Call Me Pathologically "Woke"

In a recent New York Times column, conservative pundit Bret Stephens argued strenuously that divisiveness was ruining our great nation. He was specifically irritated by a proposed ethnic studies curriculum in California’s public schools. He hauled out all the culture war piñatas and beat them relentlessly. “Critical race theory” was most prominent among the targets.

His conservative columns routinely draw sharp rebuttals from the Times’ dependably liberal readership, but not on this topic. Even among liberals, there seems generalized fatigue over “identity politics,” “white privilege,” and anti-racist work. A few representative comments:

“This breeds resentment from both groups and has amplified mistrust more than anything else. People of all races are beginning to push back.”

“A uniquely harmful curriculum. Teaching people that they are victims only perpetuates victimhood.”

 “I think many of us have soured on a culture that demands maxi mum punishment — resignation and disgrace — for any mistake that construed as racist or misogynist.”

“If my kids’ public schools adopt anything like what is described, we will make the difficult decision to put them in a private school — that is, if the local one isn’t pathologically ‘woke’ either. Oy …”

Oy! Call me pathologically “woke.”

New Hampshire, as is often the case, is ahead of the nation — by being about 70 years behind. There will be no ethnic studies curriculum if Granite State Republicans have anything to say about it. HB 544 would prohibit schools from any of that nasty divisive stuff.

I am almost amused by HB 544’s overreach: “The state of New Hampshire shall not teach, instruct, or train any employee, contractor, staff member, student, or any other individual or group, to adopt or believe any of the divisive concepts defined in RSA 10-C:1, II.”

Really? Against the law to “believe” in critical race theory?

Critical race theory postulates that racism is embedded in American institutions including, but not limited to, the law, the criminal justice system, education, health care, politics and the economy. It is systemic and systematic. Critical race theory argues that racism is a socially constructed phenomenon, created by white people to sustain economic and political power at the expense of people of color.

Another tenet of critical race theory is that some Black people internalize the cultural noise of racism and see themselves as “less than.” The National Institutes of Health lists an overwhelming body of evidence over the last quarter century that supports the idea of “Stereotype Threat” — a psychological phenomenon whereby the dominant, demeaning narrative creates stress and doubt in Black students (and some women) inhibiting performance on tests of various kinds. “Stereotype Threat” has largely accounted for any purported differences in innate intellectual ability.

For a contemporary example of systematic racism in action, look no further than the explosion of voter suppression efforts that seek to reduce voting opportunities for Black, brown and poor Americans. As soon as the Supreme Court did away with the most powerful provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the racists leapt into the void and reestablished barriers that would make Jefferson Davis proud.

Consider these statistics:

■ Black households have median family wealth of $24,100, according to the Federal Reserve. For white households the figure is $188,200.

■ Black incarceration rates are nearly six times that of whites, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

■ The Urban Institute finds 71.9% of white families own homes compared with 41.8% of Black families.

■ CBS News reported that Black executives hold only 3.2% of senior corporate leadership positions and only 0.8% of Fortune 500 CEO positions.

■ Black people are 12% of the population and comprise 5% of doctors, the Association of American Medical Colleges finds.

■ The Economic Policy Institute notes that 30.8% of Black children live in poverty compared with 10.8% of white children.

I was the head of a Manhattan school for 19 years. Almost every Black student had been stopped and frisked or followed in stores. It almost never happened to white kids. I could fill pages with similar discrepancies by race in nearly every dimension of life. If you think these differences are not evidence of systemic racism, please, provide an another explanation.

It is absurd that New Hampshire legislators think that teaching students the truth is divisive. It is only “divisive” in the petty minds of white people who just want Black folks, women and other oppressed minorities to sit down and shut up. They shout “I’m colorblind!” in a country where racism is in vivid Technicolor. They are offended by the idea of white privilege, despite irrefutable evidence. Every possible metric illustrates the glaring disadvantages of being Black. And it is impossible for glaring disadvantage to exist in the absence of significant advantage, aka white privilege.

“Divisiveness” doesn’t exist because Black, gay and transgender folks, not to mention women, are making it an issue. It is because the white majority has made it an “issue” for several centuries.

If you are like the New Hampshire legislators, Bret Stephens or the Times commenters and just want them all to sit down and stop complaining, how about directing your effort toward giving them an equitable number of seats at the table?

The blindingly obvious irony is that HB 544 is the most compelling evidence possible of the desperate need for everything it forbids.