Starting tomorrow: CRITICAL MATTERS!

MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2021

In search of Our Town's "hot air:" On Saturday morning, the Washington Post's op-ed page was CRT all the way down.

As is standard practice on Saturday mornings, the page featured three opinion columns, plus some of the week's best cartoons. All three columns concerned issues of critical race theory and the public schools. 

Below, we offer links to the three columns. The hard-copy headlines were these:

Colbert King: In D.C., critical race theory is simple truth-telling 
Alexandra Petri: I'm for free thinking...about the things that I believe are correct 
Alyssa Rosenberg: Ken Burns is an optimist. But he's very worried about America

In fairness, only one of the four cartoons dealt with CRT. That said, the three columnists all adopted a fairly standard position:

They excoriated Republicans and conservatives for the dumbness of their complaints concerning critical theory. No one suggested that there could possibly be any dumbness on display in Our Town concerning this current topic.

The scorn was general, and was sometimes quite heated. Rosenberg had interviewed Ken Burns, the celebrated film-maker / historian, about this ongoing topic. Below, you see the heart of her account of what Burns had said:

ROSENBERG (6/26/21): [Burns] believes in looking hard at the nation’s flaws because he believes one of the things that makes it great is its capacity to learn from the past and make progress, even if the country backslides along the way.

That attitude is what drives his opposition to laws attempting to regulate the way schools teach American history, including by banning critical race theory—previously a relatively esoteric academic discipline—and the curriculum based on the 1619 Project.

“Our children are way too smart” to be protected from history, Burns insists. “We don't really care about them if we think that they have to be fed pablum for their entire life.”

The dangers of such hypersensitivity about the past and its connections to the present aren’t just limited to children, he says.

“I think this is the greatest threat to our republic ever. Not the Depression, not World War II, not the Civil War. This is it,” Burns told me. “This moment of all these intersecting viruses, of novel coronaviruses and of racial injustice—a 402-year-old-virus. And it’s an age-old human virus of lying and misinformation and paranoia and conspiracy. This is the pill that will kill us unless we do something.”

As a counterexample, Burns points to South Carolina, where he’s helped raise money for the soon-to-open International African American Museum. That state is not immune from partisan debates about school curriculums. But at least some of the state, Burns says, “understands it has a rich and diverse history that isn’t just the old antebellum plantation bull----” and has been able to develop new kinds of tourism in response.

According to Rosenberg, Burns opposes laws "attempting to regulate the way schools teach American history, including by banning critical race theory." Depending on the particular law in question, he may well be right.

That said, Rosenberg's presentation of Burns' view struck us as highly standard. Included was the mandated statement that people opposing CRT "don't even know what it is."

In a great may cases, that familiar claim may well be accurate. That said, Burns was highly exercised about the current state of affairs.

Just for the record, the various states and their subdivisions have always "regulate[d] the way schools teach American history." They've done so through the adoption of mandated history curriculums. 

Down through the many long years, some of these state and local curriculums have shown more wisdom, some have shown a great deal less.

That said:

According to Rosenberg, Burns believes the current wave of proposed laws represents "the greatest threat to our republic ever."  The proposed laws represent "an age-old human virus of lying and misinformation and paranoia and conspiracy."

It's "a 402-year-old virus," Burns apparently said. He was tracking back to 1619, a newly controversial date in our nation's tribal wars.

Burns was so exercised about the current threat that he even uttered a word Rosenberg couldn't print in the Washington Post! On the brighter side, he cited the fact that "at least some of the [people in the] state" of South Carolina were insightful enough to see beyond this "old antebellum plantation bull----." 

So Burns framed the current state of affairs. Simply put, The Others were very dumb and very bad. Those in Our Town were enlightened.

In this way, Burns adopted an extremely familiar framework as he warned about the nation's demise. According to an array of experts, he'd adopted an extremely tribal framework. Such frameworks place all the good, decent, intelligent people within a speaker's own tribe.

To our ear, Burns' presentation wasn't just extremely familiar, it was also a bit simple-minded. 

“Our children are way too smart” to be protected from history, Burns apparently insisted at one point. But is that true of our first- and second-graders? Even in their later years, is there no possible version of history which might mislead Our Town's brilliant kids?

We'll guess that no one asked.

We live in highly tribal times. In our view, Rosenberg's column was identifiably tribal. 

Within the framework of her column, The Others are unfailingly dumb, and borderline evil. But over here, within Our Town, even the children are smart! 

This is the type of bombast we're now absorbing over here in the streets of Our Town. In the towns where The Others live, they're routinely being exposed to different types of tribal bombast—and rarely the twain shall meet!

All this week, we'll explore an extremely offensive questions. Dumb as they undoubtedly are, is it possible that The Others may have some valid concerns or complaints concerning the matters at hand?

Also this:

Is it possible that various people here in Our Town are capable of making mistakes concerning the way our nation's history should be taught in our public schools? We'll even be asking that as the week proceeds!

At times like these, top experts say, humans are rarely exposed to questions about the conduct of people within their own tribe. For those of us within the blue tribe, we will rarely be exposed to doubts about the conduct which occurs in Our Town. 

On Saturday morning, three Post columnists sang one familiar tribal song about this critical matter. This morning, Karen Attiah may have topped all three with her own column about this same topic.

Attiah denounces all the "hot air" being expelled by The Others. But is it possible that some such air may also be coming from us?

We'll explore this very important question during the heat of the upcoming week. We'll probably start with a column by George Will—more precisely, with the alleged situation in a private school to which his column refers.

We're likely to start with a reference from Will! In fairness, he's staunchly anti-Trump. But even on a provisional basis, are you willing to go there?

Tomorrow: Can we possibly see something odd about these unusual numbers?

 

35 comments:

  1. You can't argue with Republicans about CRT, because they don't know what CRT is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
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  2. Somerby's point seems to be that Liberals trying to protect the votes of minorities are being just as "tribal" as Conservatives who want the votes of minorities suppressed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Will you ever discuss (or even define) what CRT is? Our analysts aren’t fans of the 1619 Project, but nobody cared about CRT until Fox News put it into heavy rotation a few months ago. Our analysts are really disappointed in your work output these past few years. We talked to one of your friends and he said he rarely reads you any more. You used to be beautiful, what happened?


    https://mattbruenig.com/2021/06/20/critical-race-theory/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for this. That blog looks like a good source of knowledge.

      Delete
  4. Here’s the column that Bob seems to be referencing by George Will. It discusses a very expensive, exclusive private school that a tiny fraction of US students would ever attend. Are the teacher’s concerns valid? Will doesn’t seem to have interviewed her himself, or anyone else at the school! Are the teachers’ comments at the training session “nauseating?” A lot of them seem pretty banal and unremarkable! Will it take Somerby a week plus to get to Will’s column, and then only discuss it tangentially? Our analysts think this is likely, unfortunately!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/23/teacher-pushes-back-against-k-12-critical-race-theory-indoctrination/

    ReplyDelete
  5. What's with the silliness of constantly analyzing the idiotic dembot Bezos' blog, dear Bob?

    Do you have any evidence that anyone, other than yourself, reads it? We'd bet good money that you are the only reader, dear.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ‘They excoriated Republicans and conservatives for the dumbness of their complaints concerning critical theory. No one suggested that there could possibly be any dumbness on display in Our Town concerning this current topic.’

    This is so stupid.

    Why should an opinion columnist who passionately believes X spend a chunk of their limited space arguing against X? If Somerby wants a different opinion, he should probably read a different columnist.

    And does King really criticize ‘The Others?’ Not really. Technically, he is criticizing a specific group of ‘five Republican congressmen — Glenn Grothman (Wis.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Bob Gibbs (Ohio), Pat Fallon and Ronny Jackson (both of Texas) — have introduced legislation to ban the teaching of critical race theory in D.C. public and charter schools.’

    It seems fair to ‘excoriate’ the actual people who are doing the thing you find reprehensible.

    Oh, and why was it that ‘On Saturday morning, the Washington Post's op-ed page was CRT all the way down.?’ Somerby’s readers must know that CRT is getting massive coverage on right wing media as their outrage of the month. That demands a reply from liberal opinion columnists.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. I would also add that King is arguing against the views of the five GOP congressmen. Calling it an ‘excoriation’ is a misrepresentation.

      Does Somerby think there’s some sort of middle ground here, where reasonable people can discuss ‘CRT’, where liberals are supposed to admit some Republican concerns are ‘valid’, and some sort of agreement can be reached?

      We are talking about one side in the argument, the GOP, enacting legislation to ban ‘CRT’ outright, full stop, no discussion allowed.

      It looks like Somerby is on their side, because there is no middle ground.

      Delete
  7. "Simply put, The Others were very dumb and very bad. Those in Our Town were enlightened."

    Burns never mentions "Our Town." He does seem to say that those who believe bad things are bad and those who do not are good. That is a very simple reduction of his views, but Burns doesn't attribute such views to any specific group beyond the set of people who believe certain things. That extension is Somerby's doing. I doubt Burns would agree with Somerby's simplification.

    ReplyDelete
  8. "“Our children are way too smart” to be protected from history, Burns apparently insisted at one point. But is that true of our first- and second-graders?"

    Next Somerby will be complaining that those ratty teachers are not presenting Einstein's relativity theory in a way that first and second graders can understand.

    Somerby has worked with children. He should know that when you try to teach them things that are over their heads, nothing much sinks in. Teaching first graders about CRT would be akin to trying to teach them relativity. They have neither the vocabulary nor the foundational concepts to understand any of it, so it goes whoosh, along with other things adults talk about that kids don't understand.

    One purpose of education is to teach kids how to find answers to their own questions. In later life, they will not be fooled by misinformation if they have been given the tools to do their own research. Kids are not limited to only what a teacher says, but have the world of opinions and facts at their fingertips, assuming they can read and think. The latter is what schools teach, not CRT. As long as schools continue to do this, I agree with Burns that children will be difficult to indoctrinate.

    Every child who attended Catholic school but came out a non-believer is testimony to the failure of indoctrination. Those of us who grew up in the 50s recall the intense indoctrination against communism we received as children. The Man Without a Country was required reading. How many of us hold such opinions today in a changed world?

    I think Burns may know more about how kids learn and how education works than Somerby does. And that is very sad, since Somerby had exposure to a great deal more classroom experience. Why didn't it take for Somerby? He seems to have absorbed none of the values of the teaching profession, understand little about its methods and hold only cynicism about its goals. Sad.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Spoken like a true retired psychologist. Thank you.

      Delete
    2. "when you try to teach them things that are over their heads, nothing much sinks in."

      Also, the reason you don't try to teach Republicans much.

      Delete
    3. Corby, how is it that you can write paragraph upon paragraph in a post and there be nothing that addresses what Ken Burns and Bob Somerby have actually said?

      Delete
    4. Fuck off. You do not belong here and nothing you have said addresses what Ken Burns and Bob Somerby have actually said either. You are a troll with no other purpose than to disrupt other people's discussion.

      Delete
    5. Cecelia cannot read and it is sadly too late to try to teach her.

      Delete
    6. Anonymouse 8:35am, a discussion certainly can involve calling a post a strawman when it is one.

      I’m not going away ever. No matter how often you proposition me.

      Delete
    7. Anonymouse 8:36am, and you don’t think very well, and there was never any possibility of improvement.

      Delete
  9. https://youtu.be/BNfzT-s6LHE?t=165

    Glen Loury is good to turn to understanding what may be wrong about CRT (or what you want to call it) outside of the knee jerk accusations of racism. Trigger alert: He appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and sides with Martin Luther King's notion that we are all in this together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haven't watched it yet, but not surprised that someone who is anti-capitalism would have a good take on CRT.

      Delete
    2. You feel that way because you are ignorant.

      Delete
  10. I don't consider the issue of conservatives tampering with school curriculum to be "about CRT". Burns is saying he is against that because it is a threat to our democracy, which relies on an educated (not indoctrinated) populace.

    Burns is not a scholar but a documentary maker. He is not a proponent of CRT. He made a series about the Civil War, but he has also make shows about baseball and country music. His comments have little to do with CRT and are mostly about what it means to live in a free country where neither political party tries to control what people think, especially what children think.

    It is Somerby who is making this all about CRT. That is another sign that he is here promoting conservative talking points. If he were truly liberal, he wouldn't see CRT under every bush, the way Fox News does. Somerby really needs to stop watching Tucker Carlson!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Somerby is back to letting spam pollute his blog comments.

    Bandy Lee would take that as a sign of either passive aggressive animosity toward his commenters or depression. No reason it cannot be both. You don't have to be a Donald J. Trump to feel narcissistic threat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymouse 8:39am, don’t feel threatened by the TDH blog and comment board.

      Let go of your need for strict thought control and allow yourself to feel freed by it.

      Delete
    2. TDH's comment board reinforces the idea that Republicans got nothing of value to add to the discussion.

      Delete
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