The Power of Prejudice
By: Jim Aziere
Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
Author of The Sixteenth Street Chronicles, Where Violence Met Character
We now wake up each morning and find our country in a stricken world deeply affected by the policies of billionaires who use their money for selfish empowerment to assert their beliefs on the masses. They have trampled our Constitution and unscrupulously attacked traditional family values.
The unjustified terror of the left that we have witnessed as they subverted protests and manipulated elections has now been redirected to socially engineering Americans through the use of censorship, cancel culture, and doxing. This oligarchy controls many of the country’s political policies and has succeeded in socially dividing the population over controversial issues such as Covid-19 and by pitting blacks against whites over racial issues.
Dr. Derrick Bell, Harvard law professor and Marxist, was the father of the Critical Race Theory. It potentially has become the most malignant social policy being taught in American schools across the country, and in no small measure, it is a deliberate assault on the white race.
A voice within us cries out to understand, comprehend, and articulate where we are as a nation today. The issues that are driving black leaders who claim to be marked by the stigmatism of slavery past and deem that the white culture must be destroyed appears to be a betrayal of friendship between two races as we edge into the Twenty-first Century.
The search for reason ends at the “known” that helps us understand their convictions, and aids in determining the resolution of the problem. The spirit of aptitude comes immediately to a halt with the assertion of any prejudiced statement because no matter how we articulate the argument, the discussion has been based on illogical conclusions. The power of prejudice has overcome this process and has become a driving force in the political arena.
Examples of the power of prejudice are numerous. The 1619 Theory purported that the primary reason for the American Revolution was to preserve slavery. The Critical Race Theory adamantly claims all whites were guilty of the institution of slavery before, during, and after the Civil War, and were prejudiced against all black Americans, and their ancestors must be punished.
Howard Zinn’s, The Peoples History of the United States, a highly used textbook used in public schools, teaches students that the United States as a country has created more bad results in the world than good.
The Oregon Board of Education states that showing your self-worth and finding the right answer in math are examples of white supremacy.
An essay by Paul Rossi, an outstanding teacher at Grace School in New York City forced out of teaching because he opposed the implementation of the Critical Race Theory, describes the crisis in the United States. I had already picked up a rift about compelling practices in the school district my grandchildren attended. Several parents had withdrawn their children and enrolled them in private schools. It became clear that what Rossi witnessed was trickling across the country.
Antiracist training sounds righteous, but to characterize the black race as oppressed victims cultivated by white race supremacy through privilege cannot be a legitimate target but rather a prejudiced statement. Anyone who disagrees becomes a target of the left and is accused of being part of the problem.
Segregated sessions are commonplace during these school sessions, and the metastasis of the Critical Race Theory becomes an assault on a child by labeling their objectivity, individualism, and virtues as vices of “white supremacy” that are shameful.
The Critical Race Theory was purposely designed to attack and dismantle the white culture. It focuses a student’s attention on their skin color and then compares the success differences between blacks of African descent and whites of European descent, but it completely ignores people of Asiatic and continental American descent.
The theory contends that habits and traits that lead to success constitute white supremacy. Anti-racist training seeks to inhibit opportunities for children to develop those qualities by making them feel shameful, and by dismantling advanced coursework to put whites on the same level as black Americans.
When someone tries to destroy the good character traits and the strong spirit to achieve great things in life, it is classified as a personal assault. By beginning this indoctrination in the early grades, Marxists will be able to thwart the dynamics of behavior that lead to the highly motivated success of white children.
It makes no difference on what side of the fence you are standing, the guilt of prejudiced behavior remains equally unacceptable no matter the source. Labels may be derogatory, but unsound reasoning destroys accuracy and cripples the way to problem-solving.
Every human has the propensity to experience struggles and anxiety. I was a dyslexic child with an average physique who attended Catholic schools through twelfth grade. After failing second grade, I felt broken and abandoned. When I watched my friends move on without me, school seemed useless and pointless.
Encouragement and direction gradually helped me develop a strong work ethic. My teachers and coaches taught me that I could still learn, but it would be at a slower pace and require a lot of work. “Inch by inch, anything is a cinch,” they told me. Learning to believe in myself was a life-renewing power and just passing a class became a new threshold. I felt such contentment.
After I graduated from high school as a “C” student and received the Most Outstanding Athlete Award, I entered college. My highest score on the ACT Test was fourteen and I was reading at the ssixth-grade level.
The very character traits I had learned from my teachers and coaches in high school propelled me the next four years. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education in just eight semesters, and again, I was academically a “C” student.
I found myself in touch with something beyond the ordinary, and it did not have a color bar. There was a deep place within my heart for those who had led me to success in the classroom. I wanted desperately to help students as my teachers did me, and to teach students to have those same expectations.
As a teacher and coach for the past 57 years, I feel compelled to step forward. Only the foolish optimist denies the darkness of the moment. I believe it is a clear course of duty to stand up to the fallacious practice of deceiving children through the Critical Race narrative and pressuring their colleagues to conform to the opinions of socialist teachers.
There are faculty members who remain silent to protect their personal and professional standing, and, at the end of the past school year, we witnessed an exodus of teachers leaving the profession.
When I began teaching in 1965, social engineering was not part of public-school mission statements. When did that change? How did the Oregon Department of Education gain the power to take over the minds of the children in public schools?
During my 35 years in the classroom and 57 years in the athletic arena, I accomplished this goal year after year in a completely diverse community with students at every academic level and physical stature. I succeeded as a teacher and coach because I had experienced firsthand the answer to success that results from good character.
Character does not have a skin color, and positive traits are a requirement to become a fully functioning successful person. I learned this from my teachers and coaches who were of every race. The attainment of privileges becomes a matter of ambition, motivation, and hard work over a long period of time, and we learn these from our role models.
I find it totally appalling that a Harvard professor would suggest that white people have cornered the market on good behavior and work ethics. Bell’s theory insults the integrity and social credit of a multitude of black individuals whose great successes were achieved against incredible odds.
We are by nature, different races, and cultures, and that happens to be a splendid element in humans. White grapes and dark grapes grow on an identical trail of wooded stems. It would be unrealistic to try to cultivate them together on a single vine, but each of these must be nurtured and cherished for their unique qualities and appreciated for what they bring to the table.
If we as a species are going to survive, it will not be from social engineering of the left. It will be from the lessons of good parents, religious convictions, and coaches that teach us that good character traits evolve around love, and respect for one another, and allow us to persevere when the challenges are the greatest. We have a strong representation of black coaches and teachers in the field accomplishing this goal daily.
The clash between the Marxist Critical Race Theory and the supporters of our constitutions has become a struggle to answer a simple character theory. Life must have a purpose, and you must know who you are and for what your stand. There is a difference between good and bad, right and wrong, correct and incorrect, and they do not always match up. Being able to make the best choice reflects in our behavior. For example, “you can’t call a fat lady fat” even though it is true. Good character does not allow that.
Who will be in control of teaching and learning the character theory, a Marxist government controlling public schools, or parents and children in a free society?
