Editor’s note: Jarrett Stepman’s commentary on a Black Lives Matter curriculum infiltrating public schools struck a chord with The Daily Signal’s audience. Here’s a sampling of the response. Remember to write us at letters@dailysignal.com.—Ken McIntyre
Dear Daily Signal: I am concerned that the doctrine of Black Lives Matter in schools, described by Jarrett Stepman in his commentary, actually will pour gas on the flames of racism and add fuel to a more racist approach to education (“Activists Outline Plan to Push Agenda of Black Lives Matter in Classroom”).
I was raised in the North. My family proudly served in the Union Army and were involved in the Underground Railroad creating a path for former slaves to find freedom, education, and a sense of community. The notion that Lincoln was a wicked man befuddles me.
Too many Union soldiers died to eliminate slavery in this country, and Black Lives Matters acts like they didn’t exist. I don’t support racism, no matter if it was in this country’s past or a condition that Black Lives Matters seems to need to promote now.
Rather than illuminate how past mistakes took a toll on communities and our humanity as a nation, this “movement” would have us erase history rather than use it as examples of poor decisions and inhumane behavior so it doesn’t rear its ugly head again in this country.
I am also concerned that a group of individuals that supposedly represents 13% of the U.S. population would rather dictate new “realities” and take over education, community dynamics, and community security.
There seems to be an overwhelming need for groups such as Black Lives Matter to destroy rather than build, and to hide history that could serve as an educational opportunity and build better communities. Wannabe tyrants don’t improve communities, they destroy them.—Bruce Mommaerts, Wisconsin
Dear Daily Signal: This paragraph in Jarrett Stepman’s article should be in 24-point bold type:
According to this ideology, unequal outcomes for different racial groups can be explained only by racism; any other explanation at all is, well, racist.
This one sentence defines and sums up the entire meaning of this Black Lives Matter movement and various terms like “institutional racism.”
I think many Americans are struggling with what the hell all this jargon and discussion actually means. Keep shining the light, Jarrett. Great article.—Gary Radford, Fayetteville, N.Y.
Dear Daily Signal: Wow! Jarrett Stepman’s article really outlines the future not only of education but society if Black Lives Matter is successful in getting into the national education system.
Not only will Black Lives Matter destroy the entire system, but in doing so it will foment racism to such a high degree that the possibility of a race war will become possible. This destroys lives, socially, economically, and psychologically as well as literally.
I am an old man, 75, and I doubt that I will be around when this catastrophe occurs, but this movement portends extreme danger for my sons and their families. I only can offer up the solution of what President Trump started during his four years, and that is to return control of our government back to a conservative base at all levels.
We know for certain that many black Americans, as well as Hispanics, switched from Democrat to Republican. Removing politicians on both sides who have been in office for decades and replacing them with young, conservative thinkers will go a long way to countering the Black Lives Matter movement.—James Constantine, Elk Rapids, Mich.
Dear Daily Signal: The Black Lives Matter curriculum in school seem to me to promote more racism and to antagonize whites.
I am 92 years old, and over my lifetime I have witnessed the dramatic decrease of racism since Martin Luther King Jr.’s marches in the 1960s. That is, until George Floyd’s death.
The money that has flowed into the coffers of the Black Lives Matter movement just tells me there is a more sinister movement behind it, like getting rid of our Constitution and coming under the rule of the United Nations or some other world organization.—Sidney Kirk, Washington
Dear Daily Signal: Good article by Jarrett Stepman, which I wish all in our country would read. The Black Lives Matter agenda is frightening, but more frightening is that so many uninformed people are falling right in.
Black Lives Matter has received an unbelievable amount of money, yet no one really knows who gets the money. I have not read anything about the organization’s positive accomplishments helping its own. It is just hate, hate, destroy.
My prayers go out for our country. It is very sad, but God is still in charge of all, and in the end he will not be mocked.—Gerry Burgess
Dear Daily Signal: Our population’s melting pot contains about 87% citizens who are not black, but you never hear much about them; the 87% keep to themselves, for obvious reasons. Avoiding being called “racist” is a prime reason.
Another solid reason is because the overwhelming majority of us have acclimated to our melting-pot society, and that includes a strong percentage of black citizens. That just leaves a very small portion of our citizens who perpetually represent the problem.
There is a discipline style called “tough love” that has worked successfully for decades with problem citizens and offspring. Some of that would likely work on many of these professional “victims” who have witnessed the passage of several generations of the Great Society scam that was pulled on black families since President Lyndon Johnson promoted it.
Unstable black families and fatherless homes is the primary result, with high numbers jobless or in jail. Black Lives Matter will never fix anything. It’s simply a cover for a politically undesirable mob of misfits that have no real place in our already-diversified culture in America.
How many more years of Johnson’s failed experiment must we endure, as if it is getting results? We need a much better program than Johnson’s if the black family wants to escape that Great Society prison they’ve occupied for more than 50 years.
The insanity must end for them to assimilate into our society, as the melting pot has done within a single generation in most cases.—Terry Dwyer, New York
Dear Daily Signal: Your article about Black Lives Matter propaganda increasing in our schools is more evidence of the intentions of those pushing their leftist narrative, i.e., the continuing “fundamental transformation” of the country.
We would do well to look to history for other examples of this phenomenon. A renowned critic and opponent of totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt, famously noted: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
The New York Times’ excremental 1619 Project, especially when combined with the outrageous lies foisted upon millions of young people by Howard Zinn in his infamous textbook “A People’s History of the United States,” provides an outstanding contemporary example of the phenomenon now infecting our schools, media, culture, and government.
Put simply; Facts, evidence, and truth no longer matter. Everything is done in the name of and for the benefit of the “cause” of the neo-Jacobins in our society. As history clearly shows, this never ends well, and there’s no reason to believe it will here either.—Charles Cole, Sheridan, Wyo.
Concern for America’s Future
Dear Daily Signal: I was glad to read Ben Shapiro’s commentary on “The Inequality of ‘Equity,’” yet troubled that there is a need for it.
I was raised to believe that “all men are created equal.” That does not and never has meant that where we each exist in time will be equal.
Some individuals have and use more talent, enterprise, sweat, or plain luck and gain more, often an incredible amount more. That is liberty (freedom to choose, earn, and save) and equality (we can all choose, earn, and save).
No one has a right to tax those I have just mentioned to provide equity to anyone at all, unless it is in the current tax code. Social policies may be made more equal, depriving those who are currently favored, such as creditworthy individuals, and giving equal access to the nonfavored, more capital to less creditworthy individuals, or limited capital at a lower rate of interest.
That would in some minds be equitable at first glance, but it fails to be equitable if we look at the rate of return for the investor who took the risk and lent the capital. Higher risk with lower reward is a socialistic philosophy and is inherently anti-capitalistic.
Beware the march toward anti-racism if it cripples capitalism. We are a Christian nation, but also a capitalist nation. This is fundamentally why our Founders separated church and state.
Stop racist systems absolutely, but do not steal from others and call it equity. One has to stop himself and ask why when he sees his fingers in someone else’s pockets.—Marc Cartier
Dear Daily Signal: Each morning I grow more weary of the trajectory of my home, the USA. I read idiocy such as the assertion that right answers in math are racist.
I believe the majority of Americans see it for what it is. But how to resist, to fight against the winds of destruction battering our families and lives each day?
I have one idea, but I have no idea how to put it out to mass consumption. It will be a quiet roar. Quiet in the sense that our silence would be our noise.
I imagine a 24-hour period where we do, well, nothing. We go to our jobs, but as much as we personally can, we do not shop. We pay our bills the day before or after, but not that day.
We leave media and social media alone. For entertainment, we read or talk to our families. We turn our back on those who wish to control our lives and thoughts. No signs. No shouts.
Just a break from the drumbeat that batters us each day. What do you think, Daily Signal?—Rebekah Adams, Pacoima, Calif.
Dear Daily Signal: As a 35-year teacher of American history in high school, I have stood appalled by the woke doctrine of The New York Times’ 1619 Project and wholeheartedly endorse Rep. Ted Budd’s battle for the 1776 Commission’s philosophy (“The Right to Pass Down America’s Founding Values Is Worth Fighting For”).
I find it amazingly ironic that almost in the same breath that President Joe Biden talked of the need to unite our nation and then, with the stroke of his authoritarian pen, struck down President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission project.
Can anyone doubt the impact of teaching our youngest students that their nation is unalterably flawed? I believe we are already seeing that impact in the streets of our nation today.
We must return to a belief in the truly historic principles of our founding documents and the founders’ work, or we will be lost as a nation and descend into chaos.—Ed Davis
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Victor Davis Hanson is correct in his commentary: Political correctness is killing us (“The World Goes on While America Sleeps”). Somehow there has to be a concerted effort to reclaim free speech.
I think it starts with conservative and free-minded individuals in Congress standing up for the truth and free speech. It’s going to be very difficult to do with close-minded liberals running the White House and Congress.
Where are all the lawsuits against the Biden presidency? We were a country of laws so that no one person could control us. I think the administrative state is defending itself.—Barry J. Rava
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I am afraid of the stupid way government is trashing all of America. Men and women have made huge sacrifices to make America the great country we once were.
In little over a month, our country took a nosedive into quicksand. The left is on a self-destruct-path, taking all of us with them.—Sandra Baughman, Dayton, Tenn.
And Another Thing
Dear Daily Signal: I don’t blame the racists behind this pathetic political mobilization activity camouflaged as education (“North Carolina College Hosts ‘White Caucus’ for Students to Talk About ‘Guilty,’ ‘Fragility’”).
I blame the easily manipulated students who would be so naive, uninformed and listless as to attend such a “white caucus.” Why would anyone attend such a worthless institution?
Imagine being guilty about something you had no control over. That is called mental illness.—Clifford Mylett, Austin, Texas
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The woke generation has rewritten the history of our great nation. They are using today’s standards to judge people’s actions more than 200 years ago.
I don’t condone slavery. But it’s still going on in Africa and other countries around the world. China and North Korean have state-sponsored slavery.
If this woke generation looked at the good our great nation has done, they would thank our Heavenly Father for being born in the USA.
As for renaming schools and other things that were named for our nation’s heroes, put the choice on a ballot. Otherwise, give the school board the bill for changing the names. It’s so easy to spend someone else’s money.—Joseph R. Oliver Jr.
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Just read Neil Banerji’s article on Ronald Reagan and his beliefs (“Remembering the Gipper: Why the Memory of Ronald Reagan Is Still Relevant to Young People Today”). Compared to the woke culture today pushed by progressive liberals, it was an eye-opener, especially the point about how one learns values no manner your station in life.
No one is “smarter or better” than another merely because his income level is higher, and no one is entitled to anything because of his economic circumstances.
I don’t see any woke progressives with their socialist attitudes agreeing with this article. Obviously, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks Reagan’s thinking is totally against her beliefs.—Maria Rose Randazzo
