
Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, available exclusively at VDARE.com
You’re probably familiar with the idea that Anti-Racism is a religion. Perhaps you’ve read black scholar John McWhorter’s recent book making the argument. Published last October, it is helpfully titled: Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America.
Personally, I don’t believe that anti-racism is a full-function, properly-structured religion. I can’t take it that seriously. I do agree, though, that it appeals to some of the same modules in human brains that religions appeal to.
To the degree that anti-racism is a religion, it’s a primitive religion, like the magical cults of head-hunters in the New Guinea highlands. Without having any worked-out theology, it has some of the features those cults have: very strict language taboos, for instance. Here’s an example from my local newspaper the other day.
The story here concerns Emily Mais, a young white woman who was until recently Assistant Principal at Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, a government school in Charlottesville, VA [ Why I’m suing my former employer, a school district, over critical race theory, by Emily Mais, NY Post, May 1, 2022]
There are people telling me to my face that CRT isn’t in schools, and yet I already had firsthand knowledge of this: https://t.co/wmcuPLxOW4
— Scot (@TheyLive_MD) May 2, 2022
I looked that school up on GreatSchools.org. It’s not doing very well: “Test scores at this school fall far below the state average.”. Students from low-income families: 56 percent. Student demographics: 37 percent white, 24 percent black, 23 percent Hispanic, 16 percent other.
Well, Ms. Mais was Assistant Principal there when the school re-opened after the worst of the COVID pandemic. Just at that time, the school decided to start mandatory teacher training based on critical race theory.
Their textbook was Courageous Conversations About Race by seasoned black anti-white hustler Glenn Singleton, below, who has been milking the corporate diversity- training cow for many years. [Clip: Moo-oo …] Er, you’ll be needing another bucket there, Glenn.
The content of the training didn’t sit well with Ms. Mais.
Quote from her:
I believe every person is made in the image of God and entitled to equal treatment and respect.
From the point of view of the “anti-racism” ideologues, that makes Ms Mais a naive, fragile white person trapped in the fantasy of so-called “color-blindness.” Correct your thinking, Comrade!
Instead of correcting her thinking, Ms. Mais decided to take her cue from the title of Glenn Singleton’s book and have some Courageous Conversations with her colleagues and her supervisors in the school district.
I hate to say it of such an obviously nice and well-intentioned lady, but Ms Mais is naive. Anyone who’s paid attention should know by now that, in the context of “anti-racist” training, “courageous” describes the quality that white people exhibit when they grovel before the class and confess their deep shame for being white, while “conversations” are what take place when an anti-racist instructor imparts the dogmas of the cult to an eagerly receptive white audience sitting listening in respectful silence.
Not knowing that, Ms Mais spoke up frankly about her misgivings:
But my concerns were ignored. And then, an honest mistake — a slip of the tongue — revealed just how hostile and unforgiving the culture had become as a result of this harmful content.
Oh dear, that must have been one heck of a slip of the tongue. What was it: the N-Word? Something about watermelons or nappy hair? Perhaps something that might have been construed to mean that Emmett Till got what was coming to him?
No, nothing so obviously…what’s the adjective?…yes, hurtful. Nothing so bad. I’ll let Ms. Mais tell you what made the sky fall on her:
In one training session, the group discussed the district’s race-related hiring practices. I commented on the topic, intending to use the phrase “people of color,” but as I was talking, I said “colored” instead. I immediately apologized, but one staff member would not accept the apology and berated me in front of the group.
Rather than accept it for what it was — a genuine slip of the tongue — the district treated me like a racist in need of further “anti-racism” instruction. District officials called me into meetings and demanded that I further address a situation for which I continued to apologize — yet my repeated apologies were never good enough.
They allowed some staff members to continue harassing me by calling me names — including “white racist bitch” and “two-faced racist bitch” — spreading rumors about me and even standing outside my office to intimidate me and anyone who came to talk with me. I reported this to my superiors, but the district ignored me and let the harassment continue.
The work environment became so hostile I had no choice but to leave a job I had excelled at and loved.
Ms Mais sought help from the Alliance Defending Freedom. In mid-April ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit on her behalf in the Albemarle County Circuit Court [ VA assistant principal harassed, forced out of her job after questioning harmful race-based teacher training , ADF, April 18, 2022].
What caught my attention in Ms Mais’s story: the astonishing pettiness of the triggering offense. She said “colored” when the approved expression is “people of color.” The word “colored” is apparently taboo—very taboo.
As I started by saying, we are in the world here of jungle cults, of shamans and voodoo, of words having magical power, of the world before civilization.
I wish Ms. Mais and the ADF all the luck in the world with their lawsuit against the school district.
I just hope it doesn’t come up before a col … sorry! sorry! I mean, before a judge of color.
John Derbyshire [email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.
So … in preparation for the Easter egg ritual … in order to get the pastel eggs — do you dip them into colored water — or into ‘water of color’?
“Colored,” eh?
Imagine if she had said “spook,” “darkie,” “coon,” “pickaninny,” “blackie,” “skillet,” “spade,” or “Negro”… why, they might have lynched her.
At least she has the guts to fight back…..most whites don’t.
She should have employed the Spanish. Colorado.
May I suggest “blackimal”?
I also like, for more genteel occasions: “Sidewalk simians.”
“Now, Jonny, tell us how many apples of red color do you have?” Asked the second grade teacher.
“I have three red-colored apples, Ms. Napkin!” Answered Jonny, confidently.
Ms. Napkin replied “Correct, Jonny. Colored is the plural. You are learning English grammar like a duck takes to water. Now let’s have a break and snack on those apples with some raw cashews. When I was a little girl we used to call them Honkey toes.”
The class rebels “Ahhh, Ms. Napkin, we are tired of Honkey toes!! Can we have some Brazil nuts instead?”
People of Choler.
I’m not optimistic about her chances in Albemalrle County–that’s the county that sentenced James Fields to something like 485 years for seeking to escape from a mob and having the misfortune to be next to an obese woman who died from a heart attack.
These are all demeaning ad hominem attacks devised by Jews to deal with white opposition to critical race theory. Jewish radicals never deal with white opposition to their genocidal plans in good faith and this is but one example.
And clueless Republicans tell us all the time that non-whites are against this but Ms. Mais’s experience dealing with harassment from non-white teachers after her slip proves that theory wrong.
Someone better explain to the NAACP that they are self-hating African-American racists, since they still use the dread “C” word in their organization’s name, have for over a century. I seem to recall that at one point there was an effort to change the verboten term to “Concerned” but it didn’t fly.
In a related matter, the American Indian Movement proudly employs that white racist term for their people, eschewing the use of “native American” that is popular among their would-be white apologists. And it was particularly hilarious when some years ago, while Bobby Kennedy was tearing the Mafia a new one, an organization was formed calling itself the Italian-American Anti-Discrimination Association. With all those extra syllables, of course it failed, even with Ole Blue Eyes himself as its front man.
Nevertheless, divide-and-conquer remains the most effective tool of tyranny, whether deployed by black idiots or white fools, so have at it.
Oh, they’ll figure something out for the “C” in NAACP, Observator. They will also change all the on-line information to reflect that the “C” had never stood for “Colored” People.
NOTAMS has been the abbreviation for NOtices To AirMen since the early days of flying. I thought that would get by without notice (pun not originally intended, but I LIKE it). Nope! Now it is NOtices To Air Missions.
Yes, that sounds idiotic. Half of the air traffic controllers, when recording the ATIS, say it one way, and half say it the other, sometimes the same guy!
Good comment, I meant to say too. I saw a guy with a cap with “FBI” written on it out west some years ago. He didn’t look like any kind of FBI guy. “What’s the cap for?”, I asked. “Full Blooded Indian”, he said and smiled.
why is it always chartlotscille? what the heck is going on there? is this a CIA social experiment target city?
do blacks get fired if the refer to causcasians as ‘white people’? because according to this school- THEY SHOULD!!!
Inflation, right? William Zanzinger only got six months for the blow from a cane that triggered poor Hattie Carroll’s myocardial infarction the next day.
Fund the problem in that Ms. Mais mentioned God.
That is a taboo subject now.
My mom used to have a CIA cap, “Culinary Institute of America”, of course.
There are some good hiking mountains not too far from Charlottesville called Peaks of Otter. I assume they were once called Otter Peaks until they got too many complaints from Mustelid-Americans.
Racial taxonomy goes in and out of fashion with breathtaking speed these days. Microsoft News, which, to its credit, is one of the few news aggregators to allow public comments, was very squeamish about all comments that referenced people as black or white but I found they were delighted if used the ( then) more progressive acronym BIPOC. I was speaking their lingo and I could throw in a bipoc whenever I wanted to. Not anymore. MSN is now concerned that BIPOC has become a new slur.
Only 485 years? Surely you jest. They would never let a white man off with such a light sentence.
Fields got life plus 419 years…
And in South Africa, the term “coloured” (note the different spelling) is used to design people of mixed races. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloureds
Or, in Italian-American neighborhoods, tizzone.
Triggered!
Two crucial points. (1) Charlottesville Virginia was one of the places that closed the public schools following Brown v Bd of Ed instead of integrating schools. Charlottesville was a strong supporter of massive resistance. Ultimately political pressure made Charlottesville reopen its schools (University of Virginia is there). The political stink was so great that the school district had to abandon its old high school, called Lane High School which now serves as the Albemarle County office building, and build a new high school Charlottesville High School. The black kids did not want to be forced to attend school in a formerly segregated school building.
(2) The physical design of the Charlottesville high school is ingenious because it lets you run “schools within schools”. Each wing can be a separate school, and you can layer on new wings if space is too tight. Other schools in what at times were racially polarized use a similar design–an example is Thornwood High School in South Holland Illinois. The key to the Charlottesville design was that the district for years “re-segregated” the school within the high school by using variations on ability grouping. The smart white kids would not have a single class (other than gym) with any black kids and would not even see them during the school day because they would be in different parts of the building. The school strategically avoided the words “ability grouping” but it used other things like “taxonomic sequencing”, foreign language classes, and membership in the orchestra to create a white smart kid track.
The move to CRT in Charlottesville schools is driven by UVA faculty. Charlottesville is an odd place. George Allen, recall the maraca Republican, was the one time Congressman from there. The city itself is somewhat to the left of Karl Marx.
People are getting pretty touchy at the laundromat now. All I wanted to know is if this certain detergent was OK to use for Whites and coloreds. You’d think I’d told that black lady that we should be going to separate churches based on skin color or something! Should I have used the phrasing “clothing of color”?
OK, that was a joke, because most people are so much more relaxed than the people that push the terms and get triggered. The next story is true.
The term “beaner” has been used for Mexicans, because they DO tend to eat a lot of beans. At this time, 10 years back, we were eating a lot of beans ourselves at home (you don’t absolutely have to install an attic fan, but it helps), due to being near-vegetarians. I was at the grocery store and was thinking about getting some type of beans we hadn’t tried. There was a Hispanic lady in that bean aisle. Who better to ask, right?
I said “hey, you’d know about these beans, right? Can you tell me if they are good?” She not only affirmed that they were OK but started giving me recipes!
Yes, indeed, religious fanatics worshiping under the dome of the Negro Delusion Bubble.
You are not allowed to say “colored people” by the people who say “people of color”.
John, you failed to mention the good news about Roe v.Wade, namely that it has done all it needed to do which was, surely, to make sure that even very dim women could get abortions as readily as the smarter ones. Now there will be flourishing low cost travel plus abortion businesses which, admittedly depend on different states having different laws. Perhaps Bill Gates will back the charities who identify the poor dim women in need of help.
As for Ukraine I have two things to say. It is not comparable to The Netherlands which is perfectly reasonable (I haven’t a clue about Gambia). The Russians tried to foist their word for borderland on to the name of a country (as it had been and became again) which used the same word or sound to mean Land (Cf. Sri Lanka).
The more important is to ask you to turn your mind to the parallel morality of a strong man and his big sons answering a call from cousins in a dangerous neighbourhood to go and help them protect poor neighbours from bullying thugs and rapists. True the USA is crumbling (its infrastructure literally despite loans from Chinese and other savers) but for the moment it looks as though it can defeat Putin’s kleptocracy before China becomes too powerful. So… why not?
I’m glad the bitch got fired. Fuck that racist ho! She knew what she was doing when she used the word and then engaged in racism by gaslighting her victims and trying to play the innocent white woman card like all privileged white women do. Amber Heard is playing that card in court right now! That bitch Mais should be publicly stripped of all her professional credentials and spend a fortnight in the stocks.
Can you say “People of Nig”?
Asking for a friend.
Just imagine if she had used the word “niggardly ” in a sentence
Why do we have this sort of nonsense, with a woman getting fired for saying “colored” rather than “of color”?
We wouldn’t have this nonsense if white people did not let themselves be cowed by black tantrums.
Imagine how much fun it is for blacks to make ridiculous demands and to tell whites what words they’re allowed to say and what ideas they’re allowed to express, without much pushback from whites.
Good for Emily Mais for fighting back.
Derbyshire’s “The Talk: Nonblack Version” was nothing but good sense on this topic.
https://www.takimag.com/article/the_talk_nonblack_version_john_derbyshire/
Why not?
Perhaps because it may lead to nuclear war and Central Europe may become a target?
I understand that Krushchev solved a similar problem (Nato at his backyard) a lot more elegant than Putin, leaving the backyard neighbours out of this and concentrating on the United States …
Yes Kruschev only had to have missiles withdrawn from Turkey without even having to mention it to the Soviet masses. Unfortunately it seems probable that Putin needs something to boast about.
These same whites gentiles who are having their culture and way of life eviscerated right before their eyes in their own land are fired up to defend with blood and treasure a land run by Jews in Kiev and Foggy Bottom which has become totalitarian and genocidal toward its own citizens in the east.
So I’ve lost any real concern for their (MAGAmericans’) fate.
If she were Mexican, she would have used a really derogatory term for black people –llantas (tires). Actually, too much has been made of the term “people of color.” I just say black people, white people, Latino people, and if I actually know their nationality I say Chinese. I never got why the woke demand that I use the word Asian. The term colored is something that my grandmother would say. It’s not evil in itself (as the woke would have you believe), but it comes to me as naturally as the term “people of color” –cough, cough.
This happened in Charlottesville, Va.
Does anyone still doubt that Charlottesville’s prosecution of James Alex Fields, Jr., for the 2017 death of Heather Heyer, for which Fields is now serving life imprisonment, was a furious, outrageous, merciless miscarriage of justice? Is there any sense in which Charlottesville merits the benefit of the doubt?
Not sympathetic to school administrators. They are so harsh with others – they deserve the same.
If they want to play the Tribe Game, know your tribe, your lands, and culture.
Education is culturally biased. Of course it is. Do you see anthing better?
A return to segregation would be a good idea…
Did you lift this joke from We Were Soldiers, the film adapted from the book, We Were Soldiers Once and Young?
https://vdare.com/radio-derb/cause-for-unease-scotus-leaks-courageous-conversations-and-outwitting-affirmative-action-etc
https://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/RadioDerb/2022-05-06.html
Blacks should be nowhere around White children. Nor should they be in the school system selling books.
That’s it, Hibernian! I knew I’d heard that somewhere, not even for sure if it was a movie or what. Yes, there was a sign on the window of the laundromat, I think?
There was a social circle of Officer’s wives. There was one Black woman. A clueless White woman denounced the evils of segregation. A really clueless White woman thought she was talking about laundromat regulations on which clothes to wash together. Then the Black woman went ballistic.
You mean if she had used it innocently or as an ‘off color’ joke?
He was punished far more harshly by being included in (((Zimmerman)))’s shitty song about the (non) incident, don’t you think?
More of a comment about a propensity to claim victimhood at any opportunity
One of the most frustrating aspects of the current culture wars, is the constantly changing “acceptable lexicon” for the blessed-oppressed.
Black-Colored-Negro-People of Color-POC’s-African American-Minorities-Urban-Folks-Teens-Youths…
Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, re-branding to KFC, because “fried” became a negative, the rest of us are supposed to just forget the approved, and often, required and enforced words of yesteryear? I guess the NAACP was just a Klan front, all along.
“Change your vocabulary!” screams the oppressed minority, and we are all just supposed to go along with it, lest we face the ire of a generation that wasn’t born when “colored” was the word of choice.
And another example “Oriental”, which was perfectly appropriate for the people of the Orient. Asia is an enormous landmass, and to consider everyone on it “Asians” is absurd.
Yet, oddly, “white” was, is, and will always be right. We didn’t insist on being re-branded, because we actually know that verbiage doesn’t change a thing. I don’t need, or want, anyone calling me a “European American”, or a “WASP” or “WhiteX” for that matter (enjoy it Latinos, the Woke world rebranded you, so you won’t have to bother).
Requiring rebranding, or demanding that your race, group, or tribe, “be called something else” is just another huge sign of weakness. If you had any culture, or pride, you’d want the labels of the past to stay with you forever, like Anglo, or Saxon, or White, or Aryan. Needing to change your word is the moral equivalent of demanding a new pronoun, or changing your facebook picture to reflect “the current thing”, it’s just weak sauce, and a huge tell, that you and your culture have nothing on the inside, and instead, need to try to rebrand, so people forget that your food is fried, even though it still is, irrespective of the word being in your name or not.
When you get to the next “thing”, or maybe become an acronym like the LGBTQ+ freaks, i.e. BIPOC, I’ll still be White, and I still won’t care what you want to be “called”.
When you have an excellent history, and superior brand recognition, you stick with it. You NEVER change it.
Almost surely. I’m not trying to downplay the poor alcohol fueled behavior of Zanzinger. But it did reduce my opinion of Dylan when I found out the facts of this case, which he twisted to make it seem as though a major miscarriage of justice had occurred. It makes me wonder whether he similarly whitewashed the story of the Hurricane to make Ruben Carter seem innocent.
Carter was in all probability guilty. Song and movie notwithstanding.