I am old enough to remember the old South with its white only rest rooms and water fountains. I don’t have a personal acquaintance with the situation that she described but I am not unmindful of them. I know that things like that occurred. Maybe Mrs. Curry thought that I didn’t know rather than being, like some, determined to live as if it were perpetually 1965 in Selma, Alabama. We have certainly come a long way since then. The death of all accusations of systemic racism should have been final with the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and his re-election in 2012. If there is still a racial disparity in various areas, we should look for other reasons rather than resorting to knee-jerk racism accusations

It is to the credit of the writer and her husband that they didn’t teach anything like what I referred to in my letter. What I am referring to is of fairly recent vintage and perhaps was not on their radar by the time they retired. I also was not saying that Critical Race Theory was presently being taught in our local schools but it is being pushed elsewhere as I will soon explain. Bad ideas seem to have the ability to really get around so — as the financial people like to say — past performance does not predict future results. It is easier to confront these damaging ideas before they take deep root. Of course, it can be denied that CRT is being taught if they don’t call it that. “Equity” should set off alarm bells as well. Poison by any other name is just as toxic.

It is very likely that the writer and I inhabit different media universes. While the alphabet media is not above promoting completely false stories, its main deficiency is what it does not report at all. Therefore, many people never hear of important developments. I had heard of CRT through Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ibram Kendi’s “How to Be An Antiracist” where one is automatically racist for being born white and any defense against the charge of racism proves that you are racist and are demonstrating white fragility. You cannot keep your head down and let it pass by without saying anything because now “silence is violence.” 

Of course, this is absurd and should never be taken seriously and is totally inappropriate for children. I have no problem with teaching history, warts and all, but to teach everything from the false basis that this country was founded to perpetuate slavery as the “1619 Project” would have it is totally misguided and pits people against one another for no good reason. 

The first time I was aware of any effort to include math in the antiracist effort was an article in Powerline. The Oregon Department of Education sent a letter to math educators telling them about a virtual course in math equity (A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction) that they could sign up for. The claim by this group is that white supremacy culture can appear in the classroom in ways such as when “the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer” and by requiring students to “show their work.” These quotes are from KATU-2, an ABC affiliate in Portland. Powerline picked it up from the Fox station there but no matter. This course also supports confronting ways that “math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.” A Google search will find similar results from other parts of the country.

At the time I wrote the original letter I was aware only occasionally of these stories but recently there has been a spate of news reports. For instance, there is a parental revolt against CRT in Loudon County, Virginia. Similar uprisings against school boards have occurred in other parts of the country. A Google search will yield results; just type in keywords. Google’s algorithms may discriminate against some outlets so searches with other search engines is a good idea as well. 

Going to the news sources themselves will be fruitful. Facebook and Twitter censor what they don’t like so a lot of good information is choked off to people who rely on these platforms. Give these websites a try: The Federalist, American Thinker, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, Real Clear Politics (has everything right, left and center), The Epoch Times, American Greatness, etc. Don’t be afraid of Fox News. I know it may be fashionable in some circles to knowingly sneer at people like Tucker Carlson or Rush Limbaugh, but they are more right than the so-called mainstream with their corporate “narrative.” I even like to read some left-of-center journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. I don’t always agree with them but at least they are unflinchingly honest. If inquiring minds really want to know, please expand your news sources.

Dave Parker 

Sylva