Free Republic

The term “kafkatrapping” describes a logical fallacy that is popular within gender feminism, racial politics and other ideologies of victimhood. It occurs when you are accused of a thought crime such as sexism, racism or homophobia. You respond with an honest denial, which is then used as further confirmation of your guilt. You are now trapped in a circular and unfalsifiable argument; no one who is accused can be innocent because the structure of kafkatrapping precludes that possibility. The term derives from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial in which a nondescript bank clerk named Josef K. is arrested; no charges...

But racism runs deep. Next up on the chopping block are our fine feathered friends: birds. The American Ornithological Society has announced that starting next year they will rename all birds in the United States and Canada that have English names.

Ancient and medieval astronomers could not explain the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies while shackled to a Ptolemaic paradigm of an Earth-centered universe. Thus they spun out ad hoc rescue hypotheses in the form of “epicycle” theory to explain away the anomalies. Their primary concern was the rescue of the theory rather than a reconsideration of it, which forced reality into a Procrustean bed—producing conformity by arbitrary means. Likewise, today’s project known as “anti-racism” exhibits the same pre-Enlightenment mindset of mystical thinking that locked medieval humanity into an endless cycle of fear, superstition, and what we know today as...

Two teachers challenging the constitutionality of compelled antiracism training have been ordered to pay nearly $313,000 in their Missouri school district's legal fees, under a ruling their lawyers called "overtly hostile" and "meant to scare off future lawsuits by parents and teachers." The Southeastern Legal Foundation is appealing U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool's summary judgment in favor of Springfield Public Schools and the six-figure award against their clients Brooke Henderson and Jennifer Lumley, according to an 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals notice Friday. The public interest litigation firm "has never faced attorney fees sanctions for challenging unconstitutional government action...

An office in USC’s school of social work said in a memo Tuesday that it will no longer use the phrases “field work” and “going into the field” in its curriculum, instead replacing them with “practicum.” The office said the change is meant to support its anti-racist social work. “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of enslaved people and immigrant workers that are not benign,” the memo read. In an emailed statement to the Daily Trojan, a spokesperson for the newly renamed Office of Practicum Education...

Award-winning filmmaker Eli Steele details the life and legal fight of former librarian Jodi Shaw against Smith College for its 'racially hostile environment' in this 'Fox News Originals' documentary.

Showing once again why he didn’t fit in with the progressive orthodoxy at Vox, Matt Yglesias has a piece up on his Substack today arguing that diversity training might be doing more harm than good. The whole piece covers a lot of territory but he starts by arguing that there’s not a lot of certainty about what works in terms of anti-racist training, but there is some evidence about what doesn’t work. …as best I can tell, none of the literature seems to support the idea that in-your-face calling-out tactics are effective. What seems to work best are fairly gentle...

This new run on the outrage treadmill projects the contemporary left’s obsession with race and racism onto the right.In a 1994 New York Times op-ed, the famed linguist Steven Pinker introduced the “euphemism treadmill,” the idea that as much as we keep replacing more benign-sounding terms for those that have acquired a negative valence, ultimately, “concepts, not words, are in charge,” so when we “give a concept a new name, … the name becomes colored by” our underlying negative associations once more over time. Eventually a new name has to be invented, and the game starts all over again.Thus, we...

'Love’s 2019 book, 'We Want to Do More Than Survive,' is arguably the single most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the ideology of the CRT movement in education.'Bettina L. Love, an “anti-racist” professor at the University of Georgia, is an Ibram X. Kendi figure who is also reaching thousands of American children and paid by taxpayer dollars. In addition to preaching critical race theory (CRT) in public schools across the nation, including, as reported by The Federalist, at an Indiana conference for teachers backed by taxpayer dollars, the Biden administration quietly supported Love’s work before that became too hot to...

How easy it is for us to feel guilty and to make others feel guilty. The damning accusation of racism divides both the culture and the church because it is one of the most deeply felt indictments one could hear. Such an indictment creates guilt and shame in the accused, yet it is deeply subjective. Anyone trying to know whether someone else, or even oneself, is racist is making a subjective evaluation, which is, therefore, inevitably divisive. Has a racist offense been given or taken? Is it systemic? Is it the result of personal insecurity? Was it intended? Did it...

The racial messaging is loud and clear: if you’re not the right hue, there’s obviously something wrong with you. And those reminders are relentless. From Hollywood babble to pandering politicians to Big Tech Tyrants to Institutions of Higher Mislearning to euphemistic bridges to nowhere in woke churches, we’re barraged by an unending stream of color conscious craziness that demands society sees hue before they see you. As with all things rooted in human frailty, today’s celebrated form of segregation is immensely profitable, especially for those peddling the victimhood. There’s no scarcity of New York Times bestselling authors reminding us to...

Should we be shocked that a so-called journalist is criticizing a legal process used by people to understand what their own governments are doing? Absolutely not.Brandy Zadrozny, a senior reporter at NBC News, is displeased with how American citizens have mobilized against critical race theory. Many are using open-records laws to obtain evidence of what public entities are doing with their tax dollars.To Zadrozny, people who seek to hold government accountable via the Freedom of Information Act—passed by Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966—are participating in an “onerous” process. Well, is she in favor of governments keeping public information...

Few movie stars have been more exalted than Tom Hanks. You'd never expect a guy with his nice-guy branding to get a strong slap in the face in the political arena. But Hanks penned a "guest essay" for The New York Times lecturing on racism, which opened him up for a shaming from the left. On June 4, Hanks boasted about how he bores people at parties with his historical knowledge but lamented growing up in the schools of Oakland and never hearing a word about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. It was "systematically ignored, perhaps because it was...

A few weeks ago, someone sent me a recording of a talk called “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind.” It was delivered at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center by a New York-based psychiatrist as part of Grand Rounds, an ongoing program in which clinicians and others in the field lecture students and faculty. When I listened to the talk I considered the fact that it might be some sort of elaborate prank. But looking at the doctor’s social media, it seems completely genuine. Here are some of the quotes from the lecture: This is the cost...

A federal grand jury just indicted the other three officers present at George Floyd’s arrest. Why is the Justice Department involving itself in this local police matter?Last month, when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of second- and third-degree murder, most Americans believed his sentencing would end a year-long national ordeal. Footage of Chauvin restraining George Floyd as he died was widely publicized last summer, with a predictable—and memorable—result. Although Chauvin was convicted by a jury, that decision was pre-empted by the constant menace of burning cities, gruesome threats of violence, massive corporate marketing campaigns, public statements by members...

If part of ‘doing the work’ to ‘dismantle systemic racism’ is to endure discomfort, how does that apply to teaching 'antiracism’ to small children?Years ago, I attended a play with the theme of racism. At curtain rise, two actors began berating the audience primarily made up of white people about how this work would make them uncomfortable, uneasy, and fearful. It is a very common theme in “antiracism” and critical race theory. But if part of “doing the work” to “dismantle systemic racism” is to endure this discomfort, how does that apply to teaching “antiracism” to small children? Should young...

According to a trove of whistleblower materials, Disney has launched a “diversity and inclusion” program, called “Reimagine Tomorrow,” which includes trainings on “systemic racism,” “white privilege,” “white fragility,” “white saviors,” “microaggressions,” and “antiracism.” Disney claims that America has a “long history of systemic racism and transphobia” and tells employees they must “take ownership of educating yourself about structural anti-Black racism” and “not rely on your Black colleagues to educate you,” which is “emotionally taxing.” White employees are told to “work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed.” They...

That the U.S. justice system punished Derek Chauvin shows both the promise of America and the hollowness of critical race theory.When the jury announced its verdict in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, reactions were inevitable. The murder of George Floyd occupied the nation’s attention since it happened, and was the spark that led to both peaceful protests and violent riots across the country. So when the jury found Chauvin guilty of the highest charge, one would expect that those who had felt outraged by Floyd’s murder to be pleased. Maybe some of them were, but those nearest to a television camera...

Communist China can repurpose its anti-American propaganda budget for other pursuits with a presidential administration like this running its top competitor.The Biden administration cites the anti-American 1619 Project and hatemonger Ibram X. Kendi as guiding its criteria for federal American history and civics education grants in a proposed rule out in the Federal Register on April 19.The U.S. Department of Education’s education priorities as described in the Register accepts and amplifies Chinese Communist propaganda accusing the United States of “systemic racism” and recommending anti-white racism as the cure. The document cites The New York Times’s error-riddled 1619 Project, divisive identity...

The rise of critical race theory is alarming and dangerous, but all isn't lost. Americans have never taken to being told what to think.New rulers often find themselves imitating the habits of the old. Part of this is the necessities of leadership, how those on the outside have grand ideas that, when finally applied to reality, are inadequate and quietly withdrawn. Witness, for example, the change from decrying “kids in cages” under President Donald Trump to the “migrant children in overflow facilities” under President Joe Biden. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss; the only difference is the...