Author: Mark Alexander

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The Victors Write The History

N.C. School Board Adopts Bonkers New Anti-Critical Race Theory Curriculum Standards After Funding Threatened

Evan Brechtel

Oct. 09, 2021

Republicans remain hysterical over the alleged teaching of critical race theory, which posits that current racial inequalities often presented as happenstance are inextricably linked to centuries of overt racist violence and subjugation—is the subject of the Republican party’s latest moral panic.

The theory is rarely, if ever, taught outside of college classes and the very Republican legislators who oppose it are often unable to actually define what it means.

Nevertheless, Republican legislatures across a number of states are weighing or have already imposed restrictions on unvarnished teachings of America’s racist history.

In states like Tennessee, school districts could be penalized with millions in fines for lessons that violate these restrictions. At the federal and state level, Republicans have supported the adoption of strictly “patriotic” teachings of history, glossing over the moral complexities and even atrocities of America’s founders to present them as inherently exceptional instead.

In the final year of his presidency, Donald Trump established the 1776 commission to explore new ways of integrating so-called “patriotic education” to combat more unflinching records of America’s past.

Similar efforts are now underway in communities across the nation, including in Johnston County, North Carolina, where the school board was recently forced to adopt new rules forbidding lessons acknowledging that racism is ongoing in the United States. What’s more, any historical figures who contributed to American society must be presented as “reformists, innovators and heroes.”

The decision came after the county’s Board of Commissioners withheld millions in funding from education funding until assurances were made that no lessons on critical race theory or “potentially divisive” topics would be delivered.

Watch below.

Raleigh’s CBS 17 News spoke to one teacher, April Lee, about the changes.

She said:

“I just have a really hard time figuring out how to do that with characters in U.S. history like Andrew Jackson and McCarthy and several other people who made some really bad decisions along the way. I think it ties our hands, at least for some teachers who won’t feel comfortable because they feel like they’re being called into question.”

Others agreed that the new rules—and the Board of Supervisors’ withholding of funding—had gone too far.

People could only imagine the alternative history the far-right would teach.

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Glitch in the Matrix

I spotted this at work when I got back from lunch on Thursday. I couldn’t make out exactly what it was, but from the distance it sort of looked like someone wearing sunglasses and a suit and tie looking out the window. I took a photo in hopes of blowing it up and putting the question to rest, but alas, that didn’t provide an answer. It was gone completely when I left work, so whatever it was moved or had been moved—as was the sheet draped over the window.

I’m going to write it off as a glitch in the Matrix.

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Quote of the Day

I have become more radical in the last 5 years than in all my days at college, law school, and 41 years of practicing law. They say one gets more conservative as they grow older, and I say, not if you’re paying attention. ~ Sandra Blue

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Believe It Or Not…

Believe it or not, I once dated a porn star. Okay…a “male adult model.” He wasn’t a top-tier or well-known by any means. He didn’t do any films (that I know of), and only appeared in one issue of Advocate Men, but from the moment I first saw him on the cover of that magazine in June 1986, I knew our paths would eventually cross—even though at the time I had no idea where or when that might happen. The bio in the magazine said “Justin Banks” was a landscape architect who lived in San Francisco. I was still living in Tucson, and while the cogs were definitely in motion for my eventual relation to SF, nothing was yet firmly in place.

Of course all that changed in the blink of an eye and I found myself a resident of The City two months later…and not six weeks after that “Justin” and I passed on the street as he and some friends were leaving the Midnight Sun. Our eyes locked. I smiled. He smiled back. I stopped and glanced back over my shoulder, but he kept walking down the street with his buddies. And that was the end of it.

Or so I thought.

The following February a friend and I were at a toy store in Corta Madera called The Imaginarium, where we spotted “Justin” working behind the counter. So much for being a landscape architect…

His eyes lit up when he saw me and immeidately came over. He definitely remembered our two-ships-passing moment, telling me that after he’d dropped his friends at their car that night he came back to try and find me, but I’d already disappeared into the night. He introduced himself with his real name (Michael Rose) and gave me his phone number. “Call me.”

The rest is now ancient history, but we ended up dating for a few months. And all I can say about that is Michael taught me a valuable life lesson: NEVER date porn stars—excuse me, “male adult models”—not even the B-Listers.

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