PrintSchools solve problem of minority violence by teaching about White racism
St. Paul faced a problem with minority violence in its school. What to do? The answer: pay a consultant $3 million to teach about White racism.
In 2010, the St. Paul school district began a contractual relationship with the Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based organization that tries to help public schools deal with achievement and disciplinary issues involving black students.
PEG... claims that the American education system is built around white culture, tradition and ocial norms – aka “white privilege” – to the unfair detriment of black students.
Not long after PEG started working with St. Paul school officials, crucial policy changes were made, according to various news reports. Special needs students with behavioral issues were mainstreamed into regular classrooms, a position openly advocated by PEG. Student suspensions were replaced by “time outs,” and school officials starting forgiving or ignoring violence and other unacceptable behavior, according to various sources. The result has been general chaos throughout the district, with far too many students out of control because they know there are no real consequences for their actions.
A local publication called CityPages recently told the story of Becky McQueen, an educator at St. Paul’s Harding High School.
“Last spring, when she stepped into a fight between two basketball players, one grabbed her shoulder and head, throwing her aside,” the CityPages article explained. “The kid was only sent home for a couple of days.
“In March, when a student barged into her class, McQueen happened to be standing in the doorway and got crushed into a shelf. The following week, two boys came storming in, hit a girl in the head, then skipped back out. One of them had already been written up more than 30 times.
“Yet another student who repeatedly drops into her class has hit kids and cursed at an aide, once telling McQueen he would “fry” her ass. She tried to make a joke of it — ‘Ooh, I could use a little weight loss.’ Her students interjected: ‘No, that means he’s gonna kill you.'”
McQueen now has her students use a secret knock on the classroom door, so she will know who to allow in, the article said.
You may wonder what the district was getting for its three million dollar consultant:
PEG says concepts like hard work and planning for the future are traits of “white culture,” and implies that minority students cannot be expected to respond to a curriculum based on those values. They say black culture is more in tune with “collectivism,” presumably the type applied in Cuba or North Korea.
According to PEG, white culture is based on “white individualism” or “white traits” like “rugged individualism,” “adherence to rigid time schedules,” “plan(ning) for the future,” and the idea that “hard work is the key to success.”
The minority cultures, according to PEG, value “color group collectivism.” This entails “fostering interdependence” and group success, shared property, learning through social relationships, and making life choices based on “what will be best for the family” or the group.
The Pacific Educational Group is essentially saying that when schools emphasize the values of “white culture,” they are setting African American and Latino students up to fail.
You know, if a conservative said that "showing up on time" or "working hard" is a White trait, he'd be branded a racist. But when a leftist group like PEG does it, it somehow becomes progressive. What else would you expect from an ideology which conflates peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with racial identity?
Verenice Gutierrez picks up on the subtle language of racism every day. Take the peanut butter sandwich, a seemingly innocent example a teacher used in a lesson last school year. “What about Somali or Hispanic students, who might not eat sandwiches?” says Gutierrez, principal at Harvey Scott K-8 School, a diverse school of 500 students in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood. “Another way would be to say: ‘Americans eat peanut butter and jelly, do you have anything like that?’ Let them tell you. Maybe they eat torta. Or pita.”
So this is the racial lesson of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Truly profound.
If these people were on the Titanic, while the ship was sinking they would be the ones arguing about the fact that all the lifeboats were white.
This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.
