The Washington Post ran quite a story over the weekend. It's datelined from Traverse City, Michigan, where a bunch of white high school kids decided a few months ago that it would be fun to hold a Snapchat "slave auction" in which they traded Black kids for money:
The Snapchat group, titled “slave trade,” also saw a student share the messages “all blacks should die” and “let’s start another holocaust,” according to screenshots obtained by The Washington Post. It spurred the fast-tracking of a school equity resolution that condemned racism and vowed Traverse City Area Public Schools would better educate its overwhelmingly White student body and teaching staff on how to live in a diverse country.
....But White parents say their hometown was never racist — at least not until an obsession with race began infecting the school system through its embrace of CRT, an allegation school officials have denied. Now, these parents say, their children are coming home from school feeling ostracized for their conservatism and worried they must adhere to a liberal agenda to earn good grades on their assignments.
Basically, in the face of irrefutable evidence that their hometown does indeed harbor white racist sentiment, conservative white parents insisted that racism never existed until a bunch of Black and liberal white folks imported it.
But there's more. Here's a brief timeline of how things unfolded:
Last summer: In the wake of the George Floyd murder, the school district creates a social equity task force.
Late April: The task force meanders along until the Snapchat incident, at which point school administrators ask if an anti-racism resolution can be sped up.
May 24: Indeed it can! At the end of May a draft resolution is unveiled to the public.
June 14: The resolution is discussed at a school board meeting. It is widely supported, which is no surprise since it's pretty standard fare. It basically says that the school district condemns racism; promises to support staff training; will review curriculum to provide opportunities for students to learn about "diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging issues"; and will continue to buy more diverse books for school libraries. The resolution is here if you want to make sure I've described it fairly.
June 28: The resolution, which had prompted only a few dissenters two weeks before, is now the subject of a massive backlash. At a packed board meeting, the speakers were almost all white parents outraged about the resolution:
By that time, school board members — wary of the building backlash — had already reworked the document. The second version lacks the line about applying a “social equity and diversity lens” to the curriculum. It also no longer suggests the district will add “marginalized” authors to their libraries, nor that Traverse City schools will give students more opportunities to learn about “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging issues.” Officials furthermore deleted the terms “racism” and “racial violence” from a list of things the school district condemns. Also deleted is a passage that stated “racism and hate have no place in our schools or in our society.”
The board had already decided it was too risky to condemn "racism" and "racial violence"! Nor did they want to boldly stand up for the proposition that "racism and hate have no place in our school." As for the libraries, forget it. They're fine as is. Nor did the revised resolution include any lefty talk about diversity.
Needless to say, there's not much left except for a bit of pabulum. Nevertheless, the white parents group became convinced that the whole thing was just Critical Race Theory with a thin veneer over it. This despite the obvious fact that nothing even remotely related to CRT is in this resolution. So where could they have gotten this idea?
Hmmm. Where indeed?
