Daily Archives: October 3, 2023

A strategic plan produced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) reveals how the branch intends to force neo-Marxism onto its members over the next three fiscal years.

Titled USACE Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility (DEIA) Strategic Plan, the 27-page document obtained by The Federalist outlines how USACE plans to inject DEIA into the branch over the next three years (2023-2026). According to Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, USACEs commanding general, the plan was crafted to comply with Executive Order 14035, a directive issued by President Joe Biden in June 2021 mandating federal agencies adopt DEI throughout their respective workforces.

For context, DEIA, or DEI, is a divisive ideology that dismisses merit and discriminates based on features such as skin color and sexual orientation. Individuals who qualify for a certain position due to their merits but dont meet the discriminating entitys goal of being more diverse are passed over in favor of those who meet institutionally preferred identitarian standards.

One of my top priorities is ensuring that USACE serves as a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect, Spellmon wrote in the plans opening pages. Integrating DEIA into our daily activities allows USACE to retain its focus on our greatest asset THE PEOPLE.

The strategic plan provides insight into how USACE intends to implement these concepts throughout its ranks over the next several years. Without offering specifics, the branch claims under a section labeled DEIA Governance that it will build and sustain a so-called diverse and talented workforce beginning with USACEs leadership and cascading down to all levels across the enterprise. The branch also aims to cultivate and nurture an allegedly inclusive culture, according to the plan.

The 27-page document also includes a DEIA Maturity Model, which USACE will use to map its DEIA actions and determine the most effective standards of measurement and performance indicators to use in gauging the branchs progress in advancing DEIA. In order to acquire the right data to achieve this goal, USACE lists a series of questions it aims to answer over the next three years to advance DEIA throughout the service. Among the listed questions are Does equity apply the same for all groups across the board? If not, why might that be? and Does everyone feel included and a sense of belonging?

Also enclosed in the plan are a series of DEIA Goals and Objectives guiding USACEs three-year mission. In a subsection titled USACE Workforce, the branch lists as a goal its desire to identify so-called underrepresented groups and collaborate with agency offices to develop staffing plans to ensure diversity is addressed in their staffing plans.

A higher proportion of female, racial, and ethnic minorities in leadership positions has a significant influence on the opportunities available to diverse talent, which has implications for the talent pipeline, the plan reads. DEIA efforts partially because there are fewer role models and mentors to encourage younger generations of women and minority talent to pursue employment opportunities with their organizations, especially leadership positions.

Another subsection, titled Expansion of Equity, takes USACEs adoption of neo-Marxist ideology a step further. In an apparent effort to mitigate barriers for so-called underserved populations, the branch says it is expanding its definition of underserved beyond characteristics such as race and sex to include identifiers like sexual orientation and whether an individual identifies as transgender or any other gender identities covered by the LGBT alphabet.

The USACE strategic plan is hardly the only example showcasing Marxisms infiltration into the U.S. military. In the lead up to and during June, the Pentagon went all out to host pride month activities on military installations across the country, with branches such as the Air Force authorizing the use of U.S. taxpayer money to fly service members to these rainbow parties.

In addition to promoting DEI-pushing officials to the highest ranks of the service, Biden has also sought to make abortion a major focal point of the militarys overall mission. Nearly a year ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized Pentagon funds to be used to pay for female service members travel expenses to kill their unborn child across state lines. To protest this illegal policy, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville began using his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year to slow-walk military personnel moves requiring Senate confirmation.

Despitepossessing the power to bring these nominations to the Senate floor for a confirmation vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has spent months attacking Tuberville and pushing baseless claims the Republican senators protest was placing American security in jeopardy. Schumer ultimately caved last week, bringing several of Bidens nominees to the floor for confirmation votes.

Meanwhile, Tuberville has indicated he will continue his protest until the Pentagon revokes its abortion policy.

USACEs public affairs office did not respond to The Federalists request at the time of publication.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

Read more here:

Army Corps of Engineers Plans To Force DEI Onto Its Members - The Federalist

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) brought in Dr. Anthony Fauci without a record of entry to influence the agencys analysis of the origins of Covid-19, according to new information obtained by House Republicans.

In a letter sent to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services by Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, on Tuesday, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed it has acquired information indicating that during his time as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci was escorted into [CIA] Headquarterswithout a record of entryand participated in the analysis of the respiratory virus origins in order to influence the Agencys review.

While Wenstrups letter doesnt specify exactly when this purported incident occurred, its no secret that Fauci played a significant role in the lefts coordinated efforts to dismiss the theory that Covid leaked from a Wuhan-based lab as a conspiracy theory. In June, for example, Wenstrups committee released communications from Dr. David Morens, the NIAID directors senior scientific adviser, suggesting that Fauci directed Morens to speak with legacy media in an apparent attempt to downplay the lab leak theory.

But today, to my total surprise, my boss Tony [Fauci] actually ASKED me to speak to the National Geographic on the record about origins, Morens wrote in a July 29, 2021, email. I interpret this to mean that our government is lightening up but that Tony doesnt want his fingerprints on origin stories.

Fauci also openly dismissed the lab leak theory during several media appearances. As Helen Raleigh noted in these pages, Fauci dismissedthe lab leak theory in April 2020 when asked about it during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing and again during a May 2020 interview with National Geographic. He also told ABC News George Stephanopoulos in October 2021 that it was molecularly impossible that gain-of-function research conducted at a Wuhan lab could have led to the outbreak of Covid.

Its worth mentioning that during his tenure as NIAID director, Fauci saw his department provideseveral grantsto EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit run by Peter Daszak that previously funneled funds into the Wuhan Institute of Virology for the bat-based coronaviruses research that is suspected of starting the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his Tuesday letter, Wenstrup requested the HHS inspector general provide the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic with all documents and communications regarding Faucis access to any CIA facilities and agency employees by Oct. 10. The Ohio congressman additionally asked that Special Agent Brett Rowland be made available for a voluntary transcribed interview with the committee.

The American people deserve the truthto know the origins of the virus and whether there was a concerted effort by public health authorities to suppress the lab leak theory for political or national security purposes, Wenstrup wrote.

Tuesdays revelations came two weeks after House Republicans released allegations from a CIA whistleblower claiming that the agency offered hush money to six CIA analysts who concluded that Covid-19 originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. According to this highly credible senior-level CIA officer, the agency brought in seven analysts to unearth the origins of Covid and six of these analysts believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low-confidence assessment that the virus came from a Wuhan-based laboratory.

As The Federalists Jordan Boyd reported, this prompted the CIA which was purportedly unhappy with the analysts conclusions to allegedly dangle[] financial incentives in front of the officers in an attempt to change their conclusion in favor of a zoonotic origin.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

Here is the original post:

CIA Recruited Fauci To 'Influence' Investigation Into Covid's Origins - The Federalist

Nearly 20 House Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues on Wednesday in killing a bill amendment that sought to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from funding Pentagon-sponsored pride month events.

Introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, the measure aimed to prohibit funds appropriated by the Houses defense bill for fiscal year 2024 from being used to carry out the observance of Pride Month authorized by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness for the Cultural Observances and Awareness Events List. Despite the GOP possessing a majority in the lower chamber, 18 Republicans, including House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., sided with Democrats in voting against the amendment (231-202).

While the Pentagons commemoration of pride month dates back to the Obama administration, the agency tasked with defending the U.S. homeland has made so-called LGBT issues a primary focus under President Joe Biden, along with facilitating abortions for female service members. Shortly after taking office, for instance, Biden signed a series of executive orders mandating federal departments adopt neo-Marxist policies such as DEI throughout their respective workforces.

For context, diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, is a divisive and poisonous ideology that dismisses merit and instead discriminates based on characteristics such as skin color and sexual orientation. Individuals who qualify for a certain position due to their merits but dont meet the discriminating entitys goal of being more diverse are passed over in favor of those who meet institutionally preferred identitarian standards.

In 2023 alone, the military under Bidens command has been caught employing an enlisted drag queen to recruit new sailors into the Navy, using U.S. taxpayer money to fly Air Force members to military pride events, and scheduling drag shows at military bases. Ahead of this years pride month, branches such as the Air Force authorized their bases to host celebrations commemorating this leftist-manufactured holiday. As The Federalist previously reported, several of these installations continued their plans to host the controversial events even after congressional backlash.

[RELATED: Heres How Americas Rainbow Military Commemorated This 4th Of July Weekend]

Im sure the Chinese military is quaking in its boots with the rainbow-tipped bullets being tweeted around the world, Roy quipped in a House floor speech. I have very few constituents who disagree with this sentiment: that we should be focused on having a military that is designed to, when called upon, to blow stuff up and kill people in defense of this country as needed, and to be the best fighting force to accomplish that objective in the world.

In addition to pushing DEI on the militarys rank-and-file members, Biden has promoted numerous officials parroting these same ideologies to some of the highest positions within the service. Among these officials is Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Bidens recently confirmed Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, who has previously espoused support for DEI and other racialist sentiments.

While participating in a virtual discussion hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2020, for example, Brownindicatedthat [a]t the higher level of the Air Force, diversity ha[d] moved to the forefront of personnel decisions such as promotions and hiring. During the same event, the Air Force general alsoadmittedto using his post to increase opportunities for so-called diverse candidates in the Air Force, saying he hire[d] for diversity when building his staff.

To read about other DEI-pushing Biden military nominees, see here, here, here, and here.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

See original here:

18 GOPers Help Dems Kill Measure Axing Pentagon 'Pride' Parties - The Federalist

United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres declared that Humanity has opened the gates of hell during his opening remarks at the Climate Ambition Summit in New York on Sept. 20. The event followed two days of meetings attended by global elites.

Scientists and experts have been making catastrophic climate predictions like these for decades often relying on flawed models endorsed by the U.N.s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which have been consistently proven wrong.

Horrendous heat is having horrendous effects. Distraught farmers watching crops carried away by floods, sweltering temperatures spawning disease, and thousands fleeing in fear as historic fires rage, the U.N. chief continued, pinning the blame on fossil fuels.

In another bizarre moment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky apparently figured now would be a good time to leave his war-torn country and embark on a trip halfway around the world to lecture Americans about reducing their carbon emissions.

Zelensky said that humanity is failing on its climate policy objectives, as he addressed the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly. This means that extreme weather will still impact the normal global life and some evil state will also weaponize its outcomes. He then claimed that islands and countries would soon disappear underwater.

President Joe Biden also took to the podium at the U.N. where he called for increased public and private sector investment in green-energy solutions to help climate-proof the world, adding that his administration has treated this crisis as an existential threat from the moment we took office not only for us but for all of humanity.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience in Pennsylvania that young people are experiencing something called climate anxiety. They are questioning whether it makes sense for you to even think about having children, whether it makes sense for you to think about aspiring to buy a home because what will this climate be?

What Harris didnt mention was that a study published earlier this year found that those who are the most worried about climate change tend to know the least about it. According to the findings, people who know more about the environment in general, and about climate in particular, are less anxious about climate change.

If Harris and others like her were actually concerned about so-called climate anxiety and its effects on a generation of young Americans, they would stop with the irresponsible rhetoric immediately. They would stop using fearmongering and alarmism as a means to gain even more political power for themselves.

They might even consider doing what of all people billionaire Bill Gates did recently: tell the truth. Theres a lot of climate exaggeration, Gates noted during an interview at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit last week. He went on to say, Climate is not the end of the planet. So, the planet is going to be fine.

Despite the barrage of apocalyptic messages and relentless lying from global elites, here are three quick facts you should know about the climate.

As smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed parts of the United States this summer, Biden wasted no time politicizing the issue. He told Americans, without offering a shred of evidence, that the fires were a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change. Even the IPCC has refused to positively link wildfires to climate change.

In a tweet that garnered more than 1.3 million views back in June, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the same claim. Year after year, with climate change, were seeing more and more intense wildfires, he said.

This is patently false. In reality, the data show that global wildfires are burning at their lowest rate in decades.

A recent New York Times headline quipped, DeSantis, Leading a State Menaced by Climate Change, Shrugs Off the Threat. The article attempts to paint Floridas Republican governor as a so-called climate denier. The authors wrote that scientists say that the hurricanes battering his state are being intensified by man-made global warming.

Tellingly, the authors didnt mention which scientists. Perhaps they didnt say because both the severity and frequency of landfall hurricanes in the U.S. are actually decreasing slightly, not increasing, according to more than a century of reliable data.

Death and destruction are always on the horizon for climate alarmists. Or so were told.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., famously predicted, Theworld is going to end in 12 years if we dont address climate change. Activist Greta Thunberg tweeted in 2018 that climate change will wipe out all of humanity within the next five years.

Perhaps the single most important fact to keep in mind when it comes to the doomsday climate cult is this one: Climate-related deaths are down 99 percent worldwide over the past 100 years thanks largely to fossil fuels, capitalism, and human innovation.

See more here:

3 Facts To Arm You Against The Biggest 'Climate Crisis' Lies - The Federalist

With the passing of longtime Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Friday, colleagues from across the political aisle have released a bevy of statements remembering the Golden States golden gal.

While President Joe Biden described Feinstein as a kind and loyal friend, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, characterized the California Democrat as a true public servant with whom he had a wonderful working relationship and will miss. Other Democrat and Republican senators such as Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Susan Collins, RMaine, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also offered their condolences and fond memories of Feinstein.

Its beautiful to see so many offer thoughts and prayers to Feinsteins relatives and friends during their time of grieving. Losing a loved one is a tragedy for any family to endure.

But is it too much to ask that legacy media stop treating Feinsteins political career as anything but a complete disaster? Sure, she had some nice moments, like dunking on smarmy little climate activists. But those flashes of fun pale in comparison to the ruin Feinstein left in her wake as Californias senior senator.

In the 30 years Feinstein served in the U.S. Senate, California has descended into a total dumpster fire, with the state bearing all the hallmarks of a third-world country.

Take a trip to California today, and youll find the only thing golden about the Golden State is the urine from homeless people littering the sidewalks (alongside their feces). Despite being the wealthiest state in the nation, California boasts the highest homeless rate among U.S. states, only to be outdone by the District of Columbia.

Crime has also become a major problem. A report released by Californias attorney generals office earlier this year, for example, found that from 2021-2022, violent crime and property crime in the state had jumped 6.1 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the states homicide rate skyrocketed 23.9 percent from 2017-2022, according to the Pacific Research Institute.

Despite regime-approved medias attempt to cast her as a centrist, Feinstein sported a far-left voting record while serving as a senator, voting in line with Bidens position 100 percent of the time. Her support for massive federal spending bills has undoubtedly played a role in increasing the U.S. national debt and spiking inflation, leading to more suffering among Californians and the American people writ large.

Of course, Feinstein isnt the only one to blame for Californias decay. Democrat Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, local leftist mayors, and California Democrat voters deserve just as much credit for furthering the states rapid decline.

Its completely understandable for Feinsteins colleagues to mourn her passing and they should. But for corporate press outlets to hype her legacy as a tremendous success is to demand Americans ignore the wasteland that California has become during her time in office. What was once a place people from across the country flocked to in order to chase their dreams has devolved into an anarchic state of ruin where residents cant get out fast enough.

Dianne Feinstein did leave behind a legacy. Its just not the kind the left believes it to be.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

View post:

The Legacy Dianne Feinstein Left California: Crap And Crime - The Federalist

The Univision co-host of the Fox News Republican presidential debate reinforced false leftist narratives Wednesday night when pressing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on his states K-12 curriculum.

Univisions Ilia Calderon implied DeSantis promoted educational standards that suggested slavery benefitted the victims. The question emanates from claims Vice President Kamala Harris fabricated this summer.

Floridas new Black History curriculum says slaves developed skills that in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit,' Calderon said, ignoring that the left-wing College Board has apparently made nearly identical statements. You have said, Slaves developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of it. But many are still hurt. For descendants of slaves, this is personal. What is your message to them?

The Florida governor attacked the question as a hoax engineered by the vice president to smear Republicans as racist.

First of all, thats a hoax that was perpetrated by Kamala Harris. We are not going to be doing that, DeSantis said. Second of all, that was written by descendants of slaves. These are great black history scholars, so we need to stop playing these games.

Heres the deal, DeSantis added, Our countrys education system is in decline because its focused on indoctrination, denying parents rights. Florida represents the revival of American education.

Vice President Harris helped ignite the conspiracy theory surrounding Floridas education standards in July when she landed in Jacksonville to denounce the new curriculum for middle schoolers.

They decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery, Harris said. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.

Dr. William Allen, the former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who helped design Floridas new curriculum, condemned the vice presidents remarks as categorically false on ABC News.

The only criticism Ive encountered so far [on the new curriculum] is a single one that was articulated by the vice president, and which was an error, said Allen, who is black. It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans.

Univision host Calderon went on to amplify another leftist narrative in the Fox News debate when she asked former Vice President Mike Pence about warnings from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for LGBT Americans.

The Department of Homeland Security warns violence against LGBT+ people is on the rise and intensifying, Calderon said, citing an unnamed study claiming that members of that community are nine times more likely to be victims of violent hate crimes.

As president, how would you protect this community from violent attacks and discrimination? Calderon asked.

The Federalists Eddie Scarry debunked the popular left-wing myth of an overwhelming surge in anti-LGBT crimes in his 2022 book, Liberal Misery, and even highlighted one such report from the DHS released in the final months of President Donald Trumps term.

But there was a problem with the report, Scarry wrote. There were precisely zero citations showing where the Department of Homeland Security had derived its conclusions no news articles or academic papers. Just an assurance by the acting secretary, who was particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists of late.

The agency posted another bulletin in November to garner headlines and apparently debate questions about a supposed outbreak of violence against LGBT Americans. But it cited just a few prominent episodes of anti-LGBT violence. One example DHS offered was the November shooting at a gay bar in Colorado Springs. The agency failed to mention the shooter identified as non-binary and used they/them pronouns.

See more here:

Univision Host Amplifies Florida Curriculum Hoax In Fox Debate - The Federalist

Is it really that weird that Laphonza Butler, California Governor Gavin Newsoms pick to replace Diane Feinstein in the Senate, lives in Maryland?

Now, incidentally, this isnt one of those instances where a politician is spending an inordinate amount of time in DC (before leaving office and becoming a lobbyist and making it official). Newsoms spokesperson confirms that Butler resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is registered to vote in that state. Were just skipping the part where we pretend senators represent states rather than political parties. So, thank you.

Most Democrats and plenty of Republicans couldnt give one whit about the integrity of the Senate an institution thats theoretically a bastion of prudence, wisdom, and tradition. It is also theoretically a counterweight to other branches. Today, a senate seat is just a place where partisans unilaterally ram through massive, centralized expansions of the state without any consensus. And when they cant, they cheer on executive abuse. Democrats are champions of the DC bureaucracies that lord over our decisions. Does it really matter what state you come from if your main objective is to nationalize all policy? You can say many things about Feinstein, a loyal leftist for decades, but she often showed respect for the norms of her institution. She will be one of the last on the left to do so.

Nor is there anything especially surprising about the role identity politics played in the pick. The California governor not only had an opportunity to choose the best person in his state but the best person in the entire world, apparently. What if that person had been an Asian-American man or a polyamorous LatinXer or, and stick with me here, a white person? Tens of millions of people were excluded because they did not have correct immutable characteristics. Newsom pledged to appoint a black woman, not the most accomplished and competent person (who might well have been a black woman.)

Why these privileged white men who dominate the Democratic Party never step aside to make room for more diversity is an enduring mystery.

At this point, any Democrat who doesnt treat skin color as at least partly determinative of a persons worth is going to be in trouble. And its not just moral preening over race. Butler, Newsom notes, will be the first lesbian Black woman to join Congress in US history. In most news pieces on the appointment, we learn who Butler prefers to sleep with before we hear any of her accomplishments.

Speaking of which

Butlers most significant real-world achievement isnt being a black lesbian from Maryland or even being an advisor to Kamala Harris failed presidential campaign, but rather heading up the national fundraising juggernaut for the pro-abortion Emilys list. Thats almost surely what attracted Newsom most to Butler favor trading. Emilys list has helped push the Democrats to an extremist position that backs zero limits on aborting viable pregnancies for any reason. But because the press and the left have successfully obscured their position, pro-abortion groups raise lots of cash. And, in the end, more than anything else more than race or sexual preference or California or the Senate or country Newsom cares about being president.

See the original post here:

Congrats! Gavin Newsom Picks The Perfect Democrat - The Federalist

Controversy over critical race theory (CRT) in Americas public schools has been a flashpoint in our nations culture wars since at least 2020. In Virginia, parents outcry against it determined the 2022 governors race, and red states such as Florida and Texas are doing their best to restrict it. In this charged climate, blue states are stealthily adopting a dangerous new disguise for CRT ethnic studies which incorporates all that worries Americans about CRTs ideology, and plenty more, in a deceptively appealing package.

To see whats coming, look at Minnesota, where this spring lawmakers enacted what are likely the most radical education measures in the nation. This is ethnic studies in its liberated form, which not only teaches race-based identities and white privilege, but incites students to take action to disrupt and dismantle Americas fundamental social and political institutions.

Minnesotas new K-12 social studies standards now in the final stages of rulemaking approval exemplify this ideology. The standards add ethnic studies to the core social studies disciplines of history, civics, economics, and geography, and incorporate its concepts throughout. One ethnic studies anchor standard, titled Resistance, is typical. It requires students to organize with others to resist systemic and coordinated exercises of power against marginalized, oppressed groups.

These new standards and their related benchmarks prime youngsters to view American institutions with suspicion and hostility from the earliest grades. Kindergartners, for example, must retell a story about an unfair experience that conveys a power imbalance. First-graders must identify examples of ethnicity, equality, liberation and systems of power and use those examples to construct meanings for those terms.

High school students will be required to analyze how caste systems based upon race, social class, and religion have been used to justify imperialism, colonization, warfare, and chattel slavery and to examine the construction of racialized hierarchies based on colorism and dominant European beauty standards and values.

Even subjects like geography are shot through with extremist ethnic studies ideology.

For example, fourth graders will no longer be required to learn the names and locations of continents, the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon, England, or China. Instead, they will describe places and regions, explaining how they are influenced by power structures. When they study states and capitals, they must include a recognition of indigenous land these places were built on.

The ethnic studies-driven campaign to discredit American institutions as illegitimate is most clearly evident in the standards that focus on criminal justice. Students will study our police departments and justice system in connection with an ethnic studies standard that requires them to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and eliminate injustices.

Fifth graders, for example, will examine contemporary policing and its alleged historical roots in early America. (The claim is that our police departments sprang directly from slave patrols of the Old South.) Sixth-graders will study the impact of Minnesotas juvenile justice system on youth from historically disenfranchised groups. High school standards suggest the notion of criminality itself is racist: Explore how criminality is constructed and what makes a person a criminal.

Biased, misleading instruction of this kind will likely convince many young people that policing and the very idea of criminality are oppressive, racially constructed, and among the many things schools are instructing them to resist.

Remarkably, the activist campaign to transform Minnesotas public schools has generated minimal public pushback. A key to its success was the promotion of ethnic studies as a unifying cultural learning experience, while in fact it stokes interracial hostility and delegitimizes authority. This deceptive strategy is likely to become a national model for activists seeking to transform our K-12 education system.

Across the country, students exposure to CRT think The New York Times 1619 Project initially came in piecemeal fashion, through outside interests such as teachers unions and professional associations. In contrast, ethnic studies advocates aim to impose this corrosive ideology through government action, either weaving it through all subjects as a lens or requiring an ethnic studies course as a discipline comparable to history or civics.

In 2021, California became the first state to make an ethnic studies course a high school graduation requirement. Though education officials there adopted a deeply flawed, leftist curriculum, they did so after rejecting an initial liberated draft as too radical.

Ironically, Minnesota lawmakers have now injected this extremist version not in one required course for teens but in academic standards for all subjects, including math and science, from kindergarten through 12th grade. In addition, the ideology has been hard-wired into teacher licensing requirements and fundamental school mechanics, so the transformation will be difficult to reverse.

Today, ethnic studies may be easier than CRT to sell as a cover for radical ideology because it remains largely free of the political baggage that CRT has accumulated, and sounds appealing to American ears in a multi-ethnic society that values fairness and cultural understanding. A 2022 poll by the Minneapolis-based Center of the American Experiment found a majority of Minnesotans approve of ethnic studies in schools until they become aware of its extremist agenda.

In Minnesotas 2023 legislative session, Democratic leaders and leftist activists took advantage of this goodwill by mounting a coordinated bait-and-switch campaign to deflect public scrutiny. The campaign was spearheaded by a coalition of activist teachers and community organizers, whose parent organization is the Minnesota chapter of the Education for Liberation Network, which has California roots.

The goal of EdLib MN is to be a political force to contend with the status quo of colonial education that prioritizes Eurocentric curricula and predominantly white educators and administrators, according to its website. During the legislative campaign for an ethnic studies mandate in Minnesota schools, the organization retweeted a graphic that called for the abolition (not reform) of policing, and declared that defunding the police means abolishing the social order and building a new society.

EdLib MN leader Brian Lozenski, a St. Paul-based professor who serves on the board of the national EdLib Network, has been candid about Ed Libs endgame of political upheaval. In an article titled The Black Radical Tradition Can Help Us Imagine a More Just World, which he wrote in June 2020, he described the George Floyd riots in Minneapolis as mass uprisings against racialized state violence, which portend the inevitable death of the American social order that prioritizes vulgar economics. After Covid closings, Lozenski declared, Schools need only reopen if they join the social unrest and actively combat the greater public health crisis of systemic racism.

At the state capitol in St. Paul, however, savvy activists and their Democratic legislative allies lobbied for liberated ethnic studies using a benign, inclusive kumbaya message. They framed ethnic studies as unifying: An unequaled opportunity to bridge the ethnic and cultural divide in Minnesota classrooms by invit[ing]students to more deeply explore the states many diverse cultures and histories.

When everyone gets a chance to learn about everyone in their community, read one promotional piece, it brings us closer. A legislative sponsor portrayed ethnic studies as a way to cultivate the sort of cultural pride her children felt when encouraged to bring their Lebanese food and gowns to school.

Ed Libs Lozenski served as a chief testifier for the primary ethnic studies bill. He did not disclose his radical agenda or connections but held himself out as a concerned parent who favors ethnic studies because it will provide Minnesota students with the intra- and inter-cultural knowledge they need in a globalized world.

Ethnic studies advocates entire legislative strategy was marked by calculated deception and lack of transparency. Sweeping proposals to infuse liberated ideology through K-12 schools were subtly woven throughout bills that were pushed through at breakneck speed, using slickly packaged testimony and often omitting examination of the legislations actual text. Earnest students flocked to the capitol to appeal to legislators in person in line with Ed Libs national strategy of portraying the campaign for ethnic studies as student-led.

The final omnibus bill not only entrenched ethnic studies throughout Minnesotas K-12 education system, it also created a permanent Ethnic Studies Working Group at the Minnesota Department of Education to implement the mandate. By law, the members of this powerful group which will design a statewide ethnic studies framework, recommend teacher training, and develop instructional resources must be chosen with input from EdLib MNs Ethnic Studies coalition. As a result, going forward, the political extremists who launched the crusade to hijack Minnesotas public education system will play a central role in determining what students learn in history, civics, language arts, math, and science classrooms across the state.

To see whats coming for Minnesotas roughly 500 district and charter schools, look at the St. Paul Public Schools, where a critical ethnic studies course became a graduation requirement in 2021. School officials designed the curriculum in consultation with Lozenski and other ethnic studies activists.

The St. Paul curriculum does not cultivate mutual understanding but pushes students to form tribalized identities and stokes defiance of authority. It exhorts 16-year-olds to build a race- and ethnicity-based narrative of transformative resistance, to challenge and expose systems of inequality, and to resist all systems of oppressive power rooted in racism through collective action and change.

Related artwork, labeled seeds of resistance, announces school-approved targets of politicized resistance. This artwork promotes the liberated abolitionist agenda, and features protest signs that read No Bans/No Walls and Abolish Prison.

Today, St. Paul students and parents lament growing disrespect for teachers and dangerous hallways. Youth crime in the city is rising, and in a recent survey, a majority of St. Paul high school faculty and staff report that they feel unsafe or very unsafe at school. What will happen as ethnic studies further delegitimizes authority there?

Similar campaigns are underway in other states, not only California where activists are now going school district to school district to sell the liberated version that failed at the state level but in Washington, Oregon, Vermont, and elsewhere. Minnesota provides a cautionary tale. Unless legislators and citizens understand liberated ethnic studies real agenda, many more states will follow.

Katherine Kersten is a senior policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment.

See original here:

'Ethnic Studies' Is A Sneaky New Way To Stoke Racial Division - The Federalist