Truth . . . Truthfully

[spectrumbot]

Beginning around this time last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis endeavored to change the way race is taught in Florida schools. In the public discourse, this political movement began with largely inaccurate concerns over the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools.[1] Since then, it seems to be moving into how we discuss this country’s racial history generally. Under DeSantis’s guidance, Florida passed the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which, amongst other things, banned teaching that someone’s privilege or oppression can be based on their race, or teaching anything that could make someone feel guilt or anguish because of their race.[2] These vague and amorphous guidelines created a chilling effect in schools across the state. Public schools shut down their libraries until they could decipher whether the books on their shelves complied with the law. Teachers are left with little guidance on how to talk about slavery and racism in America, especially when coupled with previous laws that create an obligation to discuss certain subjects. More importantly, the law affects how publishers are drafting textbooks. The most egregious example was a publisher’s attempt to tell the story of Rosa Parks without mentioning her race.[3] The goal seems clear—this whitewashing of history is a poorly veiled attempt to obfuscate the effect of racism on our past and present.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/12262

[Jaray (JRStovall)]

There is a saying ‘The truth will set you free’, however I would suggest that many, many people do not understand they are prisoners to their perceptions of history and have no desire to be set free from them.

[Yoyito]

This is always the promise…is we just face history truthfully it’ll bring healing. But this is not the case. The leaders in the African American community must keep the idea that blacks and other minorities don’t succeed today because of racism. It’s the only way they stay relevant.

I’m a minority and I don’t need to view all of society through the lens of racism to move forward. I moved forward a long time ago and found that for all its history, this system is not perfect but any race or group can succeed. If we stop telling all our youth how racist and unfair and impossible it is to succeed, they’d be much better off then if they were taught critical race theory.

Those ideas cripple young black and brown youth instead of proving the freedoms them promise.

[NY_G_PA2 (Bruce Clements)]

History is just like the present.

There is much good and a little bad.

If we focus on either “truth”, we are bound by that fixation and can never be free to see that world is still mostly good and getting better all the time.

(And please don’t ask how I can say the world is mostly good, as the evidence is overwhelmingly so. Most people stay on their side of the road, most kids don’t take guns to school, most people don’t sue their neighbors, and even in what have been called “World Wars”, most people survive.

Will humanity get through the next one?

Who knows?

But I have enough faith in history, truth and my creator to bet that when the smoke clears, yes, the world will be a better place, whether with or without us.)

[Jaray (JRStovall)]

You make several ‘declarations’ with out supporting documentation.

1. “The leaders in the African American community must keep the idea that blacks and other minorities don’t succeed today because of racism.”

I hear and read stories from both national and locally of the opposite. Do you have bias listening/observation?

2.“If we stop telling all our youth how racist and unfair and impossible it is to succeed, they’d be much better off then if they were taught critical race theory.”

Again, my answer same as above. Do you understand what CRT is or just what talking head politicians, etc are saying?

An interesting read gleaned from many such articles.Critical Race Theory: The Fight Over What History Kids Learn | Time

[Yoyito]

Hello, as you know reading or hearing stories goes both ways. I read and hear plenty that supports the opposite of your point of view.

And that was the point of my original comments, the fact that you hear or read so much about how unfair and racist the system is, is evidence that that narrative is being kept alive. I understand you view it as reality, I view it as a narrative to stay relative for black leaders.

The reason why I believe this is because most arguments I’ve heard about how racist the country is revolves around comparing the outcomes. For example, there are disproportionately more black people in jail than white people. That is true, but that doesn’t mean they’re there because of racism. That’s like taking the statistic that men are 9 to 1 over women in the jail population and saying it’s sexism. We obviously can’t just look at the outcome and deduce it’s bias related.

African Americans commit murders at 4X their population size…that’s a factor as why their are in jail. Are the judges racist? Here in L.A. our police force is almost exactly proportionate racially to out population. And yet people still blame racism. On lapd. Do black people currently receive higher sentences for the same crimes? If systemic racism is why black people aren’t as successful as white people, what is the specific system or laws that are causing it? What law needs to change?

Looking at the outcome isn’t the best way to determine the cause. When we look deeper we see that there is a direct correlation between married parents and the outcome in their children. And African Americans have 3 out of 4 kids being born out of wedlock. That is a start in life that cannot be overcome. You cannot have a successful race if so many kids are growing up without dads.

As an example of why I don’t think racism is the principle reason African-Americans don’t succeed is because when an African-American child is growing up with married African-American parents, they actually end up making more money than the average white child. If the system was that racist, this would not happen.

Also, black people that aren’t African American succeed at higher rates than whites. Again, if the system was racist, how is it allowing non-African-American blacks to succeed? The system can’t differentiate these populations, the huge difference is non-African-American blacks, have much much higher rates of marriage, in wedlock births, and stronger family structures.

I understand the argument could be made that the family breakdown for African-Americans as a result of slavery, I also do not believe that is true based on the marriage, and out of wedlock births up until about about mid 1960’s when welfare was expanded, and made the African-American father no longer necessary And out of wedlock births exploded after that.

If African-American leaders really wanted their race to succeed, the “system “wouldn’t be their main focus. It would be encouraging, less teenage pregnancy, higher marriage rates, parenting classes, a focus on education instead of sports, and all the changes that will actually bring about successful changes for their community.

[Jaray (JRStovall)]

Your lack of knowledge and repeating old and withered tropes is very sad.

[Yoyito]

You asked for support for my statement and when I present the facts as to why I believe as i do, you say it’s tropes, Calling something “Tropes” so we don’t have to respond to opposing viewpoints is not helpful to anyone.

Defeats the purpose of forums like this.

Take care