Chris Rufo Strikes Out Again With His CRT Boogeyman Tactics.
A flyer put up at a Downers Grove Illinois high school for a field trip promoting educational careers for students of color has caused a CRT Backlash
Chris Rufo is the architect of the current discourse in which any discussion of diversity, equity, inclusion, or systems of power and oppression in the Americas is now Critical Race Theory. His search for windmills to tilt at has led him to Downers Grove Illinois. Despite the name it’s a nice town and not full of boring party poopers.
Most people reacting to this have been doing what the human brain does best. Filling in the blank spaces on a map with monsters. It is a suburb of CHICAGO a city which according to the right of center online space is nothing but a concrete jungle full of marauding Black people looking for good honest (probably White) folks to prey upon. This is a portrait that is not even true about Englewood, the roughest neighborhood of Chicago or Ravenswood, where the high-profile convicts who used to be Governor of the state live.
This is in fact in the southern part of Downers Grove. A town that is over 80 percent White and in which the people are all doing very well for themselves compared to most places. Look at this aerial tour.
The red arrow points to the very cool Brokeridge Airpark. That is a neighborhood built around a private airport in which each garage is a hangar. The green arrow points to the two golf courses. The houses in this area all go for half a million dollars on up. Even for a modest home. The demographics of this area are in a state of change as while the town is over 80 percent White the school is just under 60 percent White. Because the institutions will change more slowly than the population it is quite possible that many students of color there will have NEVER seen a Black person who is a teacher.
Brookeridge airpark may not be typical but you have to think an area with a neighborhood like this has got to be top tier. IT IS, I drove right past it just to see what it is like once.
Some Students There May Have Never Met A College Educated Black/Brown Person.
I know this from personal experience. Since 2014 I have been an adjunct professor teaching math and sometimes physics at College of DuPage. For about two years I taught math at the satellite campus in Naperville. A place people from Downers Grove might have taken advantage of for their educational needs. I know, because students told me so, that I was the first Black teacher they had ever had. These people were all done with a full K-12 education.
Further afield, just a bit south and west of Downers Grove and there are people who the first Black person they meet in the flesh will be when they are in college.
Given factual information about Downers Grove one can see it is absurd to think that this field trip is depriving any White student in any way. This is an example of why in civil rights law you need to have to point to a concrete example of some other person or group being treated in a materially different way in similar circumstances.
There must be an example of someone or some group that was treated differently. In this case the only group being treated differently would be the students of color who hadn’t had one single role model of color, other than their parents, who they may regard as exceptions to the rule, for the first 18 years of their lives. Role models are important, role models matter. Seeing people like yourself achieve remarkable things matters to underrepresented groups. It also changes how members of the majority look at minorities.
Show me a White student at Downers Grove South High School who has not had a White teacher in that district for 90+ percent of their classes. Hypothetically such a person might benefit by having a similar trip for White students. In reality, every day in Downers Grove would be that trip for them and no days would be that trip for a Black or Brown student.
Slippery Slope
Someone whose work I respect points out there could be a slipperly slope. He is a White South African who is too young to really have benefited from the prior regime there. I’d say he is an example of a White person who has, at least in his homeland, a real cause to be concerned about anti White Racism.
He’s not wrong and if Black and Brown people in the US are not careful we could wind up replicating the same things that were done to us. With people come votes, with votes comes power, and with power comes the ability for bias, predjudice, or bigotry to evolve into racism. Which if Black and Brown people have the power would be anti White. This is a real possibility. IF care is not taken.
However, knowing the situation of that town and the history of the United States of America very well I don’t think Black people here will be anything like this guy. Winston there and his work is how I found out about this fellow.
NOTE as menacing as he is even in South Africa his party only manages to be a noisy minority so far.I just can’t see anyone analogous to that ever rising in the USA. Not in 150 years.
In short, this trip is a nothing burger and if you are a White American who has not traveled, either travel yourself, or see what White people who travel in majority non White countries have to put up with. Then come back to the USA and kiss the first Black American person you see.
In fact this video is why I say if you enjoyed reading my views subscribe to my sub stack its’ free…. at least for now.