Robin DiAngelo’s best-selling book, White Fragility, is used in educational, corporate, and government sensitivity training to advance so-called social justice. White children in schools and white adults in government and businesses are told they are racists because they are white, and they must work at becoming less white. She tells white people to get over their white fragility (unwillingness to admit they are racists) and says, “I strive to be ‘less white.’ To be less white is to be less racially oppressive.”[1] To make it clearer that white people are inherently and, therefore, irredeemably white supremacists, DiAngelo says, “A positive white identity is an impossible goal. White identity is inherently racist.”[2] The racism of white people being inherent means it cannot be overcome.
In this popular resource, DiAngelo never mentions the foundation and source of the social justice she is advancing. But, in her more scholarly work, “Is Everyone Really Equal?” (which is not for everyone to read), she explicitly traces the basis of her teaching to the Frankfurt School, Critical Theory, and neo-Marxists like Herbert Marcuse, Max Horkheimer, and even Karl Marx himself.[3]
The Frankfurt School is where neo-Marxists sought to figure out why Marxism failed to spread to other countries like it did in Russia. They now believe they know why and seek to implement neo-Marxism, also known as cultural Marxism, through Critical Theory in America and elsewhere. Critical theory is precisely what DiAngelo and other critical race theorists advocate.
It seems obvious why she does not mention the Marxian origin of her ideas in literature for children and employees. But she and other critical theorists are not ashamed to reveal it when it serves their purpose: to deconstruct America, capitalism, and Christianity and replace them with Marxian socialism.
On March 25, 2021, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton introduced a bill to ban critical race theory teaching in the military of the United States. It may not get far, but it will bring to light more of the destructive teachings of these cultural Marxist ideas.
“Cotton introduced his bill after the U.S. Navy released its updated reading list, meant to ‘extend their personal and professional development,’ with the inclusion of How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. The Navy’s Second Fleet has also created its own book club to discuss White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.”[4]
Cotton’s bill bans the destructive teachings of critical theory. These theories teach “Anti-American and racist theories, such as ‘Critical Race Theory,’ teach that the United States is a fundamentally racist Nation, that the Constitution is a fundamentally racist document, and that certain races are fundamentally oppressive or oppressed.”[5] Article 2 (7) says, “Anti-American and racist theories, such as Critical Race Theory, teach students to distrust and even hate their country and fellow citizens.”[6] Among other destructive critical race theory teachings, it bans any teaching that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”[7] Others are speaking out as well. Governor Ron DeSantis banned critical race theory in Florida schools.[8] For current information on the spread of critical race theory in government and primary and secondary education, visit https://christopherrufo.com/.
Christopher Rufo is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and he initially exposed the teaching of critical race theory in our federal government. He just obtained a “trove of documents and videos” from a whistleblower proving that “Raytheon Technologies Corporation, the nation’s second-largest defense contractor, has launched an ‘anti-racism’ program that promotes critical race theory, rejects the principle of ‘equality,’ and instructs employees’ identify [their] privilege or else.”[9] Rufo also recently announced, “The nation’s largest teachers union has approved a plan to promote critical race theory in all 50 states and 14,000 local school districts. The argument that ‘critical race theory isn’t in K-12 schools’ is officially dead.”[10]
Do we really believe parents and companies want their children and employees to be called racists because they are white and taught America is irredeemably evil and needs to be replaced with socialism and, ultimately, communism? I think not. But everyone must speak out against these ideas in schools, businesses, government, and the public square.
[1] Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018), 150.
[2] Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018), 149.
[3] Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo, Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 2017), 25,26.
[4] Zachary Evans, “Cotton Introduces Bill to Ban Critical Race Theory Teaching in Military,” National Review, March 25, 2021, para. 4, https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cotton-introduces-bill-to-ban-critical-race-theory-teaching-in-military/, accessed 3/25/21.
[5] “Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act of 2021” 117th Congress, 1st session, Sec (2) (5), https://www.cotton.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CRT%20Military.pdf, accessed 3/25/21.
[6] “Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act of 2021” 117th Congress, 1st session, Sec (2) (7), https://www.cotton.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CRT%20Military.pdf, accessed 3/25/21.
[7] “Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act of 2021” 117th Congress, 1st session, Sec 3 (a) (5), https://www.cotton.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CRT%20Military.pdf, accessed 3/25/21.
[8] Sarah Mae Saliong, “Gov. Ron DeSantis Says Critical Race Theory Banned in Florida Schools, Will Not Teach Kids to Hate,” Christianity Daily, March 18, 2021, http://www.christianitydaily.com/articles/11205/20210318/gov-ron-desantis-says-critical-race-theory-banned-in-florida-schools-will-not-teach-kids-to-hate.htm, accessed 3/25/21.
[9] https://christopherrufo.com/the-woke-defense-contractor/?mc_cid=cb7c810927&mc_eid=8643c4840f accessed 7/7/21.
[10] Christopher F. Rufo, “BREAKING: The nation’s largest,” Twitter, July 3, 2021, https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1411473898491678720.
