Critical Race Theory
Simply stated, if you pick the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers in a horse race, you win the trifecta which is worth quite a bit of money. And up to a few months ago, that was considered critical race theory.
Critical Race Theory
Declaration of Betrayal of West Point And the Long Gray Line By “Concerned Graduates of West Point”
West Point is conducting business in a manner that ignores time- honored principles of the Academy, Constitutional Law, and our sworn oath of office.
Ibram X Kendi Tries to Displace Beloved Children’s Classic with ‘Goodnight Racism’
Generations of toddlers have fallen asleep to the familiar words and colorful images of Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon,” a well-loved book that has sold nearly 50 million copies. Just in time for Juneteenth, New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi released a new children’s book on Tuesday entitled, “Goodnight Racism.” Although Kendi uses …
The “Critical” in Critical Theories
This piece looks at the various “critical” theories. The theory making the biggest splash lately is Critical Race Theory, but it is descended from a group of theories. There is also a Critical Pedagogy/Education Theory that shows how education fits into this systemic approach to question change western society. The “critical” in these theories are not the same as the “critical” in critical thinking.
Re-constructing History, Part 8: First, Do no Harm
Part 8 looks at the charge in the Hippocratic Oath, “first, do no harm”.
1619 seeks to re-write American history to show slavery is at the root of every institution in the US. CRT aims to show this as well as with the concepts of institutional racism, white supremacy, white privilege, and white fragility. Part 4 of the Maskirovka series covers these issues. The question is whether the Social Justice Warriors (SJW) employ these concepts to excise a cancer or to kill the current social structures and institutions. If they argue racism is permanently rooted in every social structure and institution in America, then they argue for a wholesale restructuring of American society and new institutions that are not tainted with slavery and racism.
This path does harm on several dimensions. Harm that may be far worse than the disease. There are many sites that provide arguments against CRT and 1619, so I will focus on the harm they cause, regardless of any merit they may possess.
Reconstructing History, Part 7: Conflict, History, and the Future
Social Justice movements do not try to re-construct American history because they do not like it. They do it to break the historical path dependency and set a new future based on their ideology. The questions are:
Do they have the power to completely break the path?
Will other forces counter-act them?
Reconstructing History, Part 4: Multiple Punctured Equilibriums
Since 2020, the US has gone through a series of trigger events that upset the established order. The two events in 2020, COVID-19 and the George Floyd death, broke a strong path dependency in American history, opening the way for Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project to re-write American history. Then the Virginia elections in Fall 2021 called that newly emerging equilibrium into question. As Americans were starting to sort out these issues, Russia invaded Ukraine, adding further complexity and uncertainty.
Reconstructing History, Part 3: Social Justice Movements
The preamble to the Constitution and the self-evident truths in the Declaration Independence are the enduring truths. We may have strayed from them at times, but they have guided the vector of American civilization. They are why Americans dismantled racism and sought fairness while maintaining prosperity. Racial narratives and a re-writing history and destroying the institutions of prosperity are not the way.