relied upon anonymous sources. He furthermore glosses over historical facts that would destroy the basis for his work. An example of the former is his claim that President Trump supported white supremacists in Charlottesville and called them ‘very fine people’ when he was on the record condemning such racists. An example of the latter is his fondly recalling the fact his mother taught in Monrovia, Liberia, for nine months before marriage.  He conveniently glossed over the fact the descendants of American slaves who were freed and expatriated there in the early 1800s openly discriminated against their fellow Africans which later led to murderous clashes between the two groups in the 1980s. The resulting chaos there resembled the genocide of the Hutus by the Tutsi’s which took place in Africa around the same time. Such discrimination and horrible excesses among Africans against members of their own race, of course, would do little to help support Kendi’s contention that only whites are guilty of "supremacist thinking."

Kendi then proceeds to describe the evolution of his own political thinking. He states that at one time he subscribed to the belief that Blacks could not be racist by admitting, “I no longer believe a Black person cannot be racist.” As will be seen later, he will use this charge to dismiss conservative Black critics such as Candice Owens, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, or Shelby Steele for being as racist as Bull Connor. Surprisingly, after accusing Donald Trump of influencing and stoking white racism through his words and deeds, Kendi writes “…none of us are race representatives, nor is any individual responsible for someone else’s racist ideas.”[3]  This is an amazing admission for one whose work is now seen as representative of the thinking of many liberals today and who refuses to accept any responsibility for promoting today’s toxic racial climate. While most Americans today would agree with our nation’s Founders that individuals should not be held accountable for the crimes of their ancestors, few would agree that someone such as Hitler should not have been held responsible for indoctrinating his Nazis followers to commit genocide. Under Kendi, however, the exact opposite is true. White Americans all benefit from racist ‘privilege’ which justifies all current attempts to discriminate openly against them and he apparently absolves himself of any responsibility for indoctrinating his followers in such false beliefs.  “If discrimination is creating equity, then it is anti-racist,” Kendi argues.[4]  This false premise, of course, has already led and will continue to lead to all sorts of injury to innocent Americans by virtue of their simply having been born white. 

Kendi now proceeds to define some key terms—the first being racial inequality. “Racial inequality is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing. Here's an example of racial inequality: 71% of white families lived in owner-occupied homes in 2014, compared to 45% of Latino families and 41% of black families.” . . . . “a racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups.”[5]  At first glance, the reader is struck with how illogical Kendi’s assertion is. Citing a simple difference between racial groups with no other pertinent data related to the topic allows him to conclude the obvious reason for the discrepancy is racism. One of the most noxious charges against a basic feature of our economic system and an entire race of people rests upon nothing more than a statistic. For Kendi and his advocates, nothing else is germane to the statistic—regardless of impact. In a society where individual choice and freedom have always been an ideal, the idea that the behavior of individuals within a group might influence aggregate results for such a group has no bearing.  

This clear oversight will constitute the lion’s share of the reason for the discrepancy. Had Kendi recalled the works of noted Black economist Thomas Sowell, himself once a radical extremist, he’d know that citing mere statistical differences in aggregate data is terribly misleading.[6]  An economist must control for variables in order to make sense of data. What are the educational backgrounds of the two groups? What percentage of adults within each group are married?  What percent consists of single mothers? What percent within each group has been continuously employed by the same employer for the last five years? These and other variables have a tremendous impact on the ability of an individual to own a home. Thomas Sowell would argue that even the variables themselves need to be examined! In taking into account the number of years of schooling, for example, he would not only examine the total time people have spent in school, but the types of educational degrees attained and the quality of the institution bestowing that degree. When all of the above factors are taken into consideration and we compare like-groups to one another, only then can we state there is a difference between the groups, and only then can we offer a hypothesis as to the reasons for that difference.  Kendi, who knows this perfectly well, has another goal in mind. 

To deliberately ignore such an elementary understanding of economics and market forces leaves the reader with the only plausible reason for his doing so—it was done for the obvious reason of attempting to prove the outcome of his preconceived bias.  It was clearly done for the opportunity to level a baseless and racist charge against both our economic system and an entire group of Americans who happen to be guilty of the charge of having simply been born white. When this happens repeatedly throughout his work, the reader is left with the realization that this was no accident. Kendi is an opportunistic racist and his brazen and unwarranted attacks upon “systematic racism” have little hope of ending economic discrepancies between racial groups. Moreover, it is as dangerous as it is hateful. 

Kendi’s deliberate distortions are capable of producing real harm to contemporary America in a number of ways. First, the use of deliberately false information to manipulate public opinion has always been characterized as propaganda. Here is another example.  Kendi argues “there is no such thing as a non-racist or race neutral policy.”[7]  Thus, when a bank offers home loans to customers, taking factors such as being ‘married,’ ‘annual income,’ or ‘years of education’ into account are not race-neutral. The reader is left to conclude these time-honored bulwarks of the market economy are racist barriers erected solely to deny persons of color the opportunity to own homes. Everything—all human interactions—according to Kendi involve race. Banks are no different. Profit motives are subordinated to the interest of keeping people of color in their place.  Readers are freely encouraged to resent in an unwarranted way our economic system which Kendi argues was devised by whites to subjugate minorities, but in turn, we’re not to think that this might lead to harming innocent institutions or people who are perceived to be part of the "white supremacist governing structure." This is as naïve as it is dangerous.

Contemporary American society is replete with the harmful effect of Kendi’s thinking. During the summer of 2020, there were over 12,000 recorded examples of civil unrest and thousands of stores were broken into, looted, and burned in dozens of cities by mostly Black Lives Matter protestors who were enraged over the death of George Floyd.[8]  Often, comments were made by BLM activists that their looting constituted an acceptable form of "reparations."[9] Chicago BLM activist Dahleen Glanton publicly addressed one such crowd, exhorting them to continue breaking the law: “I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store because that makes sure that person eats. That makes sure that person has clothes. That is reparations. Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.” When confronted with the charge that her words incited violence, Ariel Atkins defended her statement, justifying the looting and suggesting Black mayor Lori Lightfoot was racist for condemning the looters as criminals.  Atkins even defended those who tried to smash their way into a Ronald MacDonald House that cared for sick children and their families.

Self-proclaimed racial activist, Vicky Osterweil, defended looting as a form of racial justice in her book In Defense of Looting.  She contended that our nation’s beliefs on property and ownership are based on the history of anti-Black, anti-Indigenous oppression.[10]  Try explaining that to the descendants of the more than 50,000 indentured servants who were forcibly sent to the British colonies to labor for years for minor crimes, often so that they or their children could eat.[11] Historians estimate approximately one-fourth of all English migration to Britain’s American colonies consisted of convict laborers. Perhaps she and Ariel Atkins should make themselves a bit more familiar with American colonial history before they lay such historically incorrect charges against our nation’s legal foundations. To compare the life circumstances of those who today steal watches, jewelry, and designer clothes with those poor wretches whose convictions helped provide the basis for English common law is as unjust as comparing their incarceration to that of Jews during the Holocaust. To say our current legal system’s basis was built upon "racially supremacist foundations" lacks a total understanding of those foundations. For persons like Kendi and Osterweil, however, such charges are easily made.

Another example of Kendi’s racism may be seen in his contention that any discrimination against whites is not contrary to Constitutional protections such as ‘equal protection' under the law, but rather such anti-white racism is necessary to achieve ‘equity’ between the races.  Thus, the decision by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to deliberately exclude poor white families from financial aid designed to help the city’s poor is based upon Kendi’s philosophy that such discrimination is "antiracist."[12]  Because white median income in her city exceeds that of Hispanics and Blacks, excluding the city's poorest whites from such aid helps the city level the aggregate wealth among all racial groups and is thus a "positive good." The fact that some white families may be poorer than others has no bearing on their eligibility or personal need. It is overall group equity that is the desired goal here, not assistance based equally upon individual needs. The similarity between this sort of racist argument and that of the antebellum racist slaveholder, John C. Calhoun--who argued that slavery was--on the whole--a 'positive good'--is quite remarkable.  

It is interesting to apply Kendi’s Orwellian standards of racial equality and critical race theory justice to American society today. Take the following scenario comparing four individuals—all with children ready to apply to college. The first child is the daughter of a Somali refugee whose parents arrived here in the 1990s. The second child is the son of white Serbian refugee parents who came to this nation following that nation’s devastating civil war in the 1990s. The third is the child of a Black federal postal worker father and a white female elementary school teacher whose family roots have been in America for generations. The last child is the son of two African-American professionals whose family has lived in Philadelphia for generations.  

In each case, examples of historic discrimination or hardship might be proven.  The Somali refugee’s Muslim ancestors might have been treated poorly by European Christians who briefly held that nation for a couple generations. To an even greater degree, the ancestors of the Serbian Christians faced religious persecution, enslavement, onerous taxation, and cultural genocide at the hands of their Turkish-Muslim oppressors for over 600 years. The ancestors of the Black postal worker might indeed have one time been American slaves and were likely discriminated against on account of their race. His white, Italian Catholic wife may have had parents and grandparents who faced some discrimination in their lives as well. Finally, the ancestors of the two African-American professionals—like those of the postal worker—faced discrimination from the white professional community but were always able to remain amongst DuBois’ “Talented Tenth”—in other words, among the wealthy elite of African-American society. 

In today’s society, hopelessly overcome as it is with theories of “intersectionality” (where being a member of a more heavily oppressed group bestows societal privileges over members of ‘lesser’ oppressed groups and where descendants of such oppressor groups themselves are actually to be discriminated against) this is no easy task. Which children are to be given ‘preferential’ treatment under the guise of working to ensure ‘racial equity?’  Obviously, the Somali child’s minority Muslim faith, black skin pigmentation, and probably low-income family background make for a very strong case for preferential treatment--despite the fact America played no role in that nation's colonization and our nation spent both human and financial treasure to help the Somali people.  The fact that Somali clans discriminated against one another back in Africa--despite everyone being black--has no real basis for preferential treatment here in America. The mixed-race child whose parents were postal worker and teacher, will count as a person of color (POC) and will therefore qualify as being ‘oppressed’—despite the higher than the national average income of the family and the fact that only one parent might ‘qualify’ as being really oppressed. The child of the two black professionals will certainly qualify, despite the family’s having lived in relative prosperity for generations and likely possessing the highest family income of the four.  Finally, by CRT ‘racial justice’ standards, the child of the Serbian family would most likely face justified ongoing racial discrimination—by virtue of that child’s ‘white privilege.’ In order to arrive at ‘racial equity,’ there are no individual exceptions. To prefer the Serbian student over any of the other three would be a racist act. Moreover, to discriminate against this white male one time does not clear the record. He must be continuously discriminated against every time he applies to a school or for a job. After all, CRT doesn't say there is a time limit for discrimination that is justified.

This is the Catch-22 world of group social justice as espoused by CRT scholars today.  According to CRT philosophy, there is no such thing as individual freedom of choice because everything is under the influence of racist, white supremacist rules and policies. Individual behavior--the deliberate choices or acts of individuals--individual effort and achievement—none of these matter.  Only the statistical anomalies and differences between racial groups should be considered and that these exist at all is evidence of white racism. To remedy these anomalies, discrimination against whites is not only encouraged but absolutely necessary. 

Jack Bovee
Fort Myers, FL 

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa—the National Social Studies Honor Society--and a former elementary school principal.  He may be reached at JSBovee@aol.com. 

Endnotes

  1  Ibram X. Kendi, How to be An Antiracist, (New York: One World Press, 2019). 8.

  2  Ibid., 4.

  3  Ibid., 10.

  4. Ibid., 19.

  5. Ibid., 18.

  6. Among his other works, for many such examples see Thomas Sowell, Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality, (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1984).  

  7. Kendi, 18. 

  8.  It remains doubtful that police officer Derek Chauvin murdered Floyd. Floyd, who was resisting arrest, already had lethal dozes of several drugs in his system and autopsy reports revealed no such evidence.  It was reported by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) that “BLM activists were involved in 95% of the riots for which there is information about the perpetrators’ affiliation.” Their study involved data on 12,045 incidents of civil unrest in the U.S. from just May 26, 2020 to Sept. 5, 2020. 

  9.  Dahleen Glanton, “Reparations are about economic stability, not a pair of $120 Nikes,” Chicago Tribune, August 17, 2020, available at: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-looting-black-lives-matter-reparataions-20200817-xdxu4ipu5rhqzkbdl4fpslsnha-story.html  

  10.  Lee Brown, “BLM organizer who called looting ‘reparations’ dismisses peaceful protesting,” New York Post, August 13, 2020. 

  11.  Anthony Varer, Bound With an Iron Chair: the Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America, (Westborough, MA: Pickpocket Publishing, 2011).  

  12.  “City of Oakland Mayor is branded racist for giving families of color $500 a month…”, Daily Mail, March 24, 2021, available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9399137/Oakland-California-exclude-white-families-living-poverty-500-month-checks.html.  Mayor Schaaf earlier defended her decision to tip off illegal criminals in Oakland that ICE was about to make arrests in her city.  See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efEcIsKKTJo  

The Hypocrisy of the Left: Covid-19

 A significant double standard has developed during this ‘Covid” pandemic in the way that ‘experts’ tell us how to live our lives versus how they themselves traverse these precarious times. For instance, I recall Denver Mayor Michael Hancock telling his constituents to “avoid travel” 30 minutes before he himself boarded a plane to visit his family. I also recall Ted Cruz being attacked for his Cancun trip, but 30 Democrat members of Congress (with their families) flew to Puerto Rico on a chartered jet, met with lobbyists, and watched the play ‘Hamilton’ as the shutdown dragged on and that was okay (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-fly-to-puerto-rico-amid-ongoing-government-shutdown).

Gov. Gavin Newsom was busted for attending a large lunch gathering at ‘The French Laundry,’ which is one of California’s most exclusive fine-dining restaurants, in the middle of a pandemic. Also, he did this during a time that most of the service industry was shut down, and Americans were forced to wear masks and avoid large crowds. Pictures and video leaked of Nancy Pelosi at ‘ESalonSF’ in San Francisco getting her hair done with no mask. Salons had been closed the prior 7 months. Unbelievably, she whined that she had been set up and stated that the salon owed her an apology – incredible chutzpah. 

To illustrate the lockdown absurdity, Candace Owens astutely noted, “I am allowed to fly directly next to perfect strangers on a packed plane with no social distancing between us and during that flight we can all take our masks off to eat and drink, but my husband is not allowed to attend any of my pre-natal appointments with me because SCIENCE.” Where was the ‘science’ when Dr. Deborah Brix, the coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus response violated her own Thanksgiving coronavirus recommendations on 12/20/20 and traveled to gather with family members outside her household despite urging Americans to keep celebrations within their “immediate household?”

Sitting on a balcony eating outside at a restaurant is not okay apparently, but flying on airplanes is fine because billion-dollar corporations funded a study through Harvard University, which says it is. Washington, D.C. ended its ban on indoor dining on 1/21/21, and restaurants were already open at 25% capacity with cases and deaths higher than they were when the ban was proposed! All the while on 1/27/21 CNBC touted triple-masking for best protection against COVID-19.

Tellingly, Gretchen Whitmer eased restaurant restrictions 48 hours after Biden’s inauguration, and on 1/14/21 Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that restaurants and bars needed to reopen, “as quickly as possible.” Apparently, businesses cannot reopen and kids cannot go back to school, but Biden raised the refugee limit to 125,000 on 2/4/21. Also, L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl dined at a restaurant hours after voting to ban outdoor dining. San Francisco Mayor London Breed had her own French Laundry party with socialites the night after Newsome banned indoor dining on 12/1/20.

Can you just smell the hypocrisy yet?

Joe Biden called Trump xenophobic because of his China travel ban, yet on 1/21/21 he implemented a ban on most travel into the U.S. for most non-U.S. citizens. Sure, Trump’s China ban was “xenophobic,” but the considerations of a ban on domestic travel to Florida by the Biden administration was A-Okay. Here is a list of officials accused of Covid hypocrisy: Steve Adler, London Breed, Gavin Newsome, Sheila Kuehl, Gretchen Whitmer, Bill Deblasio, Jim Kenney, and Michelle Lujan Grisham. He actually said to “pass the potatoes, not covid. Stay home as much as you can, especially if you’re sick. Host virtual gatherings instead of in-person dinners. Order your holiday meal from a local eatery. Shop online with a small business on Black Friday.” I have a radical idea. How about we let Americans live their lives freely. I am sad to admit that this may be an alien concept to those on the Left.

Jean-Marc Bovee, PhD retired

Preferential Treatment in Florida’s K-12 Curriculum Must be Stopped!

    It appears that liberal educators are once again trying to use the subject of race to further divide us. Not content with banning the works of noted anti-racists such as Mark Twain, Harper Lee and Dr. Seuss from schools, they’re feverishly seeking to use discredited educational materials related to Critical Race Theory such as the NY Times “1619 Project” or the even more incendiary materials promoted by Black Lives Matter. Today, Ivy League faculties and the K-12 National Education Association vie for being the most ‘woke.’ Those who resist their indoctrination are resented, rebuked, ridiculed, or treated even worse. The latest assault on common sense now seems to be in the form of Florida HB105 submitted by Geraldine Thompson (D-Orange County, CO-SPONSORS: Bartleman; Benjamin; Gottlieb; Grieco; Nixon; Tant; and Woodson).  This measure would amend Florida’s required instruction statute, FS 1003.42, by adding language on how schools must address the teaching of African-American History—one of the many specific areas of content all school districts must provide to students. Although there are multiple bills pertaining to African-American history this year, this one is the worst.

     By law, textbook publishers and schools must address twenty politically important content areas.  These twenty areas involve mostly civics and history. For example, students must be instructed on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the content of the Federalist Papers, the overall history of the United States, the arguments in support of a Republican form of government, the history of the Holocaust, and the contributions of women, Hispanics, and African-Americans to our nation.  (Some other areas of the statute pertain to teaching students to ‘be kind to animals,’ and the harmful effects of alcohol.)

      HB 105 seeks to give preferential treatment to just one of the twenty areas of the required instruction statute by mandating onerous annual reports from each and every Florida school on exactly how well they address the teaching of African-American history.  Under the proposal, schools would be mandated to have teacher in-service in the above beyond the diversity training most school districts already have in place. Schools would have to address this content not just at one grade level or within the content of one course such as American History, but must infuse the content throughout all grades and across subject areas. Each school must partner with an institution of higher learning to provide appropriate in-service and each school must annually submit a report to the state detailing the extent to which such training and teaching took place. The state must additionally develop assessment questions to be annually administered to students to assess their knowledge and understanding of this one group’s contributions to our nation.  Finally, a completely new statute—FS 1003.445—would be created to ensure compliance of not just Florida’s public schools, but all Charter Schools and selected private schools. Under this new statute, any such school not fulfilling these duties to the satisfaction of the state would risk having its Charter revoked and the principal could lose his or her salary.  

     The intent of this new bill is nefarious. Parents who have fled the nation’s public schools and who have enrolled their children in Charter Schools or private schools to protect them from the harmful indoctrination of Critical Race Theory are now literally being pursued by Leftists. Not content to allow Florida’s publicly approved textbook adoption process and school districts themselves to fulfill the mandates of Florida’s required instruction statute, the threat of HB105 to revoke Charter School contracts and impound the salaries of school principals is unprecedented. Even the principals of Florida’s lowest-performing public schools aren’t threatened in such terms.

     Bear in mind, the provision for teaching African-American history is only one of twenty such content areas that school districts must provide. No other section of the required instruction statute would receive such preferential treatment. No school principal would face a loss of salary for not instructing students in the importance of our ‘free enterprise system’ or failing to ensure students understand the arguments in ‘favor or a Republican form of government”—let alone failing to properly teach American History or Civics. Some Floridians may even remember when former Governor Jeb Bush even went so far as to eliminate these two subjects as requirements for a high school diploma! 

     What is at stake here is the vast amount of money that will be spent on ‘racial huckstering’ and on questionable teacher in-service workshops. Very likely, these will consist of exposing Florida’s teachers to the nefarious curriculum ideas emanating from racial hucksters like Robin DeAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi. It would likely expose Florida’s children to biased and inaccurate materials from the Black Lives Matter curriculum. There are plenty of such examples. The Naperville, IL school district recently paid one diversity consultant $10,500 for a one-hour in-service zoom lecture that stated ‘whiteness’ was ‘spiritually murdering’ some minority students. Fairfax County, VA schools gave Ibram X. Kenhi $44,000 for a one-hour lecture and for copies of his controversial book which became required reading for students.  Millions of dollars have been wasted on such dribble. Now that President Biden has reinstated Critical Race Theory throughout the federal government—which holds ‘whiteness’ and western civilization as impediments to social progress—we can be assured millions more will spent on such divisive workshops and materials.

     If only it was a question of squandering millions of dollars in needless district staff development programs. The real harm rests in the continued indoctrination of students through Leftist, un-American content and in the elevation of one group’s heritage over others.  It presumes to recreate a teaching staff that already should know—by virtue of their teaching degree—how to instruct students in the contributions of African-Americans. Nor are African-American students even Florida’s largest school minority.  If passed, it will likely end up pitting minority groups against one another as Hispanics and other minorities seek similar provisions in Florida law.

     As Justice John Marshall Harlan so eloquently stated in his Plessy v Ferguson dissent of 1896, “our Constitution is color-blind.” His argument that no race should be given preferential treatment under the law was later adopted by the Court in 1954. The current attempt by liberal Leftist legislators to now undo that principle by elevating one group above all others is as un-democratic as it is unwise. 

Jack Bovee
Fort Myers, FL 

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa—the National Social Studies Honor Society--a former elementary school principal and a resident of Lee County for five decades.  

 

Democrat’s Prove Themselves to be Traitors to Traditional America: Education

In 2008 political commentator J.B. Williams ran an article describing why President Obama’s Democratic Party was “not your grandfather’s Democrats!” After all, although while campaigning in 2008 President Obama often said although he loved America, he just as often said he hoped to “fundamentally change” it.  More recently, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the same. Such statements are never questioned. I’d venture that few husbands have the courage to try saying this to their wives on their anniversary—“Honey, I love you so much but can we agree that you need to fundamentally change?”  You either love something for what it is, or you want to fundamentally change it into something that it’s not. There’s not much wiggle room here. Just as J.B. Williams so clearly argued back then, President Obama’s words, actions and appointments all gave evidence to counter his claim of professing “love” for our nation. Today’s Democratic Party, still under the tutelage of Barack Obama and his protégés, seems to be no different. It continues to make decision after decision that runs counter to the best interests of the American people and our traditional values. Just as Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence, “when a long train of abuses … pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design” – well, it’s time once again to take note of such designs and to call out those who want such ‘fundamental change.’  Just as Jefferson provided enormous detail and facts “to a candid world,” the day-in-day-out actions of today’s Democratic Party provide ample evidence to their un-American beliefs. 

     The 1960s and 1970s were unquestionably the height of this nation’s commitment to equality of opportunity for all Americans.  The Warren Court upheld individual rights and freedom to an unprecedented degree. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution were cited repeatedly in advancing equal opportunity for all Americans—regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or handicap. It might be said that the Warren Court succeeded in ‘fundamentally changing’ America. Today’s Democratic Party, however, has steadily marched away from the belief in the rights of individuals and has now fully embraced group rights and nefarious doctrines such as ‘disparate impact is tantamount to racism’ and ‘critical race theory.’ Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the field of education. A few examples in the spirit of Jefferson might prove helpful. 

     Despite sixty years of fighting to end racial segregation in education, we’ve now witnessed decades of self-imposed segregation at virtually all institutions of higher learning. At many universities, minority students can choose to segregate in ethnic or racial housing and may sometimes even demand or reject room-mates due to race. To assist race-based admissions, colleges continue to hide aggregate qualifications of freshmen based upon race.  It took a Supreme Court case to reveal that one university gave added bonus admission points to Black students that equated to those awarded to students who earned perfect scores on the SAT.  Increasingly, our university system is moving away from merit-based admission policies. Ironically, Asian-students are no longer considered minorities on some campuses while in other cases Asian parents are suing Ivy League schools because of past discriminatory policies. 

     Related to having separate policies based upon race, last week, Columbia University announced it would authorize six separate graduation ceremonies for students who identify by non-traditional genders. Apparently, the California University system’s policy of allowing students to identify as any one of six separate genders has now been adopted nationwide. Along these lines, in an effort to be ‘more inclusive,’ Democrats in Congress recently introduced “The Gender Equality Act” which—like so many other Democratic measures—does the exact opposite of what its name states. Allowing an infinitesimally small number of transgendered males to compete in women’s sports places all female athletes at a tremendous disadvantage!  The disparity of the sexes in sports is obvious—to everyone but Democrats. For example, there are currently over 300 high school boys who have faster sprint times than the fastest woman in the world. In 2017, a high school boy’s team composed entirely of players under the age of 15 easily defeated the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. The immediate response was to forever cease having adult women’s soccer teams compete with adolescent boys-not allow transgendered men to compete on the women’s team! There is already abundant evidence that trans-women athletes are taking substantial competitive scholarships away from women who have devoted their entire lives to their athletic careers. Rather than publicly protest this injustice, however, most girls remain silent for fear they will endanger their own college admissions as being transphobic. Whereas in the 1970s & 80s our nation used to ridicule and question the gender of certain Communist East German or Russian female track-and-field athletes in order to maintain a level playing field for all, it now appears Democrats have fully embraced such lunacy and inequality. 

     Nor is it just in sports or college admissions that today’s Progressive Democrats seek to undermine traditional American educational values. The racist indoctrination of so many students at the post-secondary level has now permeated into the curriculum of the K-12 system. The study of America’s past and other social science courses are now saturated with racial bias and falsehoods. Questionable new curriculum as exemplified in the NY Times “1619 Project,” “White Privilege Classes” and the Black Lives Matter educational teaching modules are now used in thousands of schools across the country. Since our nation has deliberately failed to implement national accountability on subjects like American History or Civics—the only subjects that lack such assessment—Leftist teachers and school administrators are free to use these false doctrines and un-American teaching activities with little fear of the consequence of poor test scores.  

     The use of un-American content in grades K-12 began with a two-pronged assault on traditional American history. Incendiary books that characterize America as the worst nation in the world with regard to human rights and racism have long been used in many urban districts. The Portland City Schools “Afro-centric” curriculum model was adopted by many other cities in the 1980s. The second phase is now taking place, however, and it involves our best students and most academic schools. Since the nation’s best schools—many of them private—feed their students into the Ivy League, which has now fully embraced such Leftist un-American content in their own institutions, they feel the need to similarly adopt the same nefarious content in their own classrooms to make their graduates ‘more acceptable’ to admissions committees. Nor are merit-based programs at K-12 themselves safe from elimination. The San Francisco and New York school districts are leading the way in eliminating any merit-based criteria for student admission to their high-performing middle and high school STEM programs. Soon, high academic standards for such specialized programs may be a thing of the past.  It’s not uncommon today for the parents of such students to have to meet in private to discuss the problem for fear of retribution.  Those whose children attend Los Angeles Harvard-Westlake school are just one example. 

     Nor are the faculties in the Social Science and Humanities Departments balanced in terms of ideological philosophy. Study after study has revealed the overwhelming Leftist views of these and other educators, whether it’s the faculty of Ivy League institutions or the members of the National Education Association. As a result, today’s students often lack any perspective other than the view now dictated by the Progressive Left.  

       The result of these above trends is now the purging of any content and authors with whom the Left disagrees. The works of well established ant-racist authors such as Mark Twain, Harper Lee and Dr. Seuss are ‘banned’ today, but books that hold extremist views on race by authors such as Malcolm X, R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, Robin D’Angelo, Ibram X. Kendi, and others are ‘suggested’ readings--even in places such as the U.S. military.  

        Parents who have fled the nation’s public schools and who have enrolled their children in Charter Schools or private schools to protect them from such harmful indoctrination are now literally being pursued by Leftists. In Florida, a measure (HB 105) has been introduced to revoke Charter School contracts and will allow the impounding of the salaries of school principals who do not embrace ‘suggested’ race-based curriculum modules. Other states are threatening to do the same. No such legal attempt has been made to do this in any other curriculum area that a principal doesn’t comply with. Even the lowest-performing public school principals aren’t threatened with the loss of salary for repeated low test scores.

       In these and many other ways, Democrats today have declared war on accepted American educational values. Can those who seek to end equal opportunity and who wish to turn their backs upon the gains of the 1970s and 1980s be anything but traitors to the rights of individual Americans today? As Jefferson once declared, when such a ‘long train of abuses’ takes place, it’s time to call out the traitors for who they are.       

     In these and many other ways, Democrats today have declared war on accepted American educational values. Can those who seek to end equal opportunity and who wish to turn their backs upon the gains of the 1970s and 1980s be anything but traitors to the educational rights of individual Americans today? As Jefferson once declared, when such a ‘long train of abuses’ takes place, it’s time to call out the traitors for who they are.  

Jack Bovee
Fort Myers, FL 

The writer has been a social studies educator, founder of Rho Kappa—the National Social Studies Honor Society, and a former elementary school principal.  He may be reached at JSBovee@aol.com.   

Where Are All the Rebels?

 I have decided to detour from the ‘Hypocrisy’ series for a turn and delve into something that has been troubling me lately. Since a very early age I have always been a nonconformist. In fact, all throughout my teens and beyond I have taken great pride in going against the grain. So, as a middle-aged man facing down half a century of time on earth, I wonder - what happened to all of the proud nonconformists?

See, back in the eighties it was a badge of honor to be ‘different,’ ‘unique,’ or even ‘weird.’ I have noticed that nowadays it is conformity that gets you into the ‘cool’ kids club, which seems antithetical to me. Where is the challenge in conforming? 

“Woke’ kids today like to pretend that they wear the badge of honor (vis-à-vis rebellion), but in reality they are simply in lockstep with the establishment. The media, academia, entertainment industry, and even corporate America (just to name a few) have cow-towed to the current progressive movement entailing such ‘virtues’ as diversity and the like.

Do you want to know why Dave Chappelle is so revered? It is because he is fearless. He told the #metoo movement to STFU. The same goes for Bill Burr. Americans gravitate toward anyone who pushes back against the establishment (i.e., we love the underdog).

This may be the most significant disconnect between Generation X and every generation that has followed. Gen-Xers were raised to be irreverent, sarcastic, and facetious. Young people today seem far too eager to gain acceptance by pleasing others through capitulation, wokeness, and self-flagellation. For instance, they see the racist and misogynist boogeyman behind every corner, and they leap at every opportunity to besmirch America without ever asking themselves, “where would you rather be?” 

Gaining acceptance through ones peers has grown tantamount to holding up the middle finger to the establishment. Everyone nowadays wants to be liked and so they are more than happy to virtue signal, regurgitate bland platitudes, and play the role that society has assigned them. Then they pride themselves on their courageous and bold stance. I miss the days when individualism was revered versus group acceptance. 

There is a gif that has gone viral showing a crowd of people giving the ‘Heil Hitler salute’ with a solitary man standing with his arms crossed, and it states, “Be like this.” I love that ‘meme.’ Do yourself a favor and take pride in being like that guy. Just remember what Thomas Jefferson said, approach everything with a “healthy dose of skepticism.” And before you dismiss Jefferson as just another white ‘slaveholder hypocrite who wanted to be free,’ remember that is was he among several forefathers who paved the way through the Constitution and Declaration of Independence that allowed for the eventual abolition of slavery and freedom of blacks in this country. 

Jean-Marc Bovee

The Hypocrisy of the Left: Economics

Since our education system (including K through 12 AND the universities) do not teach civics, American history, or economics in any meaningful, honest, or unbiased way thus creating generation after generation of ignoramuses, then let us begin here with some basic definitions. Capitalism is defined as, “an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” In other words, people are free to exchange money for goods or services that they want without government interference. Socialism is defined as, “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” In other words, the state decides things as opposed to individuals, so kiss your individuality and freedom goodbye.

In a capitalist system, it is incumbent upon the business to cater to the needs and wants of consumers who are essentially voting with their money and thus holding the business accountable. Consumers decide the fate of a corporation or business. If the service is poor, then people will purchase elsewhere and eventually that poorly run business will go bankrupt. This is why competition is good. 

In a socialist system, government elites decide what consumers get and how much they pay for it. This is why government bailouts for businesses are a terrible idea. This removes any accountability to customers and stockholders, removes any ramifications for producing an inferior product, provides lousy customer service, and essentially rewards inefficiency. The government, through things like food stamps and other such welfare entitlement programs, allows for the benefit of some people at the expense of others.   

Venezuela was once the wealthiest country in South America. Now, due to socialism, it is a hell-hole where a million Venezuelan dollars is worth about 55 cents in the U.S. In a speech at Harvard University, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, “I know that some people in the U.S. associate the Nordic model with socialism. Therefore, I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economy.” 

Too many people believe that capitalism is all about greed, and that it helps the rich while hurting the poor. This is false. Not only is a free market system economically superior to other models, but it is morally superior as well because it involves voluntary actions between individuals. Unlike what Gordon Gekko preached in Oliver Stone’s movie Wall Street, America’s economic system is not a zero-sum game, it is a positive-sum game where everyone wins. 

The Biden administration and the Democrat party are currently planning on raising taxes astronomically. It will be the highest tax increase since 1993. Basic economics (and common sense) dictates that the more you tax something, the less of that something you get. Lower taxes and less regulation invariably lead to economic expansion. Capitalism leads to economic democracy whereas socialism leads to economic dictatorship by the elite. Only a free market capitalist economy can produce financial liberty. Government involvement results is less power for the people.

America is the wealthiest nation in history because of capitalism. As Walter Williams said, “In a free market, the ambition and the voluntary effort of citizens, not the government, drives the economy. This means that people can shape their own destiny.” Sounds pretty moral to me. Traditionally, throughout history, the only way to acquire wealth was through robbing, stealing, and pillaging. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is regarded as the most important economic work ever written for a reason. He saw the division of labor as the way to maximize production and free markets as virtually limitless in their possibility for the expansion of wealth through manufacture and trade. It was a laissez-faire policy that would encourage the most efficient operation of private and commercial enterprises. 

Rush Limbaugh has often stated, “The world’s biggest problem is the unequal distribution of capitalism. If there were capitalism everywhere, you wouldn’t have food shortages.” The Pilgrims tried socialism in 1620 when they landed near Plymouth Rock; it didn’t work. There was no such thing as private property in the Mayflower Compact; it was Marxism before Marx. Governor William Bradford described it as a failure. 

The one thing that all totalitarian states share in common is death. Over 100 million lives have been sacrificed over the last century due to communism, which is the final result of socialism. Rather than succumb to the propaganda fed to us by Leftists regarding the evils of capitalism, perhaps we should read, expand our minds, and realize that capitalism is what has rescued much of the world from poverty.

Jean-Marc Bovee