How Does The Atlantic Say That They Support Grooming...
...Without actually saying "We support grooming"?
There’s an old joke that goes: “We all know what BS is. MS is ‘more of the same’, and PhD is “piled higher and deeper”. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Ibram X Kendi (formerly Ibram Henry Rogers*). He seems to be taking issue in a new article at The Atlantic with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law.
Instead of focusing on this very real threat, Republican politicians—to justify Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law—have cited QAnon conspiracy theories about public schools being overrun by child predators who are “grooming” children to be gay. A spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis reframed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill as an “anti-grooming” bill. But if QAnon Republicans really cared about white children, then they would be worried about white-supremacist grooming. This is the grooming that parents of all children should be worried about.
Kendi, reiterates the lie of “don’t say gay” which is nowhere in the bill. It prevents teachers (an arm of the government) from talking to young children from K-3 (5 years old to 8 years old) about sexual issues. Not only talk to small children about sexual issues, but to not tell their parents. How do you feel about adults talking about sex to small children while saying: “This will be our little secret”? They call this “grooming”.
Kendi tries to shift the focus to white supremacists who groom children online. Why do parents allow children unfettered access to the internet without supervision? Much like a black boy whose single mom is working three jobs to make ends meet and he hooks up with a gang. This is a more dangerous situation for the black community than the oh-so-rare “white supremacist” online encouraging white kids to violence against minorities.
On the subject of fatherlessness, especially in black homes, you hear crickets from Kendi.
But how can white kids—or any kids—guard against this threat if they can’t recognize it? How can kids repel ideas of hierarchy if they haven’t been taught ideas of equality? How can kids distinguish right from wrong if they haven’t been shown what’s right and wrong?
Kendi will show them the way. He will explain that all white kids are inherently racist and they oppress black kids who are inherently victims. Meanwhile statistically, a young black man (or jew, or gay, or trans, or whatever) is so much more likely to be killed by a young black man as to make the “white supremacists” statistically irrelevant.
This is the case of addressing an almost non-existent problem while ignoring the huge problems affecting the black community. Also, this is how he makes his money, selling books like this to elementary schools.
If there weren’t some “white supremacists” to be worried about, Kendi would have to make them up.
He writes about the GOP:
But this great myth is not as rudimentary as the great lie**. It represents a Trump Tower of GOP propaganda, built over the past year on four hugely false conceptual building blocks:
Republican politicians care about white children.
Anti-racist education is harmful to white children.
Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education.
The Republican Party is the party of white parents because it is protecting white children.
Let me light his straw man on fire and explain the truth to him.
Republicans care about ALL children, no matter what race, religion, ethnicity, orientation, etc.
Anti-racist education is harmful to ALL children. It teaches white children that they are oppressors and makes them hypersensitive. It teaches black children that they are victims and makes them despair of being able to succeed in life. Both messages are fundamentally untrue and harmful.
Republican politicians are protecting ALL children by banning anti-racist education.
The Republican party of ALL parents because they are protecting ALL children. Leaving the teaching of morality and sexuality to the parents.
To care about white children is to support parents and educators in teaching children about race.
Here is what educators should teach about race. There are a number of different races. They all have the potential to become whoever they want to with education, hard work and sticking to behaviors that generally lead to success. That’s it.
To paraphrase the Dr. Martin Luther King: “we should judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
And Ibram X. Kendi is an asshole. Not because he’s black, but because he’s simply an asshole.
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* Gotta get some “African cred” with a new African name.
** “The great lie” is that Trump was cheated in the 2020 elections. Much more probable than every white person is a secret racist.