Critical Race Theory, or CRT, has dominated headlines in the US for months. Unsurprisingly, it is a fiercely partisan issue. In the blue corner, there’s MSNBC host Joy Reid stating that opponents of CRT are “steeped in white nationalism” and therefore must be held in the highest contempt. In the red corner, Tucker Carlson calls CRT a “civilisation-ending poison” that will “hurt your children”.
These are admittedly the two extreme ends of the spectrum, but even beyond the primetime polemics, there is clear division. For most liberals, the so-called ‘threat’ of CRT, like cancel culture, is wildly overblown — a mostly trumped up fear by conservatives to excite their base. Meanwhile, conservatives, who are themselves divided over how to tackle the issue, fear that the teaching of CRT at schools is undermining American values and leading children astray.
As all sides of the debate have dug their feet in, new and refreshing takes have been few and far between. But there is one exception: writer, Malcom Kyeyune, who this week articulated a genuinely novel perspective on what CRT — and the activism against it — says about both American conservatism and society. Rather than viewing CRT as an ideological ‘battle of ideas’, Malcom suggests that we should understand it through a materialist lens:
Teaching kids ”wokeness”, or ”CRT”, or whatever we wish to call it is undeniably a case of these schools doing the job they are paid by the parents to do. If you get into Harvard by being woke – and today it seems that few even on the right would actually deny that you do – the schools that charge 50.000 dollars a year to help kids get into Harvard are going to make those kids woke. These brave parents standing up to the new crazy ideology invariably seem to be a fairly small minority; the rest of the parents just shrug and accept that if wokeness is what it’s going to take for the kids to remain in the elite, then wokeness is what it’s going to take..
- Malcom Kyeyune
Why elite parents support wokeness:
“Wokeness” in today’s America is arguably the primary sorting mechanism for the elite. Given that elite parents by and large want their own kids to remain inside the elite, a sorting mechanism has to have some accessible way of stacking the deck, where preparation and foreknowledge conspire to help some at the expense of the hoi polloi. Being able to ”cancel” people under various pretenses is not so much an anti-social bug in a system of elite selection; it is a necessary and vital feature; cancelling someone is the same as taking them out of the race.
- Malcom Kyeyune
CRT is a signal that American elites are increasingly desperate to hold on to their political and economic power, at any cost:
If one accepts Turchin’s thesis of elite overproduction as pointing to something real, and elite competition as one of the driving causes of political and social instability in the United States, then one should also acknowledge that the elites’ preferred solution to this crisis of overproduction is a haphazard, desperate, and widely unpopular turn toward centralisation and increased complexity at almost any cost. The benefits of that process will go to a smaller and smaller slice at the top end of American society — precisely the sort of people who happen to be in favour of things such as CRT, by the way — while the costs will be borne by everyone else.
- Malcom Kyeyune
Culture war issues are often dismissed as shallow distractions from real problems. However, the fight over CRT is useful in exposing the ways in which these conflicts often have a material base. Conservatives would do well to remember that a ‘battle of ideas’ isn’t always the best approach — and that, contrary to appearances, the behaviour of their political opponents is often much more coherent than it may seem.
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Subscribe“The loopholes are the system.”
We never seem to get it right. The stock market is seriously undervalued, apparently because of over-regulation. The water companies pollute at will. And the world’s crooks launder their ill-gotten gains in our property market.
Does _anyone_ around the world come close to getting the right balance?
Anil excels in historical distortions with his silence about the London based Tariq Rahman and Bangladesh Nationalist Party; and the antics of rabid Islamists of the Jaamat Islam.
That isn’t surprising considering his Woke Marxism which even in its old fashioned 1940s pre- Progressive avatar had deep links with extreme Islamists of the Muslim League like HS Suhrawardy.
Bangladesh has a tortured history in its being a part of Pakistan till 1971.
But I donot expect this writer to be factual about history, given his penchant for turgid and disingenuous renditions.
Regarding Tulip, I wonder if he shows the same zeal for unearthing the real facts of political dalliances with Islamic extremists aligned to ISIS and Al Qaeda, of Bangladesh as well as Pakistan, who have found safe havens in the U.K.
Do you happen to know why India is harbouring HASINA?
Is there any likelihood that she will ever face Justice?
India is “harbouring” Hasina for the same reason the Dalai Lama is being harboured.
She is pro India, she protected the Hindu minority from genocide (I know, that doesn’t matter so much because it’s the muslims doing the “cleansing”), and because while it’s likely she was corrupt, there is zero chance she will receive a fair trial.
As far as justice, none of the Pakistanis responsible for the gruesome 1971 genocide were handed over for punishment, the US did not hand over Kissinger to stand trial for his open support to Pakistan, and the West, so keen to sanction Russia, were happy with the islamic nations falling over each other to support Pakistan.
Incidentally, the reason the Bangladeshi muslims are so incensed with her has little to do with her corruption, real or not. Bdesh was in fact doing fairly well economically, and ousting her will actually end up costing them economically, it’s also a given that her replacement will be as corrupt.
It’s more so because she is a legacy of the more “Bengali” political faction that was getting in the way of “purifying ” Bdesh by getting rid of the Hindus. 6% of the population now, down from 13% in 1971, and soon to be 1% or lower.
But, thankfully, all those whining about Gaza will be sleeping easy while that happens.
I gave an unvarnished reply but UH wants to spare the real culprits- CIA, Soros, Clinton who sponsor Islamic extremists in Bdesh whose face is Yunus, it’s unelected tyrant.
“Hindu minority, too, bore the brunt, not least because Hasina had cultivated a reputation as an Indophilic anti-Islamist.”
I was wondering how it would be somehow justified for the muslims there to wrap up the genocide of the Hindus there, just like alnost every single muslim nation has managed to wipe out religious minorities.
The tragedy is the disinformation carried out on behalf of extremist Islamists by the Western legacy media who are up in arms about supposed Islamophobia but look the other way when Hindus, Buddhists etc are concerned.
The hypocrisy is staggering and explains why in India many of us have given up on the values of the West.
I posted a detailed comment exposing Anil’s distortions and silence on some crucial aspects.
As usual held back by UH as they expose the writer’s biases and prejudices.
I just did this as well and UnHerd suppressed it.
Why is India harbouring Hasina?
Because CIA idiots thought it wise to prop up Al Qaeda backed, Soros financed Clinton groupie Mohammad Yunus by ousting Hasina who was democratically elected.
Seems obvious that Democrats like Islamic jihadists more than an elected government.
You have possibly been fed fake narratives. Yunus who now rules is foisted by CIA and is an Islamist in cahoots with Al Qaeda backed Islamists. He is also the plant of Clinton. It is he who is an unelected tyrant.
There are 5 reasons. One is why, and the first four are em, oh, en, and ee.
UH has sent my several comments to the ” sin bin” you so love..
You can tell it’s a total and utter shitshow when the Beeb and Graun aren’t screaming she is the victim of racism and Islamophobia. Rather directly linked to and beneficiary of bent and crooked kleptocracy.
I did chuckle at her title Anti Corruption and City minister. I mean you have to butter up the City of London – with things like looser regulations/blind eyes/let that one go/enough gray areas/ambiguity etc.. whilst clamping down on all of those things and make things black and white.
Total farce.
Very good point about the lack of ranting from the BBC, etc.! Compare this to the shitstorm they (and Starmer) initiated when Boris Johnson told relatively minor fibs which ultimately led to his departure.
Twaddle – Johnson broke the law, lied about breaking the law and then lied about lying about breaking the law.
He oversaw a culture of parties at Downing Street whilst the then Monarch sat alone mourning the death of her husband of 70+ years, a decorated WWII naval veteran.
He then protected his mate – a demonstrable sex pest.
He was a lazy, irresponsible joker who oversaw policies which led the highest immigration volumes ever into this country.
Twaddle to you too! At least Johnson was inspirational – unlike the drab, procedural, greyness of Starmer – who’s proved himself to be a consummate liar.
I actually agree with you about Boris and what you’ve written here. But Starmer is a more sinister operator who uses the cloak of legal professionalism as a barrier against scrutiny – and relies on the naked Left-wing bias of the BBC and legacy media, and his huge parliamentary majority, to shield him from accountability for his lying and constant diversionary references to the ‘Far Right’.
I wonder why the press give Starmer a free ride on this. His links to Siddiq go back a long way. He went with her on a trip to Bangladesh and met Aunty. He, and other Labour MPs were happy to host Aunty in the HoC and share platforms with her. And this was after it was known that the press and judiciary were being suppressed. Oh, and let’s not talk about LGBT rights.
At the bottom of this article it says,..
’Pratinav Anil is the author of two bleak assessments of 20th-century Indian history. He teaches at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.’
I assume that ‘bleak’ is a weasel word for anti-British. Not only is UnHerd paying this man for his articles but he also gets to teach his attitudes to our student. Is there hope?
Hooe springs eternal…
Once again the U.K. manages to identify the worst possible candidate for a job, and create the worst possible system for her awful family to operate.
Bangladesh, despite being an utter shideshow as noted in other comments, was nevertheless, as acknowledged by the author, leagues ahead of Pakistan economically, despite sharing so much history. Unlike Pakistan, it also had a fertility rate trending down towards replacement only.
Now that, inevitably, after the fall of an unpopular regime, Islamists are taking over, we can expect to see many of those gains reversed. Sometimes “as bad as it is” is “as good as it gets” and now things in Bangladesh are set to take a turn for the worse.
Why is India harbouring HASINA?
That is a question that has often been asked on this thread….
Why the CENSORSHIP here? Particularly if you mention the name HASINA.
Are only four comments allowed on this essay?
Hi dus in Bangladesh have been subjected to horrendous violence since Hasina’s departure. Where’s the outrage?
The Labour Party is a happy home for non-white politicians, all of whom are assumed to be lovely people, very possibly oppressed and discriminated against, and of course virtuously working-class. Labour is certainly incapable of understanding that places like Bangladesh have voracious and corrupt class systems which benefit comrades like Tulip.
It is bad enough to have millions of these third world grafters infesting the country, but when they own vast tracts of real estate and leading Labour politicians, it is sickening.
”asseverated” – you what mate? you taking the piss?
The reply option has been disabled by UH. Sorry, CS – it appears that the motto is ” Let the sleeping d… lie” in this disingenuous article published.
Starmer’s first few months in government have been replete with serious lapses of judgement, commencing with the Sue Gray debacle (she now sits sidelined in the House of Lords with a whacking salary/pension) – followed alomost every week by yet a new revelation – not least his admission that all along he knew of the details relating tothe revolting Rubakubana’s awful background, and yet he lied to the British public at the time of the arrest that he did not. Now it emerges that the foreigner he appointed to tackle corruption and financial crime in the City of London is the niece of a former, massively corrupt Prime Minister of Bangladesh! British Labour and Tory governments have presided over enormous mass immigration from Third World countries where corruption and crime in public office is endemic. No wonder then that our own democratic system, once held up as the pinnacle of decency, fir play and incorruptibility, is now swilling around in the waters of corruption and plummeting standards!
This man needs to resign. He is a grey Purveyor of Gloom without any passion or positive vision, whose capacity for lying to his electorate on really important matters of state puts Boris Johnson in the shadows for his relatively minor fibs by comparison – and for which Starmer tore him to shreds in Opposition, leading to Johnson’s downfall.
How has it come to this?