From kindergarten through grad school, “anti-racism” is now at work, telling students that we must fundamentally reshape society so that we can enjoy “equity,” which means that all racial groups are treated “fairly.” At its core, this is a demand for replacing freedom with government control.
In today’s Martin Center article, Professor John Staddon reflects on the harm that this cult is doing.
He writes, “The notion of antiracism now dominates at all levels of education, from infant to university. In a previous piece, I described how the 2017 President of American Educational Research Association (AERA) gave speeches to teachers instructing them that teaching math to kids poses a racist threat, playing a set of video clips to underline her theme that no matter what improvements in rigor, classroom debate, etc. may come about ‘We are still at incredibly high risk for the perpetuation of racism and marginalization as it seeps into our classrooms.’ Many will be surprised to learn that math education has anything to do with racism.”
Well, if you are surprised, you haven’t been paying attention because racism is now to blame for everything that’s wrong in the world. Many allegedly professional organizations have embraced that notion. Zealots and grifters are having a field day.
Referring to a paper by two researchers at the University of North Carolina, Staddon concludes, “This work is not science but the kind of destructive sentimentality that Theodore Dalrymple has inveighed against so eloquently. Bruno and Iruka, following the lead of Kendi and others, have allowed their compassion for black children to sideline reason and hence their allegiance to science. Unfortunately, they are not alone in the education field. All we can say for certain is that if this trend persists it will be disastrous for both social science and education.”
Indeed so. All students need to be held to high academic standards. Lowering them for some in the name of “equity” will hurt them, not help them.