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Race a ‘social construct’? Superintendent says it is

Suzanne Downing
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29
Race a ‘social construct’? Superintendent says it is

‘HOSTAGE APOLOGY’ TOUR CONTINUES FOR PEOPLE IN AUTHORITY

In a letter to parents of the Anchorage School District last week, Superintedent Dr. Deena Bishop adopted language normally reserved for the gender-fluidity warriors of the world: “Social construct.” It means that race is a society idea and is not really real.

In her letter that focused on race and education, Bishop wrote:

“Race is a social construct we are taught from birth. It matters to all of us. Race influences how we live, who our friends are, the quality of our health, the schools we attend, the careers we have, and all too often, how much money we make. The white experience I was given at my birth is not a universal experience. Therefore, I must see race as I lead in ASD,” she continued.

The concept of a “social construct” has been applied to the science of gender by liberals, who contend that gender is not a matter of chromosomes, but is a made-up human idea.

Race, the social justice movement now argues, falls into the same flawed thinking. Race is not a matter of heritage or what you get back from your Ancestry.com swab test. There are no races in the human species, just variations.

[Read this essay on race as a social construct to understand more about the topic.]

“How one perceives her racial identity can shift with experience and time, and not simply for those who are multiracial. These shifts in racial identity can end in categories that our society, which insists on the rigidity of race, has not even yet defined,” wrote Angela Onwuachi-Willig, a professor of law at the University of Iowa College of Law, and is the author of “According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family.”

It becomes more complicated in an era when the social justice war cry is “black lives matter,” at the same time it’s considered racist to say “all lives matter.”

Most parents in the Anchorage School District are probably not familiar with the “race as a social construct” ideology, but many do realize that Anchorage schools are among the most diverse in the nation, and that students are tracked by “race.” The community often brags about having the most diverse student body in the country, information that could only be reported if it was gathered.

But for education leaders in the current politically and racially charged environment, every statement is a trap.

Bishop’s letter then waded into an area that eventually was going to get her in trouble with the social justice warrior class. She wrote that black and brown students do not achieve what white students achieve.

“We must do better for all kids. The School Board, in setting its new goals, has also taken a deliberate stance to address the inequities within our schools, ranging from learning to discipline,” wrote Bishop.

It was a statement of fact and many would agree the schools throughout Alaska are not adequately educating students.

But by Tuesday night, Bishop, who is highly respected in education across the state, was walking back her letter after African-American members of the public complained, both in writing to her and during public testimony at the meeting.

“The language places the blame on students of color,” said Celeste Growden, during the public comment period, when she also criticized the superintendent for her support of school resource officers.

Growden said the school resource officer program need to be defunded because police in the schools are not providing a good climate for students of color.

“To suggest SROs should continue in our schools after a conversation with the police chief, [and] not families of color within our community or our students, is a top-down approach that continues the disenfranchisement of our students,” Growden said. “We must demand more and expect more from our school district.”

Two other commenters criticized Bishop harshly for racial insensitivity.

Bishop was contrite in her explanation for her letter, saying that it is important that the district understand where it stands, that it must “look in the mirror.” She said she didn’t mean to blame the students of color but simply look at where the differences in achievement are with fresh eyes.

“Perhaps my letter didn’t communicate my intent as well as I would have liked,” she said.

But evidently there are races, after all. Bishop, in her report, said that the racial group least reflected in educators who are in the front of the classroom is not black, but Pacific Islander, and the district is actively trying to grow its own educator workforce by paying for the college education of minorities who want to go into teaching, with a special focus on this group.

Overall, she acknowledged the difficulty of having a discussion about race when emotions are running high in the minority communities.

“There aren’t any excuses if I didn’t communicate well, and it didn’t sit well with folks, but it just demonstrates that probably because of the emotions that it’s something that we should be addressing in ASD, and I’m willing to do so,” Bishop responded.

A school-community discussion about the school resource officer program is scheduled for 4 pm July 21. The board, the administration, school resource officers, and members of the community will be welcomed.

Time for Eagle River’s exit

Suzanne Downing
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26
Time for Eagle River’s exit

By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO

How do we inspire the reconnection of our local communities to what is real?  

As we, who keep our eyes peeled on national media outlets, the inestimable waste, destruction, and disrespect of our American institutions in the lower 48 appears very real. We are looking at the incineration of major communities. Hundreds of U.S. communities. 

Homes, businesses, and other edifices already destroyed by a caustic and fraudulent pandemic, now subjected to the defensive needs of a DEFCON 1 on steroids from the violence.  We will see major segments of these municipalities retreat into the countryside with hope of not being followed.  

I will also not see these areas recover in my lifetime.

We will see property values within and adjacent to these blighted areas negatively impacted for years and probably decades.  

We will see federal, state and local funds, our taxes, injected into these destroyed demographic and geographic residential, commercial and industrial  neighborhoods syphoned off by modern day war lords, who never fired a shot, but who were smart enough to use the system for their own spoils of war.

Is this real?

In Alaska, a variety of protests designed to effectuate community activism and “free speech” will lead, if unchecked, to soft anarchism.  We are already seeing it as many of our conservative leaders are either shouted down or shamed down. 

Our local laws ignore the issues of law breaking for one side yet prosecute the other side. With the absence of the law and justice, as history has shown us, a strongman or group will always enter.  A strongman, who likely many more times than not, will lead us to more tyranny.

We have an Alaskan state constitution.  Its main purpose in the development and implementation of local governments, local communities, and local societies was to decentralize jurisdiction, control, and power.  Ideally, so that not one central population area could control the rest of the state.

We see this in so many other states.  The soft tyrannical grasp on so many states has now been effectuated by a single municipality.

We spend so much time fighting over the likes of CNN, FOX, ADN, and the collective media complex.  They already have an established organization with only a few real thinking correspondents. CNN has seventeen panelists that all think the same thing. We have the Democratic arm of the Alaska Legislature.  They all think the same thing. Some of our Republican legislators think the same thing. We have a mayor and several Assembly members in Anchorage that all think the same thing.

We see the costs of government; the private sector and everyday life continue to increase with no change in outcome.  If anything, the outcomes are poorer with each day that goes by with these people in power over our lives.

There are many of our relatives and friends who see this as a good thing.  

Centralization will lead to bigger, better, bolder opportunities for human development so they imagine and think.

But is not this a repeat of so many other social experiments which would make Enver Hoxha proud?  We see the products of this process unfolding before our very eyes.

The development of the “us versus them” strategy, theorized by Cloward and Piven spread throughout our education network, fostered by Saul Alinsky and implemented by Barack Hussein Obama, has sequestered our children into unenlightened nativists.

Look at our fund-raising circles.  

The Right will not write a check unless they have assurances of outcome that can be measured and bring an equitable return to them, so they typically do not support their own candidates.  

The Left writes checks to thematic occurrences like BLM, Antifa, the DNC and like for policy change and the policy changes, further emasculating the Right.

The support structure of these organizations, including many Alaska non-profits, are not just promoting a significant change in Alaska public policy, but dividing and disenfranchising many venues of the Right to the point where the fight is no longer against the Left but among the various parts of the Right.

For many a Kurt Vonnegut quip, “And so it goes.”

I cannot agree.

We as our own communities should not be caring what the media says, what the Left says and what all this infighting by the Right says.  

How do we inspire the reconnection of our local communities to what is real?  

We need to establish our own institution.  

We need to establish what Article X of our state Constitution gives us the right to establish.  

We need to establish our own city for Eagle River, Chugiak, Birchwood, Peters Creek, Eklutna and JBER. 

Our own education system, our own health care system our own property rights and land use system and our own public safety system away from the meaningless dictums which only uses us for our money and gives little of it back.

Our communities. Our voice. Our decisions. Our future.

Michael Tavoliero is a realtor at Core Real Estate Group in Eagle River, is active in the Alaska Republican Party and chairs Eaglexit.

SCOTUS: What Obama put in place for ‘Dreamers,’ Trump cannot simply dismantle

Suzanne Downing
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11
SCOTUS: What Obama put in place for ‘Dreamers,’ Trump cannot simply dismantle

The U.S. Supreme Court today overruled the Trump Administration’s efforts to discontinue the DACA program, or “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.”

DACA is a program begun by President Barack Obama that allows unauthorized aliens who entered the country as children to apply for a two-year forbearance of removal. Supporters of the program calls these residents “Dreamers.” They had no control over when they came to the United States, and their lives are in limbo because for many of them, the United States is the only country they have ever known.

In Alaska, about 557 people have DACA status, according to a list compiled by Governing Magazine. Alaska is home to more of the “Dreamers” than Vermont, Montana, West Virginia, North Dakota, and Maine, as well as the Virgin Islands and Guam.

The program, part of the Department of Homeland Security, was enacted in 2012, and was dismantled by President Donald Trump in 2017, as he tried to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. DACA was blamed for incentivizing pregnant mothers to come to America to give their unborn children a better future.

The termination of DACA was challenged by University of California Board of Regents, which said the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to “adequately address important factors bearing on her decision.”

The opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts. A partially dissenting position was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The vote on the ruling was 5-4.

The rescinding of DACA was a prominent campaign promise of President Trump in the 2016 campaign cycle. Today’s decision, which may impact as many as 700,000 illegal aliens living in the United States, along with their immediate families, is a policy setback for Trump, who has been trying to return jobs to Americans and reduce crime by stopping illegal immigration.

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” the chief justice wrote. “We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ET AL. v. REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ET AL.Download

By its ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most liberal appeals court in the nation.

Earlier this week, the court also surprised conservatives when it redefined gender as “identity” in its ruling that employers may not discriminate in hiring of gay and transgender people.

Supreme Court redefines gender as ‘identity’ in ruling

Headhunting at UA: Johnsen is back, but is apologizing for his crime of white privilege

Suzanne Downing
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35
Headhunting at UA: Johnsen is back, but is apologizing for his crime of white privilege

In just a few short weeks, Jim Johnsen, the president of University of Alaska, has gone from being the leader of Alaska’s University System on his way to being president of the University of Wisconsin System, to metaphorically being forced to his knees to apologize for his white privilege.

The faculty of UA is now in the hunt for his head.

Johnsen issued an apology for comments he had made during his University of Wisconsin interview regarding the Permanent Fund dividend in Alaska, and because he answered a question about diversity wrong.

The question posed by a member of the interview committee in Wisconsin, was about his experience with diversity.

It was a trap that Johnsen walked right into.

“My experience at Doyon in particular, the Alaska Native Corporation, I was a minority working in that company. Alaska Native people owned the company. All the people who worked on my team were Alaska Native, as was the board. And we did a lot of great work together focusing on increasing employment opportunities through education for Alaska Native people,” Johnsen had answered.

Wrong answer, evidently.

The University of Wisconsin faculty saw a privileged white man talking down to minorities. Back at home, the University of Alaska faculty union has called for Johnsen’s removal for the crime of being IWW — insensitive while white.

On Tuesday, after Johnsen had already withdrawn from consideration for Wisconsin, he he was busy with the mea culpa tour, issuing an apology to the university community in Alaska for not acknowledging his white privilege:

“To have not first acknowledged my own white privilege in response to questions last week about my understanding of and approach to diversity and inclusion was a mistake. For that, I am sorry. We must do better and I must do better. I seek to be a part of the solution. Diversity, inclusiveness and freedom from bigotry and hatred are part of my core values but these must be our common values. 

“My experiences from childhood forward instilled in me the belief that every human being deserves respect regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity, and I know that I still have a lot to learn. Most importantly, I know that inclusion is necessary for diversity to exist, and I pledge to address my own biases, be more inclusive, respectful and to stand in the face of racism and injustice. 

“In my five years as president of the University of Alaska System, I have worked to create a culture of respect, and I vow to continue to learn, listen and work toward a university that is anti-racist, to actively participate in creating policies and practices that enhance equity, and to come together as a university community to address the injustice and discrimination that exist in our society.”

The current cultural climate in America is rough for non-minority business leaders, but academia is an especially harsh task master.

Johnsen will discover, if he has not already, that there is really nothing he can do to make up for his white privilege but resign, because once the mob smells blood, it will not stop until it has its pound of flesh.

University of Alaska president is only finalist for University of Wisconsin

Keep D.C. politics out of fish and game management

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Keep D.C. politics out of fish and game management

By EDDIE GRASSER

Late in President Obama’s final term, the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) circumvented Congress by effectively revoking the State of Alaska’s long-standing authority to manage game within national preserves and wildlife refuges.

In doing so, rural Alaskans, including those who practice millennia-old harvest strategies to feed their families, found their age-old traditions criminalized.

While the USFWS portions of this overreach were promptly overridden by the next Congress, the federal rule for national preserves required presidential intervention.

Earlier this week, President Trump did just that, by finalizing a new National Park Service rule which restores game management authority in preserves to the State of Alaska.

The midnight regulations from the previous administration represented just one of many assaults by federal bureaucrats seeking to erode Alaska’s self-governance.

In this case, federal authorities justified their overreach by claiming they were acting to protect Alaska’s ecosystem from the State’s attempts to manage big-game populations.

As we noted in our 2018 response, this is a work of fiction. The practice of “denning,” which Alaska Natives have used for thousands of years to feed their families during the harsh winter months, is unrelated to population control efforts.

After the Board of Game recognized this practice in 2008 for the express purpose of respecting long-standing cultural traditions, black bear harvests decreased to less than 10 animals per year in the Denali National Preserve. Similar results were observed in other bear populations. 

The State of Alaska has always sought to maintain sustainable predator population densities that match local ecosystems. As we carefully documented, any harvest increases as a result of traditional practices were not expected to have any impact on sustainable wolf, bear, or prey population densities.

In stark contrast, the federal government provided no scientific data or analysis to support their dubious claims. They even neglected to scientifically define the “natural” population densities they allegedly sought.

Worse, supporters of this overreach have waged a public opinion battle that is seemingly intended to vilify Alaska Natives’ heritage. Of the nearly 300,000 public comments received on both the original rule and the recent reversion, nearly a quarter million were form letters. Out-of-state groups like the National Resource Defense Council, whose president earns over $500,000 a year, fundraised off outrageous statements about donuts, orphaned cubs, and “gassed” wolf dens.

Members of Congress joined in by accusing Alaskans of supporting the “Puppy Killing Act,” and comparing traditional hunters to barbarians. One representative claimed Alaskans desperately want to shoot animals from helicopters, suggesting we should instead go play “video games.”

“I hear virtual reality headsets these days make it just like the real thing,” she joked as she spoke on the House floor.

If they were to set aside their vitriol, they would discover that traditional hunts like those conducted by the Koyukon Athabascan often involve traveling to 100 dens to locate a small number of harvestable bears. Dens with bear cubs are avoided whenever possible.

Other outrageous claims like the “gassing” of wolves or shooting animals from helicopters for sport are quickly dispelled by reading Alaska’s wildlife management regulations which expressly prohibit these activities.

Clearly these arguments are red herrings, meant to drum up support for a decades-long campaign to transfer state authority to Washington, D.C. The tragedy is that no state or federal authority is better equipped to sustainably manage natural resources than Alaska. 

Since statehood, we have consistently shown the world that resource management and conservation go hand in hand. In the early 1900s, unregulated fishing resulted in the routine over-harvesting of salmon throughout the Lower 48’s Pacific coastline.

Mere decades later, pollution and infrastructure projects, devoid of conservation considerations, compounded this tragedy. Perhaps the worst example is the mighty Columbia River which sees only three percent of the salmon it once supported.

Meanwhile, 207 million salmon were sustainably harvested in Alaskan waters last year. Despite challenging ocean conditions, that amount has increased by 70 million fish in the past 20 years. Likewise, our wildlife continues to flourish. The Fortymile Caribou Herd recently exceeded 80,000 animals – numbers not seen since the 1920s.

Alaska’s success is no coincidence. It’s a collaborative effort between our wildlife scientists, conservationists, hunters, and subsistence communities. In fact, many Alaskans would consider themselves members of multiple categories. Just last week, our department received a $100,000 check from hunters and conservationists working together to conserve Dall Sheep populations in Alaska.

The bottom line is that when Alaskans are free to manage our fish and game using the proven principles enshrined our state constitution, our wildlife flourishes and all Americans reap the benefits. Let’s respect the law and keep D.C. politics out of the Last Frontier.

Eddie Grasser is the director of Wildlife Conservation for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Midtown up in arms over homeless shelter proposal

Suzanne Downing
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59
Midtown up in arms over homeless shelter proposal

Homeowners from Rogers Park to Geneva Woods in midtown Anchorage are worrying about an ordinance in front of the Anchorage Assembly that would allow Mayor Ethan Berkowitz to purchase the Best Western Golden Lion Hotel and turn it into a homeless shelter.

AO 2020-58 was introduced this month, but with no mention about the plans afoot for the actual shelter location. Those plans to change zoning are now being discussed in the neighborhoods, where concerns are coming forward. The ordinance bypasses the Planning and Zoning Commission so that a large portion of midtown can be rezoned to include any number of homeless shelters.

Mayor Berkowitz earlier this year turned the Sullivan and Boeke Arenas in midtown into homeless shelters to help with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. Few homeless people have contracted the illness, but the arenas are still being used as shelters three months later.

Meanwhile, drug-and-alcohol encampments had overwhelmed the downtown area near 3rd and Ingra on and off for several years before being cleared out last month. Many of the inebriate homeless who lived along that ridge have moved to the Walmart area on A Street, where they’ve set up tents on the sidewalks and in the rights of way. They are the people who are difficult to house because they do not want to follow “house rules” of supervised shelters.

The Best Western Golden Lion Hotel on 36th Street an Anchorage classic, near the University of Alaska, University Mall, and the desirable neighborhoods of Rogers Park, College Village and Geneva Woods, where home values are strong and the neighborhoods are filled with property taxpayers.

Some of those residents are saying that the ordinance circumvents the most important part of the public process for approving rezoning by skipping the Planning and Zoning Commission, a usual requirement. The ordinance would allow the change to B3 districts to be permanent, allowing transient shelters in major portions of the city, including next to schools and day care centers.

36th and Seward is a one of the busiest intersections in Anchorage, with more than 75,000 cars driving through at average speeds of 45 mph or higher. The intersection is considered a hazard for pedestrians and is extremely congested during rush hour, often backed up for a mile, critics of the zoning change say.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

WEDNESDAY, June 17 at 11 am – Assembly Committee on Homelessness Meeting – Agenda: https://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/Committee%20on%20Homelessness.aspx

Public Participation is limited to 10 minutes. The Muni’s website states: If you wish to provide comments at the beginning of the meeting, email Assembly Member Zaletel at [email protected] by 10 am Wednesday, June 17. The committee will only accommodate the first 3-4 people who sign up.

Call in: 907-519-0237 Conference ID Number: 616 527 933#

THURSDAY at 9:30 am – Assembly Community and Economic Development Meeting – Agenda: https://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/Community%20and%20Economic%20Development%20Committee.aspx

Call in: (907) 519-0237, Conference ID Number: 635 736 473#

THURSDAY at 12:20 PM – 1:35 PM – Assembly Budget/Finance Committee-of-the-Whole Meeting– CARES Act funding, which may be used by Berkowitz to purchase the Golden Lion Inn, at top of Agenda: https://www.muni.org/Departments/Assembly/Pages/BudgetandFinanceCommittee-of-the-Whole.aspx

Call in: (907) 519-0237, Conference ID Number: 796 072 329#

TUESDAY, June 23 Regular Assembly Meeting – Item NOT on the Agenda yet –  http://publicdocs.muni.org/sirepub/pubmtgframe.aspx?meetid=1582&doctype=agenda

JULY 14: Public Hearing, not yet calendared.

Deadly force: Guard takes down intruder at Navy SEAL compound in Kodiak

Suzanne Downing
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29
Deadly force: Guard takes down intruder at Navy SEAL compound in Kodiak

Thirty-year-old Jayson Vinberg of Kodiak is dead after he brought a knife to a gunfight, so to speak, at a Navy SEAL training center on Kodiak Island.

Vinberg entered the Naval Special Warfare Detachment Kodiak compound on Saturday and tapped on the guardhouse window with a knife. He was advised by the duty officer to leave the premises, but when the duty officer left his post to make sure Vinberg was actually leaving, Vinberg came at him with the knife. 

Vinberg failed to obey repeated commends to stop walking toward the guard. The officer pulled out his firearm and shot Vinberg, who was soon declared dead by medics.

The investigation is being conducted as a joint investigation between Alaska Bureau of Investigation and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The duty officer’s name won’t be released until after consultation with the Alaska US Attorney’s Office and Naval Criminal Investigative Unit is complete.

The compound is a 55-acre site used for cold-weather training by U.S. Navy SEALS, an elite fighting force.

Vinberg was not a registered voter in Alaska, nor did he apply for a Permanent Fund dividend in 2019. He has ties to Utah, although he appears to have attended Kodiak High School and worked in tire shops in Utah in the past. No motive or explanation has been released for his behavior.

File photo: Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Ray Mabus observes training at Naval Special Warfare Center Detachment Kodiak. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers/Released)

Pebble Partnership announces profit-sharing for Bristol Bay residents

Suzanne Downing
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12
Pebble Partnership announces profit-sharing for Bristol Bay residents

Pebble Partnership announced Tuesday that the company has created the Pebble Performance Dividend (PPD) to distribute a percentage of the revenue generated from the operation of a mine at Pebble to year-round residents of Bristol Bay.

Qualifying residents will get a 3 percent share of company’s revenues. During the first few years of the capital investment recovery phase, a $3 million fund will be set up to be distributed annually to the residents who join the program.

If 3,000 residents register for the program, the PPD will distribute $1,000 dollars to qualified participants once construction begins, money that will come from the $3 million initial fund.

“When we rolled out our new, smaller mine plan in 2017, I made a commitment to find a way to share the opportunity Pebble represents with the residents of Bristol Bay,” said Tom Collier, Pebble Partnership CEO. “While not everyone will want to work at the mine, this ensures a direct way for everyone to participate. Whether a resident supports the project, opposes it, or is neutral, anyone who is a year-round resident can participate. However, year-round residents who want to share in this opportunity must register their interest.”

PLP created a web portal for Bristol Bay residents to register and learn more about the opportunity – www.pebbledividend.com .

Once fully operational and profitable, the PPD will distribute 3% of the net profits from the mine to registered Bristol Bay residents.

Residency, governance and distribution will be overseen by an advisory board comprised of well-known Alaskans John Shively and Willie Hensley along with residents from the region.

All Bristol Bay residents who register via the web portal before July 31 will be eligible for a drawing for an annual early Pebble Performance Dividend beginning this year and payable through the start of construction. Five early dividend winners will be chosen from the group of eligible participants registered by July 31 . The web portal will remain open for registration until August 31 .

“Developing a mine at Pebble will provide jobs, economic activity, local tax revenue and infrastructure. Today we are adding one more way residents of the region can directly benefit from Pebble via our revenue sharing plan,” said Collier.

Collier further noted that federal permitting is nearing conclusion with an Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expected this summer.

Fairbanks school committee pushes staff ‘decolonization, white supremacy’ training

Suzanne Downing
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31
Fairbanks school committee pushes staff ‘decolonization, white supremacy’ training

No one ever accused the Fairbanks School District of giving students a true classical liberal arts education. The proficiency scores from the PEAKS tests show students skimming along just above the pitiful state average.

But all those classics that you may consider literature, and all that Socratic pedagogy used to get kids to think could be thrown in the burn pile, if “decolonization” efforts by the district’s Diversity Committee are taken seriously.

[Read: The value of a classical liberal arts education]

The Fairbanks School District’s Diversity Committee met June 10, and while the topics covered the expected — inclusion and diversity — several members expressed a new sense of urgency for more training on what it means to be woke.

Schools across Alaska have been out of session for months due to COVID-19, and the way the diversity committee sees it, now is the time for more intensive training.

Members argued that training should be mandatory on topics such as inclusion, micro-aggression, white supremacy, decolonization, and gender expression.

Listen, as at-large committee member Alyssa Quintyn describes her vision of what that training should be and how it should include indoctrination on white supremacy and decolonization. (Audio only at the click:)

WHAT IS DECOLONIZATION TRAINING?

What does “decolonization” training actually mean? In academia, it means the banishing certain works of literature or art.

The “decolonize your bookshelf” movement is now removing American and Western classics from schools, when the authors of the literature were white men or women, and who may through today’s lens appear racist, sexist, xenophobic, or merely heterosexual.

“In essence, it is about actively resisting and casting aside the colonialist ideas of narrative, storytelling, and literature that have pervaded the American psyche for so long,” explains Juan Dival, writing for NPR.

“If you are white, take a moment to examine your bookshelf. What do you see? What books and authors have you allowed to influence your worldview, and how you process the issues of racism and prejudice toward the disenfranchised? Have you considered that, if you identify as white and read only the work of white authors, you are in some ways listening to an extension of your own voice on repeat?” he wrote.

One could reasonably come to the conclusion that decolonization training for Fairbanks teachers would include having them evaluate their reading lists under the watchful eye of a Maoist cultural moderator.

Removing books from required reading lists is something that the MatSu Borough School Board tried recently when it sought to remove a handful books that described child rape and human degradation. The school board found itself under siege by a national and local group of liberals that were horrified that literature be removed from reading lists, even though the books were still on the shelves in the school library.

These books are not banned, they’re just not required reading now in the Mat-Su

The entire committee meeting can be listened to at this link.

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