Universities trying to teach a curriculum full of performative equity and inclusion are failing their students. Something which will cost Black and Brown people in the long run.  The way to teach about the intellectual diversity of humanity and to include all humanity is to just give an honest global accounting of it. That would include real diversity and equity. In Astronomy and Mathematics simply starting history from Mesopotamia and mentioning the names and dates when the formulas were found, or discoveries were made.  We live in a world where most Americans would want Hindu-Arabic numerals banned in schools.  Knowing this there is no way most people commenting on so called critical race theory know what they are talking about. Such is why we must dutifully continue to teach people about the fact that not all that is great and good in the world originated with Greece, Rome, and a few select places in East Asia.  If this offends people, then those people need to really take a deep look into themselves. 

If you are a college administrator, the best bet for getting a more woke environment is to hire the person to teach your class who most violates the stereotype of who should teach the class.  If you are college faculty remove all ethnocentrism from your course.  To the extent it matters who thought of what when, mention it without trying to focus on anyone.

A Woke But Rigorous STEM Education.

Administrators have the power to shape the faculty by who they hire.  Diverse faculty who are experts in their field teaching appropriately difficult courses backed up by administrators who understand that there will be those who complain about precisely that.  College administrators should seek to hire a qualified White person to teach Black studies, hire a qualified Black person to teach Math and Science, and someone from a group not stereotyped as athletic to coach the athletic teams.  Hire an utterly straight White man to teach Women’s and gender studies.

Show students that their preconceptions are wrong do not just tell them. Show them by who you choose to hire as faculty.

Being a professor, I have dealt with a lot of people who think that their group is more intelligent or less intelligent. If one comes into a class thinking it is a fact that certain groups are smarter, or stronger, or weaker, or less educable taking a class from anyone who violates those expectations can be unsettling.  Seek to unsettle such students by keeping your class appropriately challenging and fair.   If you are Black or Brown yeah do not dumb down anything you do in hopes of gaining approval.

Specifically in STEM

 

Any good scientist knows that from Arabic numerals to Algebra to Calculus that Mathematics was the invention of every culture on Earth.  Every culture had to be able to count at the minimum.  Every civilization had to use mathematics in the architecture of their buildings and planning of their cities.  There are people of every so-called race that contributed.  This is even more true for Astronomy.  Simply mention these facts as they come up in class. Mention the contributions to Astronomy from all groups, spend a minute or two discussing.  Even structure this into the syllabus.

This will unsettle students who think all knowledge only came from one group or the other.  Good.  Confusion is the best sign of deeper learning. 

Just as this article rested on my Substack, where I publish my views and opinions first, this very disturbing news item came to light.

Which well explains why it is outrageous to claim as follows, that the issues Black people are going on about are a relic of some bygone era. There are a LOT of us alive who were alive in 1951.

The Stranger Tale of Yeon-Mi Park At Columbia: The Failure of Progressive Education

That woke education is failing or backfiring is demonstrated by the backlash against the absurd ways it is being pursued.  The Black Holes might be racist course over at Cornell university just being one such example.  Another story doing the rounds has been the tale told by Yeon-Mi Park.

 For example, listening to Yeon-Mi Park on Timcast IRL.  She is clearly an intelligent enough international student who had to survive her own personal version of hell to come to the United States.  She would have come into a US college without any prior bias due to our school system.   She says slavery happened hundreds of years ago and so could not be a problem with lingering effects even now.  That is not the students’ fault for not learning it if it was not taught.  Even at a university level any recounting of US history needs to mention the dates 1619, 1865 and 1968 with vestiges of that long period of legal inferiority lasting into the late 1970’s.  

 

It also must be noted this is from someone who thinks that their country has one of the highest IQs of any in the world. So, some degree of racial/national supremacist thinking comes with such a person and clearly the woke education at Columbia did nothing to dispel that. Odds are, this is because of the indoctrination and hyper nationalism of the North Korean propaganda machine. A machine which I would wager needed to cast Americans as an opposite and which if it mentioned African Americans at all would not have been very nice to us. (Interesting perspective “30+ Ways Asians Perpetuate Anti-Black Racism Everyday” by Michelle Kim. Which, by the by can lead to anti Asian sentiments and explain the occurrence of hate crimes committed by Blacks against Asians. Which are by no means the majority of them.)

I will also note I support China Uncensored on Patreon have for 2 - 3 years.  They are right about communism and in a way her statements all show why it is bad.  The real issue is corrupt crony capitalism with big banks and insurance companies who are the corporate entities that once traded slaves getting bailed out while working people get evicted.  That will cause class-based conflict and lead to communism.  The struggle for civil rights and equity just lead to me being allowed to exist. 

Her take on Columbia University has been broadly consistent. I would like to hear from others who went there, especially those she may describe interacting with. Supposedly there was a gender-neutral person whose pronouns she did not respect in the supposedly oppressive school.  Though she does not report any actual discipline for that from a school that is worse than North Korea.  It also must be acknowledged that some of what she says might simply be pandering to what she thinks an audience wants to hear.  Taking things that really happened and adding a bit extra.

Which people with certain White supremacist leanings will gladly use to justify their attitudes.  The comment secion under that video is full of so many people so sure there can't be any injustice at all in the US (and a lot of straight male thirst like they've never seen a girl or something.) 

The above is the result of what a smart person who came to learn experienced that is the fault not of her but of a school that focused on performative wokeness.   Continuing to blast off at the mouth once one has realized their education wasn't great is.  The correct response is to try to learn more not to act as if there is nothing to learn.

Conclusion.

Failure to learn fundamental facts about history, science, mathematics etc. is not the fault of the student when the information is not taught.  The way to teach an inclusive and diverse science class is to simply teach the facts and who discovered them.  Pausing to mention Allen Turing in a course all about computer science or the role of Astronomy in the Mississippian culture will only bother a bigot.  Pausing to mention that the Pythagorean theorem, and geometry in general are fundamental to architecture from the pyramids onward can change minds.  

As for students who are not so fair minded so what.  If a student clings to ideas of racial superiority when presented with the fact that no single group did it all that is on them. 

Finally, a word on the K-12 level.  At that level academic freedom is not a thing. If your school board votes that you must somehow teach Lincoln but not slavery you have to do that.  Part of your job will be to educate people who think that critical thinking, diversity, equity, and humanity towards the LGBT community are subversive or Maoist. This is stressful to be sure, but a college course can be like one of those board meetings in a low-key sort of way.  The parents are adults, as are college students.  Treat them like that, that may sound supercilious, it is a little, but it is true.  That is a truth that unsettles people. 

We are the ones who have done the work to know what critical race theory is and that it is not critical thinking skills, it is also not a Marxist conspiracy.  (Though many Black scholars are Marxist and will try to use the racial struggle to implement a Marxist agenda the correct response to that is to give an alternative way to struggle not claim there is no struggle).

Facing down ignorance is our duty to humanity. I for one am armoring up over this summer for battle over this in the fall.  Into the breach I will go and teach that Astronomy and Geometry were not invented by the Greeks but are a common heritage of all mankind.  This will be called CRT either to my face or in a complaint by someone who is ignorant but will not be once I am done.

Update related to the whole Critical Race Theory Issue

Newseek hosted a very insightful debate about Critical Race Theory which I found illuminating and want to share it here.

This youtube video also does a good job addressing it. It is not wrong to say there is SOME Marxist influences in it. That's not a central part of it.