Understanding Our Present — CRT: Part II

Posted on by under education, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary, voting rights

In Part I, I provided a bit of the history of racism in the U.S., how it started and how it has expanded and morphed through the centuries.  Today, I want to talk a bit more at length about Critical Race Theory, the facts vs the rhetoric we’ve all been hearing from certain politicians and the likes of Fox ‘News’.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) proposes that racism is systemic, that it is built into our very foundations and institutions, for it has been a part of the “American Way” since the first white settlers landed on the Eastern shores of this nation.  Contrary to what you have heard by people such as Tucker Carlson, CRT is NOT taught in elementary nor secondary schools today, though I would argue vehemently that it should be.  If we teach our children only half of the story, then we are painting a picture of a nation that simply does not exist.  If we teach about how the thirteen colonies so bravely fought the British for their independence in the 18th century, if we teach about the heroes from that effort, then we must also teach them about the fact that even 17 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 owned slaves!  We must also teach them that 8 of the nation’s first 12 presidents were also slave owners.  This, too, is part of our history.

How many times of late have you heard it said that the U.S. is not a racist nation, or is the least racist nation in the world?  I’ve heard it far too many times from those who are either ignorant, are wearing blinders by choice, or have an ulterior motive (politicians).  Think about how many unarmed Black people have been killed by police … with little or no provocation.  And if that doesn’t convince you, look closer to home.  In your own community there likely resides at least one ‘Karen’.  For those who may not know, ‘Karen’ is the latest buzzword for a white female who considers herself privileged, socially superior to others, especially Black people.  She is the one who calls the police demanding the neighbor kids’ lemonade stand be shut down, or demanding Black residents be removed from the apartment complex swimming pool.  She’s the one who calls the police saying a Black man is threatening her, when all he did was ask her nicely to put her dog on a leash in the park.  And Karen is the woman who comes out of her house with a loaded gun threatening to shoot peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters who are simply walking past her house, on the sidewalk, on their way to the mayor’s office.  If there is no racism in the U.S., then how do you explain these Karens?

Patricia McCloskey, St. Louis, Missouri, 28 June 2020

Critical Race Theory was developed by legal scholars in the 1970s as a way to explain the lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.  So, it has been around for nearly 50 years, yet today, all of a sudden, it is causing an uproar, primarily led by the Republican Party who has convinced a great many people that this is some evil being perpetrated on white people to … what?  I’ve heard a number of ridiculous claims – that CRT is being taught in schools in order to make schoolchildren hate white people.  This is an outright lie.  There is little to no evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it, such as lingering consequences of slavery, have been and should be taught.

Those who rail against CRT are the same ones you’ve heard say that they fear Caucasians becoming a minority in this nation.  WHO CARES???  I don’t care if there are more white people, more Black people, more Hispanic people … I care what’s inside those people, not their skin colour for Pete’s sake!  Personally, I think brown and black skin is much more attractive than white skin anyway!  But, let me tell you something … once you look beneath the skin, everything looks exactly alike no matter what the person’s skin colour was.  The heart is shaped the same, the two kidneys are exactly the same.  The difference is non-existent.

Nobody with an education and a functional mind can deny that this nation does have some very dark areas in its history, and neither can they deny that racism is still very much alive and well in the U.S.  So why all of a sudden has Critical Race Theory become such a controversial topic?  Let’s take a look at that …

You remember last summer, after the brutal murder of George Floyd by then-police officer Derek Chauvin that there were many Black Lives Matter protests around the nation, and even in other nations around the globe, including France and the UK.  Those protests were largely peaceful by the Black community, however agitators were sent in by the likes of the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups to start trouble, and ultimately BLM protests received much negative press.  At the time, we had a very much racist person in the Oval Office and he began attacking anything that dealt with America’s racist past … or present.  He cancelled diversity training in the various branches of government, he slammed the New York Times’ very worthy 1619 Project, and every other attempt to shine a light on our racist past, including … you guessed it … Critical Race Theory.  He even issued an executive order banning federal contractors from conducting racial sensitivity training, emphasizing his desire to stop “efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex- and race-based ideologies.”

Fox “News” jumped on the bandwagon, as did Republican lawmakers at both the state and federal level, and today there are 27 states that are trying to make any form of anti-racist teaching or training against the law!

Y’know … if you spill grease on your carpet, you can cover it up with a rug so nobody sees it, but the grease is still there, the stain is spreading, and someday somebody will trip over that rug and expose your ugly stain.  More importantly, that grease is damaging the foundation, the flooring beneath the carpet.

The Republican Party has turned the term Critical Race Theory into its boogeyman of the year, claiming that schools are teaching children that those with white skin are inherently evil (hmmmm … sounds familiar, only in reverse).  They are telling parents that CRT poses a threat to parental control of the world views of their own children — as “brainwashing” or “indoctrination” rather than as simply encouragement to think critically and independently.  And good ol’ Fox ‘News’ is doing its share to promote the lies, having mentioned CRT no less than 1,300 times since March!

In Nevada, where critical race theory hysteria is only just beginning, a conservative group suggested that teachers wear body cameras to ensure they’re not teaching critical race theory. In Loudoun County, Virginia, a group of conservative parents is attempting to recall school board members after the district required teacher training in “systemic oppression and implicit bias.”

I’ve rambled enough tonight, given you enough to ponder and chew on.  Far too many people simply do not understand that CRT is merely a way of understanding and explaining why racist ideology is still built into our institutions, our laws, schools, and courts.  It is not an evil developed to undermine that which is, or once was, good about this nation, but to try to point out the bad as well, so that we can correct our way of thinking and NOT make the same mistakes we’ve made in the past, to become a better nation.  We do our children a disservice when we teach them only the bright, shining points of the nation’s history, for what we are today is a compilation of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  You cannot simply erase the bad and the ugly.

I don’t plan on a Part III to this series, for I think I’ve said most of what I wanted to say, however … if anybody would like to ask questions or start further discussion on the topic, I would be more than happy to devote another post to it.  Racism … all forms of bigotry … is one of the issues nearest and dearest to my heart, and anytime I can help people better understand, I’m happy to do so.

60 thoughts on “Understanding Our Present — CRT: Part II”

  1. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
    I wonder what Martin Luther King would have made of Patrisse Cullors and her fellow organisers who call themselves trained Marxists. The same Patrisse Cullors who has reportedly purchased four high-end homes in the US for $3.2 million. I’m guessing that he would have found the content of their characters lacking. As for you, I hope your hair shirt itches. You idiot.

    Like

    • Well … there are two parts to that. It is difficult for those of us who have a conscience to be proud of our heritage when it included slavery, Jim Crow, the murder of Native Americans and more. But … the second part is we should all do our best to make the next generation proud of who we were … more proud than we are of our own ancestors. The only way racism is going away is when all of us … people of every nationality, ethnicity, skin colour, religion, gender, etc … accept others as they are, as equals. Thus far, I do not see that happening.

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    • You are so right! White privilege run amok! And I fully agree that there needs to be conversation, not one-sided monologue, but you can’t even get everyone to come to the table. I’ve tried on at least two different occasions to start real conversation, civil discourse, but it quickly breaks down into name-calling and yelling rather than listening. Sigh.

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  4. Thank you for sharing!!… unfortunately for Mr. Pence is today’s technology and knowledge.. the whole world has been watching him over time and being a Republican and at least one time Trump supporter his words may fall on deaf ears… 🙂

    I, for one, believe that learning should began at home… society, schools and other forms of education and knowledge adds to that learning.. if one is growing up in a n environment that is contrary to what is taught in school, more than likely what is taught in school will be forgotten the second class is over… 🙂

    There are many who are in denial and have a image to maintain… they will have negative reaction to anything that challenges their ideology or image… especially in the world of faith based beliefs.. 🙂
    As Ray Stevens said “there are none so blind as he who will not see”…

    Until we meet again..
    May flowers always line your path
    and sunshine light your way,
    May songbirds serenade your
    every step along the way,
    May a rainbow run beside you
    in a sky that’s always blue,
    And may happiness fill your heart
    each day your whole life through.
    (Irish Saying)

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    • Mr. Pence did have the courage to make his comment but as they say in the game of chance “a card laid is a card played” and one doesn’t pick it up and play another because it did not get the results one wanted… 🙂

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    • Thanks, Dutch! I agree that learning should … and does … start at home, but here’s the thing … far too many parents these days hold bigoted views and it is those views they impart to their children. The most obvious one, of course, being race/ethnicity, but also anti-LGBTQ, religious bigotry, and even misogynistic views. So, if the child is learning all this at home, how do we teach him to be more open, more accepting of others, more compassionate toward all? In some cases, I think parents shouldn’t even be allowed to live in the same home with their children! I’m beginning to lose hope in the human species, my friend.

      Thank you for the beautiful Irish Saying!

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      • Learning begins at home but does not stop there.. keep doing what you are doing while working with others, having your voices being heard.. “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” (Emily Dickinson)… 🙂

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  5. Should it be taught in elementary schools? Secondary schools, OK. But ya know .. there’s power in learning things that you don’t learn in school. As someone who read everything that came her way, I remember that WOW when I first read “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” (in eighth grade … I still have the paperback I bought … at a school book fair) & all the other things I read that opened my eyes to the reality of man’s inhumanity to man … & how all this was suppressed by the powers that be.

    I taught my son these things … sometimes you have to teach your children the things that aren’t taught in school. There’s a LOT of things like this.

    Take control of these things. Stop asking the schools to do it all. I learned more from books, from my grandparents, from watching the body bags on CBS news as a kid, listening carefully to Walter Cronkite, than I ever did in school. & I got a GREAT education … I came up in the 60s & 70s & I went to some of the best schools in NY & MA.

    It’s not all the schools. Parents have a responsibility.

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    • It’s not all the schools but it helps when it is. Schools can conform to a pattern of teaching across the country where parents sometimes only teach their children according to their own inherited beliefs. If those beliefs are inclusive of racism that’s what the child learns. At least if the school teaches otherwise he child has the opportunity maybe to challenge and learn. Some don’t have computers at home or access to smart phones and live in a State where most children learn the same thing at home. Children learn from formulating and asking questions and school is the best place to get answers if all the schools teach the same. When some schools teach the word of the bible is Gospel (pun intend) and cannot be deviated from and questions are unwelcome, or that black people are the biggest recipients of welfare and are lazy and there’s no challenge then that’s what they learn to believe. School helps gives the true answer. Who said parents should be trusted with their children?
      Huge Hugs

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    • To an extent, I agree with you, for I was like you and read everything I could get my hands on when I was young, so I quickly realized that the history courses at school were leaving some things, seemed to me some important things, out of the lessons! However, the thing is that especially in this, the day of the video games, cell phones, etc., not as many young people are reading on their own, they are more attached to their electronic devices.

      To your second point, I partly agree … my daughter and I homeschooled my granddaughter for 12 years and she has a college-level education, far more knowledgeable than most high school graduates at the time. But … again … today’s parents are often consumed by religious fervor or racism and bigotry, and I’m not sure they can be counted on to teach their children the things they need to know to grow into responsible, compassionate adults. Some parents will take control and do a better job than the schools could, but others … will turn their children into the same sort of bigots that they are. This cycle must stop.

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  6. Brilliant piece Jill. Thank you for shedding light on CRT. Once again, just another way for the GOP to divide America. Frankly, it’s all they’re good at.

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    • Thanks, Jeff!!! I read an article this morning that the current feeding frenzy about CRT is similar to the one about Sharia Law a few years back. I remember that … people were making all sorts of false claims about how children were being taught in schools to follow Allah and reject the Christian god, how Sharia Law was becoming the law of the land. None of which was true, of course, but ignorance is rampant in this country, fed upon by the likes of Fox ‘News’. Sigh. Yes, of late it truly seems as if the Republican Party’s goal is to “divide and conquer” … and it seems to be working. You and I have our work cut out for us, partner!

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      • Yes we do. They’re a dangerous political party-led by one of the most dangerous men in the country in my view: the former guy. I saw on Twitter the other day where the RNC Chairwoman, Ronna Romney, was quoted that she said Republican Party needed to move on from Trump. I hope that’s true. I haven’t heard or saw her say this. But that’s what is needed. More courage-less cowards!!!

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        • Hah! I have serious doubts that Ronna McDaniel said such a thing, for she has gone beyond even one of his bootlickers and has licked … well … we’ll leave it at that. She was the one who said he would remain the head of the Republican Party even after he was out of office. I want to see the GOP crash and burn in the midterms … most every one of them ousted … and then maybe, just maybe they’ll wake up to the reality that they are no longer a viable political party, but only a conspiracy-laden bunch of assholes! Sigh. If you find an ounce of courage in the Republican Party, let me know, for we should bottle it and save it for posterity.

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  8. Pingback: Understanding Our Present — CRT: Part II | Filosofa’s Word | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  9. Jill, systemic racism has existed since people ruled other people. The fear of the other is a means to control the masses in your command. It is others’ fault, even when the so-called leader is the one who let people down. The US is no different.

    Not only has racism been a part of our history, so has the whitewashing of said history. Those in power have done their best to hide the truth. The FBI did their darnedest to prevent whites from hearing Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” about horrific torture and lynching. The white coup in Wilmington, NC to unseat a majority black city council was abetted and rationalized by Raleigh News and Observer articles.

    The separate but unequal treatment of black and native Americans in stores, public buildings, the voting booths, etc. were all systemic. The systemic racism just did not go away when LBJ signed two civil rights laws. It continued openly as well as discreetly.

    One final point that needs to be said, as the message that is being used is “minority” The demographic projections note that whites will not be a majority, but a plurality, which is different. This means there will be more whites than other demographic groups, but it is scarier to tell whites they will be a minority. But, even if the latter is true, don’t you think people should try to get along rather than the converse? Keith

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    • Of late, it seems to me that we are not ever going to overcome bigotry in all its many forms, including racism. Take women’s rights, for example … we women have come a long way, but this remains very much a male-dominated society and even in this, the 21st century, certain groups of men are attempting to take away more of women’s rights. The same, of course, is true with racism and homophobia. But, however hopeless it seems, however futile it appears to keep fighting, I think we must keep fighting, for otherwise the bigots will own the world. So, I shall keep trying to at least make people stop and think, to be the antithesis to Fox. Sigh. And yes, I fully agree with you … people should put as much effort into trying to get along as they put into their cruel, hateful ways.

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      • Jill, what frustrates us both is that the US seems to have regressed some the past five years, maybe ten. On the flip side, the arc toward the truth is a long one. I do look at the example of interracial marriage as a good one. When Loving v Virginia was decided in the 1960s, SCOTUS was ahead of the nation on this. Yet, today interracial marriages are about 1/6 of marriages and it is very common to see interracial couples in TV ads, my thinking to appeal to a larger universe of buyers. Same sex marriage has moved more to acceptance since SCOTUS made its decision in the last ten years (I do recognize there remain a hard core few who do not support this, but they are in the minority). Keith

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        • It has definitely regressed in the past 5 years, but it began even before that, as Republicans resented our Black president and began the current downward spiral. You’re right, though … we have come to accept interracial marriages as the norm now, and a part of our society is also coming to accept homosexuality as the norm, though others still bitterly fight it. I do fear that the current Court may get a case that tests Obergefell v Hodges and I’m not sure I trust them not to overturn it, though that would be a disaster, a nightmare. But yes, in some ways we have moved forward … a little.

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          • Jill, the reason I think in the acceleration on same sex marriage issue is many people know someone who is LGBTQ+.. The reason same sex marriage was ruled constitutional is those who do not like it “do not have standing.” In other words,, two people marrying does not impact someone else whether they like it or not. Keith

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  10. Just imagine if the United States was not segregated, how much we could have learned of and from each other so that CRT would not have become a controversy?! Blacks did not move from the cities to suburbs because Blacks moved in. It was Whites that made the exodus after Blacks moved into the suburbs. How did the counties handled that? By hiring more developers to build more suburbs. After generations of constructive segregation, we have a nation where a good majority of the population only know OF people of different colors — not personally know THEM.

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    • Oh yes, you are so right! Diversity, different cultures … all add value and depth to our experiences. However, it seems that far too many people prefer an insulated life, never stepping outside their comfort zone. Your last sentence is so spot-on … too many people only know OF Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, etc., but never take the opportunity to actually get to KNOW them.

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      • That is how the Confederacy won the American Civil War. Still today, they don’t recognize the physical loss because they won the psychological war of White Supremacy, and inequalities of all others. Just think, it would be impossible to suppress the votes of Blacks and change districts, if not but for segregation.

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        • I never thought about it that way before, but yes, they did win … to some extent … the psychological war and today certain elements are playing on the fears of “other” to return us to a segregated society where only ‘white’ has value. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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  12. I still can’t help but wonder what the male version of Karen is because they’re certainly there, on t phone to the police because a black me stands outside his/ their house., anywhere in fact. It is strange tat CRT has been around for 50 years and now it becomes weaponised by the likes of Tucker Carlson who himself has little claim to humanity.
    Trump undid a lot of good in his time. Now, all racial awareness training should be made mandatory, not least within the police forces around the country. But there should be a law via the Federal Government that stamps out all racial profiling and ensures that there is no more vote fixing to ensure some section of society can’t vote.Maybe even using the Impossible Solution mentioned above by Roger. Nice piece thanks.
    Cwtch

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    • You are 100% right … there are likely as many male versions of ‘Karen’ as there are female. BUT … you must remember that ours is still, contrary to what many would claim, very much a male-dominated society, so when men do it, people turn a blind eye in most cases. Heck, we have members of Congress who are male ‘Karens’, and they get by with it day after day.

      I saw an article this morning comparing this recent hysteria over CRT to the one a few years back about Sharia Law, where people were claiming their children were being taught to follow Allah and turn away from the Christian god in school, and that Sharia Law was going to become the law of the land. States jumped into the fray then, too, and about half the states began passing laws against teaching anything remotely related to Islam. It would seem that people are bored with their quiet little lives and need an enemy, real or imagined, need something to hate.

      Yes, Roger’s 4th option makes a great deal of sense, but … remember that we are dealing with a large amount of ignorance in this country, and that ignorance is fed a steady diet of lies by the likes of Fox ‘News’ and a number of politicians. Sigh. I really don’t see a solution at this point.

      Cwtch

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      • Just to summarise that Jill (thanks for the mention)…Take ’em on. Roughhouse. Call them out, ridicule them, expose their hypocrisies, hound them, give them no peace until they see the error of their ways, or give up. The Liberals / Democrats are still playing ‘nice’.

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        • Indeed, even I have thought the Democrats are being far nicer than they should be. If they don’t get tough, then all is lost and come 2024 we will lie down and give up to the new dictator. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

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          • If it’s a crumb of comfort, one thing you won’t get in the USA is a dictator with the power that Stalin or Kim Jong-un to name but two held.
            The USA is a conglomerate of races, cultures, societies and outlooks, often overlapping or sometimes like the tectonic plates of the planet grinding together (which is what you are getting now).
            You can see from the events of 2016 onwards what happens when someone tries that. Any group that now tries and imposes its will in that form nationwide, will get kick back.
            The only feasible dictator in the USA would be one that preaches patriotism and equality above all else, and even then it would be a rocky road.

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            • No doubt you are right about that, for the “American people” are far too stubborn to lie down and take it. However, what an authoritarian as the former guy hoped to be will sever the nation. We already have this huge divide, and all it would take would be a wanna-be dictator to take an axe or a chainsaw to the thin thread that is keeping us together, and POOF! We become a conglomeration of states all working at cross-purposes, all fighting one another … {shudder}. Hugs to you and Sheila, my friend!

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              • That is an unfortunate circumstance which is a choice the people of the USA are facing, because this one is not a simple geographical divide.
                The option is to work to resist it, otherwise in years to come you will have that conglomeration. There will still be a central apparatus because of the nuclear arsenal ‘thing’, but it will be expected to just defend the conglomerate against outside military invasion; that however is not the only way you get a piece of real estate under your control. The British could be pretty astute at sneaking in.
                Hence the observation by a 19th century Italian writer;
                ‘Of course the sun never sets on the British Empire. God would never trust an Englishman in the dark,’
                Hugs back to you and yours Jill

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                • Quite so … there are those from both sides on nearly every street in this country. We have both on my own very short street … one with a Trump bumper sticker, and me with my Black Lives Matter and I Miss Obama stickers! I just cannot imagine what it will be like if the tensions are dialed up any more notches, if the Great Divide becomes such a wide chasm that we cannot even see the other side. Maybe we’re almost there already. The solution, however, the thing that draws this nation back together, may come from outside the U.S.

                  I love that quote by the Italian writer … it made me laugh!!!

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                  • It may well Jill. You can never be sure.
                    The Great Britain, as it was then back in the early 20th century came close to a civil war situation over Irish Home rule and coupled with Industrial Action by workers, it looked toxic.
                    Then came along WWI…..and the world took another direction.
                    Annnd to any Conspiracy Folk out there…no it was not started deliberately to avoid that, read unbiased histories first (lots of them) before you comment. If there had been a fracture in GB, at least one of the Great Powers would have taken advantage and there still would have been ‘A WWI.’

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                    • What I’m seeing is another nation taking advantage of our vulnerabilities to … not necessarily start a war, but bring the U.S. to a grinding halt. Russia has that capability today, and perhaps China for all I know. No war needed, only a few well-placed EMPs to shut down the entire country.

                      And yes, given the climate at the time, WWI was inevitable, as was WWII. Hopefully there will never be a third version.

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                    • Of course, the other way is to buy up bits and invest in a few politicians, which is the path China is taking.
                      Russia broods on the subject and sews division; it’s another old trick. ‘Polezni Durak’ is the Russian for ‘Useful Idiots’; they used to cultivate them in the European Left; now they found VERY fertile ground in the American Right.

                      I have a theory WWIII started back sometime in the 1970s when various groups of folk decided they could take on the big established powers. Vietnam had shown the way, then in Iran the cultural undercurrent blindsided the USA, while in Afghanistan they knocked down the USSR, then all comers. By then most folk had decided Communism was a sterile bust and returned to the more comfortable idea of their culture and their religion as a means to rally support. Then there were off shoot, such as the pirates operating of the eastern coasts of the African continent and the demagogue warlords masking their egos behind religion. It’s a kind of Post-Colonial mash-up inflamed by all manner of populist movements, right across the world, all linked in cause and effect, because of the speed of communications.
                      I reckon we only notice it when something flairs up on our doorsteps such a a long range commando raid (terrorist) or organised or random or the intolerant sweeping generalisation that all of ‘one sort’ are the enemies. Or the occasional conventional war activity. (lots of those going on)
                      Some folk are in denial over this and invent Illuminate Conspiracies or decide to try and divide up into Good and Bad guys…As if it were so fairy tale simple.

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    • Thanks David for the Mention. I’ve been ‘gaming’ the Impossible as an exercise; it doesn’t work; it keeps ending up with a Stalin, a Mao or that ilk. I reserve it now for ranting purposes. That one was more a warning of what could happen if things keep on as they are. 2nd is a possibility, 4th is the only way to keep the USA as the USA .

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  13. There are four options:
    You take the hopeful, liberal and true bedrock teachings on Tolerance and you work very hard for many decades, centuries even until you have purged the nation of this infection.
    You say ‘It’s all up with the USA’ and allow states (regions / cities) to go their own way unless you have a loose set up like the EU (or going back a piece The Holy Roman Empire), where some areas are liberal and devoid of racism as an institution and some are places of Intolerance and Ignorance.
    You take the Impossible ( for the USA that is) solution. You say ‘No More’, and you make it a crime, you imprison those guilty into re-education you vigorously supress any signs of support…. that’s the ugly solution, not recommended.
    Finally you take the propaganda war (screw weak words like ‘fake news’- that’s whimpy). You broadcast out from all directions that a House Divided cannot stand and that in unity there is strength and (these are deliberate ‘ands’ for emphasis) any attempt at division of the nation is unpatriotic, and so on….
    In the UK we actually have a ‘soft’ version of the Third but there’s too much leeway for my liking.

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    • Well, needless to say I like the 4th option best, but I’m not sure where to even begin! And there’s a part of me that actually likes the 3rd option, too … just tell them to “sit down and shut up”, and if they don’t, then toss ’em in the clink! But, sigh, obviously that doesn’t solve the problem and ultimately there would be a rebellion with thousands of lives lost.

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      • I’ve been over this with myself arguing with my authoritarian socialist identity. It don’t work. Probably said this before, it requires a group of folk who are strictly devoted to the running of a state and are devoid of failings, favouritism and with a clear selfless perspective. Now, if by chance you get that group you have to hope the next generation of leaders are exactly the same and the next one. No chance. It’s a road to corruption, nepotism and personal tyranny.
        A robust and muscular fourth option is the USA’s best hope but it will require a large number of folk who are willing to get behind a leadership who can take on the White Privilege Cabal in a public arena and ‘tear them a fresh one’ in debate. No holds barred. And no in-fighting either; disciplined army is required.

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