Asheville – Scholar: The fight against CRT is one of national survival
By David Bass, Carolina Journal
The fight against Critical Race Theory is nothing less than a battle for national survival, according to Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson.
Jacobson made his comments during a June 23 luncheon at the Carolina Country Club in Raleigh. Sponsored by the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, the talk explored the historical roots of CRT, its prevalence in academia and K-12 education, and what to do about it.
“If you wanted to rip this country apart, what would you do differently than what they are doing? That’s why it’s a fight for national survival,” said Jacobson, who has served at Cornell since 2007. “[CRT] is setting people against each other based on race and based on skin color. It’s setting students against each other, students against teachers. It’s setting students against their country.”
Critical Race Theory teaches that racism and sexism are foundational to American history, culture, and government while portraying the white race as inherently oppressive. Jacobson emphasized that CRT often goes by other names, including anti-racism; diversity, equity, and inclusion; or social, emotional learning. The common thread, he said, is an obsessive focus on race.
William A. Jacobson, Cornell Law School professor. Image: The Ithacan.
Jacobson shared his experience at Harvard Law School in the early 1980s when the push to begin identifying people “by ethnic and racial groups as opposed to individual” began to take shape. The more politically moderate students graduated and went into business law, Jacobson noted, while the more radical students who studied critical legal theory went into academia.
“They began to develop theories over 30 years that have resulted in Critical Race Theory, while the rest of us were asleep at the wheel,” Jacobson said. “I can’t think of a single good thing that has been accomplished on the campuses from this obsession with race,” he added.
It is stratifying people. It is teaching people that they can’t speak up for fear of being called racist, which can end your career, or the false accusation can end your career. And people are bullied into silence.”
As for solutions, Jacobson several ideas. The first is to shine a light on CRT wherever it is and whatever name it goes by.
“When people find out about it, there is pushback. And what frightens the people who are advocating this, who are funding this, is that the push back is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and cuts across party lines,” he said.
It is stratifying people. It is teaching people that they can’t speak up for fear of being called racist, which can end your career, or the false accusation can end your career. And people are bullied into silence.”
As for solutions, Jacobson several ideas. The first is to shine a light on CRT wherever it is and whatever name it goes by.
“When people find out about it, there is pushback. And what frightens the people who are advocating this, who are funding this, is that the push back is multiracial, multi-ethnic, and cuts across party lines,” he said.
Lawmakers question Fed plan to house unaccompanied minors from southern border in Greensboro
By David Larson
Starting in July, unaccompanied children (UACs) from the southern border are scheduled to be transported to and housed at Greensboro’s American Hebrew Academy.
Now, North Carolina’s Republican congressional delegation has penned a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) acting director Andrea Chapman asking for more details.
“Due to the failures of the Biden administration to secure our southern border, every state, including North Carolina, is now suffering from the impacts of the Biden border crisis,” the letter said.
The letter continued by saying, “Given the effects of this crisis and decision to house UACs in our state, we demand answers to the following questions to help protect our constituents.
“Since President Biden entered office, nearly 3 million illegal migrants have been encountered at the border, including 239,416 illegal crossings in May, the highest monthly total ever recorded. In addition, more than 5,300 pounds of the deadly opioid fentanyl have been seized at the border, enough to kill more than 2 billion people.” U.S. Reps. Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, David Rouzer, Madison Cawthorn, Greg Murphy, Patrick McHenry, and Dan Bishop, all representing districts in N.C., joined Hudson in signing the letter.
Public Support: The Parents’ Bill of Rights
Earlier this month, along party lines, Senate Republicans passed the Parents’ Bill of Rights. Since then, support has continued to grow for the bill – which seeks to keep age-inappropriate material out of the classroom curriculum of our youngest students. WRAL’s poll indicates overarching support for a legislative ban on the teaching of sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms. 58% of all North Carolina adults support this ban, which includes both Democrat and Unaffiliated voters. Why? Because it just makes sense. This poll affirms that the people of North Carolina understand we should be teaching our children how to read chapter books and do long division rather than trying to prematurely discuss a child’s sexual preference amongst their peers.
A Senate education committee passed House Bill 755, titled “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which would ban the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in grades K-3, allow parents to review materials used in class, and establish a process for parents to object to those materials, among other things.
The provision related to the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues states “instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity shall not be included in the curriculum provided in grades kindergarten through third grade.”
More Legal Guns Reduced Crime 34%
By John R. Lott Jr., Carolina Journal
‘Lives are on the line,” President Biden said after the Supreme Court held New York state’s restrictive gun-permit regime unconstitutional last week. Gov. Kathy Hochul warned: ‘This could place millions of New Yorkers in harm’s way.”
Brazil’s experience suggests otherwise.
In 2018, the year before Jair Bolsonaro became president, Brazil had one of the highest homicide rates among developed countries: 27.8 per 100,000 people, compared with 5 per 100,000 in the U.S. Mr. Bolsonaro’s solution: “Give guns to good people. Let people have guns so that they have the chance to defend themselves.”
In Brazil black-market firearms are widely available to criminals, and 70% of murders in 2019 involved guns. When Mr. Bolsonaro took office, there were about 330,000 licensed firearm owners in Brazil. At the time, according to the BBC, “only strictly defined groups of people, including police and security officials are able to obtain a gun license.” In 2019, when Mr. Bolsonaro’s many changes began taking effect, Brazil added more than 400,000 licensed firearm owners.
During his presidential campaign, critics said he had it dangerously wrong. A Bloomberg Opinion writer scoffed: “It’s hard to buy the current proposals championed by gun lobbyists and a few political yahoos who aim to make Brazil safer by slackening controls.” The New York Times wrote in a news story that his proposals were “worrying some experts who argue that more guns fuel more violence.”
Brazil’s pre-2019 laws looked like the wish list of American gun-control advocates. Owning a gun without a license carries a four-year prison sentence. By comparison, almost no state in the U.S. requires a license to own a gun, and 25 states don’t require a license to carry a gun.
In Brazil aspiring gun owners have to be at least 25, undergo psychological and technical aptitude screening, show proof of employment, and explain why they want a firearm. Mr. Bolsonaro eliminated the psychological and other screening requirements.
By November 2021, Mr. Bolsonaro had made 32 changes to ease Brazil’s gun laws. Brazilians were allowed to own more and more-powerful guns—up to six guns and up to .50 caliber, the same maximum caliber as the U.S. He raised the maximum annual ammunition purchase to 5,000 rounds a year from 50. He made it easier to carry concealed handguns in public.
Before Mr. Bolsonaro, Brazilians had to pay $260 for a new gun license and $25 every three years to renew it. This put legal gun ownership out of reach of the poor. The initial license fee has fallen to around $18.50, and licenses are good for 10 years.
Instead of surging, crime slumped in Brazil. In three years under Mr. Bolsonaro, the homicide rate has fallen 34%, to 18.5 per 100,000.
The media and gun-control advocates were wrong about Brazil. Mr. Biden and Ms. Hochul should take note.