‘Furthering The Conversation About Whiteness’: Anti-American Rhetoric On The Rise In The Classroom

In March, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order (EO) calling for a restoration of “Truth and Sanity to American History” which included a review of the Smithsonian Institute Museums. Now, the Administration is making good on that EO.

Naturally, politicians, Left-wing media, and the far-Left are pouncing with charges of “Stalinist tactics,” “fascism,” and “Trump’s historical vision.”

Yet, the most glaring example to justify the Administration’s action is the now infamous Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s “Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in the United States.”

But it is not just the one museum, the American Art Museum also features a page titled “Furthering the Conversation About Whiteness.”

While the auditing of these institutions is probably overdue and necessary, there also needs to be a spotlight put on the teaching of culture and history in our educational institutions, especially K-12 schools.

The defensive position from the Left is that they just want to teach “honest history.” Meant to sound noble, this is nothing more than wordplay. It is misdirection in an attempt to hide their heavily curated and far-Left [re]vision of history.

“Honest history,” as they will have the public believe, is just teaching the history of “underrepresented groups” to highlight their contributions to the United States. However, peel back the feel-good façade and it is clear there is a political agenda to advance anti-American, anti-Western ideologies – i.e. anti-“whiteness.”

In the context of K-12 education, there is no clearer example of this than [liberated/critical] ethnic studies.

Sold to school districts, parents, students, and the public writ large as the teaching of history and culture of minority groups, it is a far-Left radical political programming.

It is agitprop being deployed on children into K-12 schools. Amping up their emotions, preying on their empathy, and then feeding them politically biased content.

It’s general framework begins with a heavy focus on a student’s various racial and ethnic “identities,” or intersectionality. The intention is to create a strong tribal attachment to the student’s collective identities.

It then introduces “critical consciousness,” which trains students to find racism and oppression everywhere in their lives. Driving them into a constant state of anxiety and fear.

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For example, a recent Castro Valley Unified School District ethnic studies presentation to the district board demonstrates this via student art which states “As an Asian American, racism is prevalent all around me.”

Ethnic studies activate deep feelings of anger and resentment in students towards the United States, and even towards their white teachers and peers.

A review of Saint Paul Publics Schools’ ethnic studies program by the University of Minnesota highlights several students’ reflections on the course. One anonymous student stated “Why would a course about being critical have white teachers? My school has one [B]lack teacher teaching it. How can we be critical if we don’t listen to the voices who are firstly impacted? Also, white teachers even if they mean well will implement their own biases that students will have to deal with.”

The political programming continues by creating heroes, legends, and mythology through the intentional curation of historical events and peoples that have modeled “resistance” against whiteness. Examples include Che Guevara, the Black Panther Party, Angela Davis, and even a defense of anti-Israel activism and terrorism.

Finally, students are taught and required to engage in far-Left social justice activism. Under the guise of “Youth Participatory Action Research,” students are trained to become street activists for the flavor-of-the-day far-Left cause.

Eventually, the goal is to embed it into every single subject area and curriculum. They admit this outright.

In California, San Rafael City Schools contracted with the University of California Berkeley’s History-Social Science Project to integrate ethnic studies “concepts and pedagogies” into the district’s World and U.S. history courses.

The university’s site states that it is assisting teachers and districts in integrating the “CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum” into courses, which includes helping teachers “familiarize themselves with…critical race theory, intersectionality, which are key theoretical frameworks and pedagogies.”

This issue is not about the actual teaching of culture and history; it is about how far-Left actors are advancing their cultural revolution via the long march through American institutions.

While the Administration and public focus their attention on the national museums, heavy scrutiny must simultaneously be placed on the teaching of “honest history” and ethnic studies in K-12.

The advancement of anti-American and anti-Western ideologies need to be removed from classrooms.

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Rhyen Staley is a researcher for Defending Education. He holds a master’s degree in elementary education and has over a decade of classroom experience in both public and private schools. He has over 25 years of volleyball coaching experience from Women’s Division I down to junior high.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.