On a recent October morning, I watched the television version of the Paul Gallo radio show, a staple of Mississippi’s breakfast time. Once we viewers got past news of a pair of stunners—the Ole Miss victory over Arkansas and number one Alabama’s fall to Texas A&M, one of Paul’s guests raised an issue that affects everyone.
The guest was Douglas Carswell and the issue was Critical Race Theory (CRT). Carswell is CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy (MCPP), a conservative think tank headquartered in Jackson. CRT is the belief that the United States could not have been founded on any principle other than “systemic” racism and that racism continues to lurk in every corner of America’s house.
Carswell, just so you know, is the son of two doctors and spent much of his young life in Uganda. He later moved to the United Kingdom where he served 12 years in Parliament and was a leader in the Brexit movement.
An earlier Supertalk Mississippi guest, Superintendent of Education Carey Wright, stated unequivocally that Critical Race Theory had not oozed into the state’s public schools. Asked the same question, Doug Carswell said it has, and he cited an MCPP paper, Combating Critical Race Theory in Mississippi, which you can access free at www.mspolicy.com.
You are doubtless aware of the growing parents’ movement to throw CRT out of public school curricula. MCPP’s paper on CRT shows concern for K-12 students but seems alarmed by what our public universities are up to. The report quotes material published by Ole Miss and Mississippi State that seems to justify those fears.
First, this from the University of Mississippi’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric: The department offers courses that examine “how whiteness is constructed.” Students can learn about “whiteness as it has evolved over time” and the relationship between white identity and “white nationalism, white supremacy, white privilege and whiteness.”
Over at MSU, the Woke Ness Monster is even scarier, roiling the waters of Oktibbeha County into froth. The English Department’s website notes that “systemic racism” is perpetuating “white supremacy in America.” I quote from the MCPP publication: “Mississippi State’s English Department website refers to ‘systemic racism’ perpetuating ‘white supremacy’ in America. It demands ‘structural change’ to achieve ‘racial justice.’ The department goes on to explain how it has ‘begun re-envisioning our curriculum to address its emphasis on white authors and literary traditions’ and how it is responding to the fact that the ‘demographics and dynamics’ of the department are those of a ‘Predominantly White Institution’ (PWI).”
My instincts as an editor drive me to ask whether the English faculty Brahmins up in Starkville are aware that 60 percent of this country counts itself as non-Hispanic white. Why would anyone be surprised that the MSU English Department reflects that? And here’s an even better question: so what? And one better yet: are you teaching students or trying to get your diversity card punched?
I would lay money that the self-styled racial-justice elites at both universities, their minds clouded by alternate waves of white fog and black fog, are on board with the growing Leftist/Marxist urge to denounce Martin Luther King as an Uncle Tom.
Reverend King famously said that he wanted his four children to “be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skins.” That’s no longer good enough for the lefties though it appeals to most Americans.
One final point distinguishes the MCPP’s Doug Carswell from loudmouths on both sides of most touchy issues: he believes that higher education exists to broaden perspectives and horizons, not narrow them. He has no problem with CRT being presented to college students. He has a major problem with no alternatives being presented.
And that’s the difference between the power grabbers and ordinary citizens—if lefties can’t win an argument on the facts, they drag out climate change and racism. And if those don’t carry the day, and they usually don’t, the left raises its voice and then burns things down. Among the casualties lying in the ashes are freedom of speech and the freedom to hear opposing viewpoints in open debate. And the freedom for our young children to learn basic knowledge and skills free from race-based propaganda.
William Jeanes lives in Dinsmor.
