As a measure against “systemic racism,” Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, announced in the fall of last year that it will basically do everything in its power not to fail students, allowing them to rewrite sub- standard exams and assignments and indeed exonerating them when those assignments are handed in late or not at all.
Some parents have expressed concern over the effect this new regime might have on the work ethic of their children. But Principal Christine Pierre made it clear that while students will not be passed until they have adequately mastered their subject, their success should in no way be dependent on such intangibles as “behavior” or “attitude.” As the entire thrust of this project was to eliminate standards that were deemed unfair to Black students, her statement implies that it was their behavior and attitude that had previously held them back! This severance of the relationship between the intangibles of “character” and the likelihood of success in the real world is for “conservatives” quite literally insane! Ironically, of course, it is born of the bigotry of low expectations, the absurd notion that Blacks could never be as disciplined or responsible as Whites.
Thomas Sowell sees the crime rate among Black urban males as a direct result not of White oppression but the breakdown of Black cultural values. When his people truly were oppressed 100 years ago, he points out, their respect for the nuclear family, led most often by fathers with strong Christian values, rarely produced young men anything like the murderous Winston Glynn whom I mentioned a couple of blogs back. For Sowell, no doubt, initiatives such as the one cited above ludicrously eliminate “behavior” and “attitude” from the human narrative on the grounds that they are relative values born of one’s Identity rather than objectively verifiable factors in one’s success in the real world. It is the delusion at the heart of Critical Race Theory. It is a product of the absurd Post Modern assertion that all truths and values are merely a matter of opinion. And it leads inevitably to the moronic belief that if a Black person is self-indulgent, undisciplined, disrespectful, etc., his failures in the real world are a result not of his own shortcomings but of systemic White racism.
Quite aside from Thomas Sowell, dozens of Black social commentators have denounced the degenerate values implicit in much of contemporary, Black popular Culture. But as Culture no longer matters to the brain-dead Left, such critics are simply dismissed as Uncle Toms who have sadly submitted to White coercion.
In the name of racial equity, we are forsaking the very values which made Western Civilization, for all its flaws, the most civilized in human history. At a Community College in Nevada, Professor Lars Jensen, a 22 year veteran, was recently threatened with dismissal for defending the integrity of his subject as his state had mandated that remedial math courses be given the same status as far more difficult college courses. This assault on standards, he maintained, an assault evident across the country, could have very dire repercussions. He was ultimately allowed to keep his job.
Coincidentally, as I prepared to vent on this subject, Jordan Peterson published a lengthy article in Canada’s National Post of Jan. 19 in which he explained the reasons for his recent resignation as a U. of T. professor. Whereas the University has for decades sought to be fair and inclusive in its hiring practices, it is now apparently subject to arbitrary statistical criteria. Because there are often not enough women, gays, racial minorities, etc. qualified to fill the teaching and research positions stipulated by the “Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity” mandate [he calls it DIE], the unqualified are frequently hired simply because of who they are. Moreover as the notion of systemic bias seems to have been accepted without question, staff members are now submitted to the I.A.T., the Implicit Association Test designed to smoke out unconscious biases among those who have never shown any signs of such whatsoever. While Peterson says the “science” behind this test is highly suspect, I would suggest its criteria for evaluating its “data” is even more so. Does believing 2+2=4 make me a White Supremacist? Does believing Men and Women are nature’s norm make me a homophobe?
Contemporary Western Academia, Peterson says, is “stunningly corrupt.” Many of his former U. of T. associates agree but naturally keep their opinions to themselves. Indeed many brazenly misrepresent their world views in seeking to wrest research grants from the powers that be. Such is the reign of terror hovering over institutions claiming to be the ultimate refuge of Freedom of Thought. Such is the fascist intolerance evident everywhere in a Culture designed by those who have the audacity to call themselves progressives and liberals!