John the Author is scheduled to speak at New Trier High on Feb. 28.
New Trier High School on Chicago’s wealthy, white North Shore has scheduled a day of workshops on “racial civil rights,” reports the Chicago Tribune. Students must attend the keynote speech. After that, they can choose which sessions to attend.
A group called “Parents of New Trier” is demanding that moderate and conservative speakers be added to the Feb. 28 event, known as “Seminar Day.” If not, it should be canceled, they argue. Here’s their critique of scheduled sessions.
The day’s agenda is “force-fed dogma,” charges parent Mark Glennon on Wirepoints.
Systemic, invisible racism is the core theme of the program. As one workshop description puts it, “Most systemic racism is invisible…often to both ‘sides’…until you know it’s there. Once you know it’s there, you can’t stop seeing it.” Our racism is so clear, in other words, that it should be taught as fact and not one of many viewpoints.
A rapper named John the Author will speak. Among his lyrics:
Divide and conquer, white supremacy the silent monster I see you sneaking in the corner trying to have some karma
To provide balance, Glennon suggests a new topic: “How identity politics have ripped America apart and undermined the quest for racial harmony.”
The district administration released FAQs on Seminar Day.
Class of ’16 graduates defended the program in an open letter that probably confirms the opponents’ fears about the everyone-is-racist theme.
New Trier District 203 draws from wealthy suburbs. The student population is 85.3 percent white, .6 percent African-American, 3.9 percent Hispanic, 7.4 percent Asian, and .1 percent American Indian.
Most students have been raised by well-educated, well-to-do parents and educated in excellent schools. They are extraordinarily privileged — or advantaged, as we used to say — compared to most Americans.
A ritzy Connecticut town is sponsoring a “white privilege” essay contest.
The Rochester City School District (New York) will hold a “Black Lives Matter Day” on Feb. 17, reports PJ Media. Organizers say that “while all lives matter, black lives deserve special affirmation, attention and understanding right now.”
You’d think immigrant students would be the most in need of affirmation, attention and understanding.
While 57 percent of Rochester students are black, 28 percent are Hispanic, 10 percent white and four percent Asian-American.