The New York Times downplays acceleration of Critical Race Theory in schools

What America is facing right now is individual battles over little things like renaming schools because their namesake had some kind of connection to slavery. But it’s the totality of these small moves taken collectively and on a national level.

In a response piece on Hot Air, The New York Times is called out for author Ginia Bellafante’s lackluster coverage of private school parents and teachers objecting to critical race theory being pushed onto their institutions.

For the record, the Times piece does remind readers about the COVID plus George Floyd riots landscape of our current era. The uptick in diversity consultants coming in and making sure curriculums were racially “sensitive” alongside that.

But this is also the same outlet that brought us The 1619 Project. An effort at trying to "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center" of focus.

It reminds me of this quote from 1619 project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones: “whiteness is not static and it is expandable when necessary. A lot of folks we don’t think of as white think of themselves as white because the lines have never been entirely clear. That’s the beauty of white supremacy — it is extremely adaptable.”

With that in mind it’s unsurprising to see Ginia Bellafante downplay people’s concerns. Her New York Times piece takes us to the three highlighted incidents where critical race theory is seen to be causing turmoil in school systems.

It’s not something as isolated as Andrew Gutmann sending a letter outlining his grievances to the hundreds of parents at the Brearley girls’ school in Upper East Side New York. Someone The New York Times piece tries to paint as an angry Fox News loving Dad being blindly outraged.

In the mentioned case of Dalton School, parents put together a letter opposing critical race theory, concerns are raised about the impact this seeming obsession has on the student body.

“Every class this year has had an obsessive focus on race and identity, “racist cop” reenactments in science, “decentering whiteness” in art class, learning about white supremacy and sexuality in health class. Wildly age-inappropriate, many of these classes feel more akin to a Zoom corporate sensitivity training than to Dalton’s intellectually engaging curriculum.”

Proof of this sort of thing happening isn’t hard to find. Recently, an Indiana public school district took advantage of the Chauvin verdict to push “antiracism” lesson plans on the student body.

Hot Air points out The New York Times was misleading in saying the following about Dalton’s letter: "their letter was seven pages long, and the sentence ‘To be clear, we abhor racism’ did not present itself until paragraph 13.”

Indeed NYT omits that in the first paragraph alone, the Dalton letter praises “an unbelievable diversity of the student body, unique among its peers, of which the school may be very proud.”

The Dalton letter is anonymous given the obvious pushback proponents of the critical race doctrine would unleash. Like a newspaper running a hit job against you.

With math teacher Paul Rossi at Grace Church School in Manhattan, New York, The Times paints him as a villain. Rossi objected to the fact that people couldn’t openly disagree with the push towards critical race theory without being attacked themselves. Something proven given the reaction Rossi faced for speaking his mind at what’s described by the teacher themselves as happening at a “mandatory, whites-only student and faculty Zoom meeting.”  

What Rossi described is not an anomaly. On at least two occasions here at The Post Millennial, we’ve reported on the practice of racially segregated Zoom meetings happening in Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

Ginia Bellafante did not link to the letter Rossi published on Bari Weiss’ Substack. This is likely due to the public falling out between Weiss and the paper’s management over internal bullying.

In Paul’s letter he makes it clear he disagrees with “antiracism” training being essentially instruction to treat students on the basis of skin color. For voicing as much, the school's headmaster admonished Rossi for causing “harm” to students.

The New York Times went as far as calling Rossi “dubious” for releasing recordings about headmaster George Davison admitting that critical race theory was about demonizing white people.

Instead the paper ran cover for Grace Church School by interviewing the school head George Davison. The paper ran claims about the process being “imperfect” without exploring the content of what Paul Rossi brought to the public attention in the first place.

The school publicly shamed Rossi and forced faculty to read a public reprimand in every classroom. As such Rossi himself described a situation of intimidation the student body felt about being allowed to challenge the dogma.

Hot Air demonstrates how bad it is at Grace Church School by linking to this NBC piece from early March. In it’s reported the school’s guidance says phrases like “boys and girls” or “mom and dad” should be avoided.