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Back in the early 1970's, I worked for a major anti-discrimination organization in Los Angeles. I avoid using the name since the story is over 50 years old, and if I use the name, I know people's minds will apply it to that organization today. In fact, the organization itself did not adopt the belief which I encountered. There had been some incident of a teacher in South Central saying racists things to her classroom of Black students. One of our white supporters who lived in Beverly Hills remarked that incident showed why Blacks students could not learn. The racism, she asserted, was debilitating. I asked if her son had faced anti-Semitism in school, if it would be OK for him not to do his homework. She looked at me as if I were insane. "Of course not," she retorted. She got my point.

Even back in the 1960's and the 1970's, the Philosophy of Victimization had become so strong that it had become PC -- Blacks were permanent victims. The Dems have promoted the concept that Blacks are victims, and hence, need Dems to de-racialize society for them. The Blacks' role was to always vote Dem. Today, the same concept is found in Identity Politics and Wokeism.

On the decent side, the Dems did allow Blacks to participate and it does not take that long working with individuals to see who is competent, who is decent, and who is not. As I've said about LA City Council, "It does not discriminate against anyone of any race, ethnicity, color or gender preference provided they're crooked."

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

I am teaching a college course Contemporary Issues in Economics. Given the scarce resources devoted to enforcing DEI and its impact on the labor market, I decided I would have one class day devoted to the topic of DEI. I already had three essays related to the topic but will include this essay as well.

No doubt, some students and faculty will object . History as my guide, some people will, rather than accept my offer to publicly discuss the issue, instead accuse me of racism. Some might even call for me to be fired. This is a sad commentary on the state of affairs on so many college campuses.

Colleges should not be where viewpoint diversity goes to die. Too often that is the case.

I thank the author for this excellent, important essay.

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I agree with this entire post except the author’s statement that she understands why white people are behind this sort of teaching:

“It’s not your kids being told that they can’t succeed and you get to shed some of your white guilt in the process.”

No and no.

White kids are told they can never succeed at:

*Escaping the legacy of what earlier generations of people did;

*NOT being racist;

*NOT being history’s greatest oppressors and villains (in some fantasy scenario where all the world’s people lived in peace and harmony with the Earth before bad white people came along and ruined everything.

You don’t see, for example, Navajo (Dine) kids being shamed because their ancestors conquered various Pueblo people and stole their lands. In this style of teaching, it’s only bad white people who bear that stigma of conqueror and oppressor of indigenous American people -- or any people.

And when you teach people to divide themselves by “race” and you teach white people how bad they are, they don’t shed any white guilt. You instill more and more white guilt.

My kids routinely came home from public school with messages that white people were the worst people in the history of the world, when in fact, literally every “race” of people has routinely for thousands of years conquered other groups, taken their land, enslaved or exploited their people, taken their resources -- you name it, people of every ethnicity have done it to people of every other.

It’s wrong to teach white children they’re uniquely racist and bad, just as it’s wrong to teach children of other ethnic backgrounds that they can’t succeed on their own merits unless standards are lowered, or they won’t live to old age because police are gunning for them.

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Marxists are doing a very good job of spreading their ideology through the educational system.

Unless there is some alternative ideology that is supported by the same level of organization and zeal as them, I suspect they will continue to make gradual gains in control. Even if they don’t establish complete domination, they act like termites that undermine the foundation of a political society -- California is a great contemporary example. So much wealth. So much potential. And it is being squandered by racial tribalism, corruption, and stupidity.

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

👏 thank you so much for sharing this. I hope it makes a difference

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

As a mother in the Twin Cities, I applaud this woman. I hope our representatives listen to her. They won't listen to me but I will share this with them anyway. It's bad enough that liberal legislators are handing out scarlet letters to young adults- now they want to give them to kids! This is why I left the Democratic party and why I fear that I may eventually need to leave Minnesota. This stuff is toxic - regardless of race. Why can't we just teach history honestly without making any prescriptions?

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

Welcome to our Minnesota! Skepticism, heterodox views, and meritocracy are unicorns here. I’ve never heard of her. I’m so glad Ms. Montzka spoke out, and you feature her in this space. Thank you for doing so. It’s going to take a lot of Ms. Montzkas to protest victimhood, because only victims are listened to here. Of course, with our level of carjacking and murders, we have plenty of real victims. We saw Adam B. Coleman speak here recently, addressing fatherlessness and violence. Loury and McWhorter have both been here, both protested by college students, McWhorter’s appearance causing the firing of a St. Olaf philosophy professor, the college that just made the news again over a student’s cache of automatic weapons in his dorm room. Minneapolis continues a commitment to victim culture, to the infantilization of black children, to gender affirming chemical neutering and castration, to providing safe spaces to do drugs, to liberate criminals A.S.A.P., and climate anti-racism, whatever that is. But again, thank you!!! Theo Olson, St. Paul.

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

Thank you for using your wisdom and courage constructively. Long may you run.

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May 18, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

Thank you, Kofi Montzka! What happens under the banner of CRT is disempowering to the point that it's hard to believe that it is anything but a sinister plan to divide and conquer, and sacrifice those purportedly benefits in the process. We need so many more voices of reason and insight like yours!

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Apr 15, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

I have increasingly become uncomfortable with the term “minority.” Frankly, I find the notion offensive. Minority this and minority that. Enough is enough. The word minority, when applied to people, somehow translates to mean something less than equal. This term is all well and good for political parties but for a people (Hispanics, African Americans and Native Americans in particular) it is translated to mean inferior. How did this tainting of the definition come to be? I don’t know, and frankly, at this point, I don’t care. What I do care about is the fact that this label is not an ego builder, but an ego destroyer. Minority status is a potential limiter rather than a potential maximizer. Would you go to a “minority day parade” or a Mexican-American fiesta? Would you get up in front of a group of people and introduce yourself as a “minority?”

I didn’t take minority courses in law school (although some lazy person might argue that a course in Equal Protection Law is a course for “minorities”.) There are no special exams reserved for “minorities.” The 2 bar exams I took and passed were not “minority” bar exams. There are no “minority” court rooms. Yet by some people I was perceived, because of the color of my skin, to be a minority attorney. Why do people and institutions persist in using the “minority” label? Only one reason — laziness. I want no part of that formulation. You want no part of it either.

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Apr 14, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

Wow! Spot on! I intend to comment more extensively later today. God bless you!

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Amen! Thank you.

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

I cannot help but wonder how much time these courses take up and the relevance and quality of the "Real" educational courses.

I considered comparing Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story in English literature to be a total waste of time. I got B's in English literature, but it was useless.

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

Amen.

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Apr 12, 2023Liked by Free Black Thought

As perhaps the ugliest of all human frailties (as per "the crooked timber of humanity") racism is an eternal and universal expression of stupidity.

It remains a special malaise in US society, due largely to a far-too-long period of slavery followed by various despicable practices.

But this is 2023. When the question is posed: "In which country such large and diverse mass of non-majority-ethnie population treated better than in the US?" it is difficult to deny the progress we have made and are continually making.

For illustration, live, look and listen. To everything.

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If we don’t have a race-based system, how does the author account for the demographic statistics in every facet of American life that suggest otherwise?

The reality is, this IS a race based shitstem. One can try to deny it. One can mitigate against it. One can even transcend it. But to teach children otherwise is to leave them unlovingly vulnerable to be blindsided by the reality of America.

Teaching hopelessness is indeed a tool of genteel white supremacy (i.e. white liberals) used to condition the oppressed unto their oppression. But teaching “hope” is NOT the same as inculcating oblivion. Teaching hope, acknowledges the reality of racial caste in America & inculcating a belief that Beloved Community MUST exist, elsewhere.

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