Free Republic

The Saginaw Public School district has been operating with a deficit since the 2010-11 school year, and the proposed sale of a shuttered school building could erase the red ink, according to the Michigan Department of Education. Rather than sell the building to an interested party— a charter school — the Saginaw school board originally elected to demolish it. However, after months of effort, the board had a change of heart and approved the deal. On Thursday, the Saginaw district board accepted a $3.5 million offer from the Francis Reh Academy to purchase the Phoenix Science and Technology Center, which...

Writing an opinion piece to Michigan State University’s paper the State News, Rashad Timmons says that microaggressions are causing him several medical afflictions. His letter was titled, “Intentional or not, microaggressions severely impact underrepresented members of society.” According to Timmons, people who “are not privileged” are suffering greatly from the intentional and unintentional triggers that others are causing. “On a campus,” he writes, ” — and nation at large — in which whiteness, patriarchy, heteronormativity, cissexism, ableism and classism prevail, students that are not privileged by these constructs often have difficulty navigating hegemonic, oppressive environments.” Timmons writes about different maladies...

The Left is bereft of ideas. They have run dry as everything they are trying to force on us has flopped. They have nothing to offer America because they are hollow greedy people that don’t really care how they get what they want. We have been reminded of this yet again by Mychal Smith who writes for PBS’s “Race Today.” Smith told us that equal opportunity between Americans is racist. George Orwell’s Big Brother would be proud. Smith is obviously a victim of the Left’s latest attack of Tourette’s syndrome which compels its sufferers to uncontrollably repeat a catch phrase...

After reading yesterday’s AT article "Teaching Racial Hatred" by David Deming, professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma, I realized something that had not occurred to me earlier about the goal of teaching college kids about white privilege. Many people believe that white privilege is a tool that is used to make white Americans feel guilty about their success by claiming that the mere fact that they were born with white skin gave them an upper hand in life (especially white heterosexual males). Once made to feel guilty, the white individuals soon begin to hate themselves for...

A diversity training session for the Army turned into a lecture on “white privilege” Thursday. The Equal Opportunity briefing, which was presented to approximately 400 soldiers in the 67th Signal Battalion in Fort Gordon, Ga., garnered attention after a photograph of a PowerPoint slide of the presentation was posted on Facebook. The slide, titled, “the luxury of obliviousness,” states, “[R]ace privilege gives whites little reason to pay a lot of attention to African Americans or to how white privilege affects them.” It adds, quoting, “To be white in American [sic] means not having to think about it.” The quote appears...

White privilege is not a thing.Mentioning those two words in a time when America is more diverse than it has ever been is a red herring. White privilege is a topic so easily defeated that liberals simply entertain the notion just to bring up how racist white America still is in their eyes.It’s a deflection of the real problems we currently face – illegal immigration, 93 million not in the workforce, Iran, etc.The left wants it to be true, but their failed attempts on the subject never manifest into coherent logic. It’s the victim mentality. “Oh poor me, I can’t seem to...

<p>A student at Appalachian State University says she was cyber-bullied after she called out a dormitory's "Check Your Privilege" bulletin board.</p> <p>The board showed memes to depict so-called white privilege, heterosexual privilege, Christian privilege, and able-bodied privilege, among others.</p> <p>A female student, Laurel Littler, objected to the board's apparent shaming, so she posted a photo of it on her Facebook page and was surprised to receive some harsh responses.</p>

A longstanding alliance between Jewish voters and the Democratic Party no longer appears very durable. The rift — aggravated by a nuclear deal with Iran and sour relations between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — will likely have political implications in the 2016 elections, The Wall Street Journal reports. "At this moment in time, many American Jews who have consistently voted Democratic are beginning to waver in that support, because they've felt the bedrock relationship between Israel and this administration has been severely shaken," Rabbi Howard Buechler, of the Dix Hills Jewish Center in New York,...

In 1998, Vijay Chokal-Ingam was “determined to become a doctor,” but his 3.1 GPA significantly reduced his chances. When he realized his application wouldn’t cut it, he came up with a back-up plan — he pretended to be black. Chokal-Ingam, brother of famous actress Mindy Kaling, said he “knew that admission standards for certain minorities under affirmative action were, let’s say… less stringent.” In a blog post, Chokal-Ingam explains how he ended up getting into the St. Louis University School of Medicine despite his low GPA and MCAT score: So, I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied to...

Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen called for more research into widening inequality in the United States during a speech at the Federal Reserve Community Development Research Conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. “How do some places advance economically and create circumstances in which residents in turn are more likely to thrive?” Yellen said at one point in her speech, giving an example of the type of question she would like to see answered by “further research.” “According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, the gap between rich and poor now ranks as a major concern in the minds of...

Okay, I’m going to make this as quick and painless as I can.Yes it’s true, Lady M axed the Big White florist. No, not because she was white, although she was. It was because she and Lady M just grew apart. When Lady M hired Laura Dowling in ‘09 everything was fine as her tastes still ran towards the “classics.” Which was fine because florist Laura Dowling was also known for her classic floral arrangements.Butt then, as happens with so many relationships, one partner evolved and the other didn’t. In this case Lady M’s tastes grew more sophisticated over the...

Some sort of tipping point seems to have been reached, with Sunday morning brunch patrons no longer willing to sit passively as noisy protesters attempt to guilt-trip them about being white, or having the disposable income to go out for a nice brunch, or something (in my view, mostly anger about being such losers). Gateway Pundit reports on the pushback in Atlanta and Minneapolis eateries yesterday. In Atlanta: Black Brunch protesters invaded several Decatur, Georgia restaurants on Sunday. Protesters report two establishments called police, with managers from Sweet Melissa’s trying unsuccessfully to throw them out.

Much has been written about privilege in academic settings over the past few decades. There’s the privilege of wealth, and the advantages wealth confers if a baby is lucky enough to be born into it. Much too has been written about the advantages of being born into this world as a Caucasian — known in academia as “white privilege.” But not enough has been written about the most important advantage a baby can have in America: the advantage of being born with a mother and father who happen to be married. Call it “the marriage privilege” — the advantages are...

Last week The Ryersonian reported on an incident that involved two first-year journalism students who were turned away from an event organized by Racialized Students' Collective because they are white. Since then there has been a lot of commentary on the piece and a lot of debate -- a lot of the criticism is valid. There are two sides to the story: 1) the media has a right to attend public events and report on matters that are in the public interest. The student media needs to cover initiatives that are happening on campus so that we draw attention to...

A reader sent me a copy of the cover of the new University of North Georgia continuing education catalog asked with this question, “Are they crazy?” It’s a valid question given the awkwardness of the image and its pairing with a headline that asks, “Why follow when you can lead?” The illustration features two exultant white men — dressed like missionaries for some reason — well ahead of a woman in heels wearing what looks to be an ensemble from “Dynasty” and a black male in more casual attire who appears to be struggling to finish the race. I thought...

“You Still Have ‘White Privilege’ Even if you ‘Survived a Nazi Concentration Camp’ ” This extraordinary claim, that “it doesn’t matter what hardships you’ve had to face, you still have white privilege,” was directed to husband and wife survivors of Nazi tyranny by Robin DiAngelo, Professor of Multicultural Education at Westfield State University. With a scholarship in Social Justice Education and Whiteness Studies, DiAngelo teaches courses in Multicultural Teaching, Inter-group Dialogue Facilitation, and Cultural Diversity & Social Justice. It is to progressive thinkers and holders of powerful educational credentials like Professor DiAngelo that Jerry Todd has directed his response today....

Starbucks’ #racetogether campaign, in which baristas are instructed to begin conversations on race with customers, drew bipartisan mockery yesterday, to the point that a Starbucks executive had to shut down his Twitter account. But the Seattle coffee chain has two defenders, at least: Fox News hosts Brian Kilmeade and Eric Bolling. “I like this idea,” Bolling said on The Five last night, getting a double-take from Juan Williams. “I think it’s a great way to start the conversation. …Fantastic that they are going to take the discussion from behind the counter to the people.”

Why? Why can’t conservatives see that black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism, all the time, everywhere, and that explains everything? That is what Rand Paul and his acolytes at RedState want to know. Why are Neanderthals like economist John Lott unmoved by a recent Department of Justice report that said white police are picking on black people for No Reason What So Ever? Most recently in Ferguson, where even Bill O’Reilly bought into it. Rand Paul has been preaching the gospel of racial victimization to anyone who will listen. He even went to Ferguson to let them...

Professor of multicutural education at Westfield State University Robin DiAngelo has a message for white people living in the United States: it doesn't matter what hardships you've had to face, you still have white privilege. In an interview published today, Professor DiAngelo talked about "white fragility," or how white people dismiss racial issues like "white privilege." According to the interviewer, Sam Adler-Bell, a story about a Jewish person's struggle against Nazi tyranny "followed a familiar script" for Dr. DiAngelo: a white person is offended when someone says they still are privileged, even though they've faced hardships in their lives. "It’s...

Members of the tea party movement are “screw-loosers” who range from “sort of a generic racism” to “bald-faced racists,” and they tend to become further more racist the further the longer they associate with tea party ideas. Also, “tea partiers are not overly concerned about the economy,” love “gun rallies,” want power in the hands of white people and hate President Barack Obama because he “broke the white monopoly on the presidency.” Such was the message of a speaker on the first day of this year’s White Privilege Conference, currently happening at a posh hotel in downtown Louisville, Ky. The...