The Disunited States of Oppression

Is there any clearer sign of how privileged a society is than the disproportionate amount of time that society spends guilting citizens over how privileged they are?

I'll never forget the first time I encountered "critical race theory" and its overbearing adherents at my alma mater, Oberlin College, in the 1990s. Multicultural studies were all the rage. Higher education officials had torpedoed Western civilization curriculum requirements at prestigious universities nationwide. The ululations of the aggrieved reached a fever pitch as anti-white extremists demanded separate academic departments, dorms, graduation ceremonies and deans in the name of justice and equality.

The entire spectacle was as self-indulgent as it was comical. Spoiled white limousine liberals' children lectured me -- a child of Filipino immigrants who came from a Third World country colonized by the Spanish, overtaken by Americans and occupied by the Japanese -- for thinking and acting "white" because I opposed race-based affirmative action policies. A miserable feminist student castigated me for using the patriarchal term "exploit" (as in "exploiting an opportunity.") Wealthy minority progressives -- cloistered in their intolerant "safe spaces" on a campus full of entitled brats whose parents forked over $40,000 a year in tuition -- whined about being systemically oppressed.

The whiners whined all their way through their senior theses to secure their worthless degrees. A large portion of the whiners went on to graduate schools in advanced griping and grousing -- and are now ensconced in the ivory tower of critical race theory babble, subsidized by tax dollars at public colleges and universities, venting from on high about how hopelessly downtrodden they are at the hands of the oppressors paying their cushy salaries.

This toxic resentment has metastasized in academia and spread to the bowels of the federal bureaucracy. Last month, after Discovery Institute scholar Christopher Rufo sounded the alarm with a series of whistleblower reports in the Treasury and Justice Departments, the Trump administration belatedly moved to crack down on "diversity" training sessions that perpetuate the idea that America is an inherently racist and white supremacist nation. But far more troubling is the trickledown of racist anti-racism into K-12 education across the heartland.

A parent/educator in the Springfield, Missouri, public schools sent mandatory curriculum materials for "equity training" that all teachers must now undergo. "Growing a deeper sense of cultural consciousness" is now an essential part of the district employees' job responsibilities. This means accepting an "oppression matrix" chart that classifies all white people as a "privileged social group," no matter their socioeconomic status, life struggles or family history. Asians are considered "oppressed," despite vast differences in income among Asian groups and despite higher median net worth and household income than whites. All "males assigned at birth" are inherently more privileged than all "females assigned at birth." All Protestants are forever more privileged than worshipers of any other faith.

All Springfield public school employees must now share "reflections" upon watching a "George Floyd video," outline "what steps you will take to become an anti-racist" and engage in a "group discussion" on "white supremacy" (but not any other kind of identity politics supremacy).

Of course, the definition of "white supremacy" has been stretched to include every microaggression under the sun. "White silence" -- not saying a word, remaining neutral, minding your own business -- now counts as "covert white supremacy," according to equity training materials. Saying, "all lives matter" is covert white supremacy. So are these unforgivable offenses:

--"Eurocentric curriculum" (that is, any lessons that don't put nonwhite people above white people at all times in all subject areas).

--"Not believing experiences of black, indigenous, and people of color," (which means never questioning any obvious racial hoaxes and fake hate crimes and never questioning the shady claims of racially ambiguous people that they are what and who they say they are).

--"English-only initiatives" (because heaven forbid we demand that non-English-speaking immigrants assimilate and our sovereign nation demand that residents speak the same language as our founders).

--"Colorblindness" (because actual anti-racism is racism).

We are trapped in a manufactured "oppression matrix" by the most comfortable and protected of liberal elites. Our children are being taught by anti-white, anti-American "equity" bullies that we are nothing more than the miserable sum of our politicized identities. A great and healthy society would teach its children to be thankful for, not guilty over, the "privileges" so many have worked so hard to pass on to our posterity.

Michelle Malkin's email address is [email protected]. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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