Thank you Ruben for this writing, which speaks to our minds, our hearts, and our spirits. What I would add, what I've learned from Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw's podcast, is that the anti-CRT movement is a backlash to the racial reckoning of the summer of 2020, and that backlashes to periods of anti-racist action typically last a good deal longer than the periods of progress that preceded them: Reconstruction/Redemption and Jim Crow, Civil Rights/Mass Incarceration....
In other words, the anti-CRT movement is a grave threat, and must be countered with sustained anti-racist organizing.
Great point. Thanks for adding this to the conversation. It feels like the left (or more broadly people in favor of anti-racist education) are out organized at this moment, but that's all the more reason to get organizing! We should be turning people out to school board meetings and supporting candidates to school boards who will support racial equity in schools.
Great post! Only a couple of years ago I think one would have thought of ‘avoiding discomfort’ in schools as a left-coded phenomenon with all the ‘safe spaces on campus’ talk. Now you have Republican legislatures literally banning ideas from the classroom. They really co-opted the whole snowflake thing!
Excellent point. There was a lot of hand wringing about the "illiberalism" taking over college campuses. Where's the Harper's Letter crew now when we really need them?
My point exactly. If you used your precious time and energy to sign a collective statement about "cancel culture" then you should probably take a little time to be alarmed about fascist book banning.
Thank you Ruben for this writing, which speaks to our minds, our hearts, and our spirits. What I would add, what I've learned from Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw's podcast, is that the anti-CRT movement is a backlash to the racial reckoning of the summer of 2020, and that backlashes to periods of anti-racist action typically last a good deal longer than the periods of progress that preceded them: Reconstruction/Redemption and Jim Crow, Civil Rights/Mass Incarceration....
In other words, the anti-CRT movement is a grave threat, and must be countered with sustained anti-racist organizing.
Great point. Thanks for adding this to the conversation. It feels like the left (or more broadly people in favor of anti-racist education) are out organized at this moment, but that's all the more reason to get organizing! We should be turning people out to school board meetings and supporting candidates to school boards who will support racial equity in schools.
Great post! Only a couple of years ago I think one would have thought of ‘avoiding discomfort’ in schools as a left-coded phenomenon with all the ‘safe spaces on campus’ talk. Now you have Republican legislatures literally banning ideas from the classroom. They really co-opted the whole snowflake thing!
Excellent point. There was a lot of hand wringing about the "illiberalism" taking over college campuses. Where's the Harper's Letter crew now when we really need them?
to be fair, some of the Harper's Letter crew are condemning these laws in the pages of the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/05/opinion/we-disagree-on-a-lot-of-things-except-the-danger-of-anti-critical-race-theory-laws.html
My point exactly. If you used your precious time and energy to sign a collective statement about "cancel culture" then you should probably take a little time to be alarmed about fascist book banning.