Addressing Politically Correct Righteousness in Education

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In Isaiah 42:6 it is recorded that God gave the message to Israel that “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” Then in Isaiah 54:13 it gives the directive to the Israelites, “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” Teaching political correctness can never bring real peace, but Christ can and will.

America, which once highly revered these Judeo-Christian principles has now shifted and is shifting more and more from the teaching about God’s righteousness to a new form of righteousness centered on rights which focuses on so-called rights rather than righteousness in our relationship with God, with others and with ourselves.   The lesson plan for it all has become political correctness, as this radicalization is replacing true education in our American schools.  Major problems are brewing!

Formal education in our land begins in pre-school and goes on to post-graduate work in colleges, and emphasis on political correctness is increasingly becoming a part of all of this. But in particular at this time we are observing educational chaos permeating on many of our college campuses, which is a much more evident example of how our educational structure has developed. The trinity of the progressive thinking evidenced in our colleges and universities is often the fight against what they esteem to be racism and sexism—but all of this, it can be argued can be nothing more than attacking mere stereotypes. Minority groups can be just a guilty of racism and sexism or various types of phobia as majority groups.

In an article, “Scholars Expose Student Radicalization Across College Campuses”  by Ginni Thomas ( Daily Caller, November 14, 2015) it brought out how that as campus demonstrations spread across American colleges, inquiring minds wonder what is causing the seemingly irrational demands on race, gender and sustainability.  She wrote:  “Campus mobs are gaining strength ever since the ouster of the president of the University of Missouri. Demands are escalating by a vocal minority of students who seem out of the mainstream. Yet, for those like the National Association of Scholars (NAS), who have been watching carefully, American higher education has been in the process of a negative fundamental transformation for decades.  Are these uprisings a spontaneous student-led effort, or are there puppet-masters pulling the strings with paid activists aligned with radical left ideologies?

”The “Black Lives Matter” movement took shape after the killings of Trayvon Martin in Florida by a community guard who was on patrol after many break-ins in the community and then, the killing of Michael Brown in Missouri by a policeman. Both Martin and Brown were black.

In the case of Trayvon Martin, when the police arrived at the scene they found Martin dead and George Zimmerman, who had shot Martin on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds to the head and face that he said were inflicted by Martin.  So far, concerning Martin’s history, we know he had struggled with disciplinary issues during his high school years, had been suspended three times during his junior year, for tardiness and was caught for possession of drug paraphernalia and vandalism.  A police search of Martin’s bag following one of these infractions yielded several pieces of women’s jewelry that may have been stolen. Yet, despite these infractions, Martin was never charged with a crime and had no juvenile record.  Even our President proclaimed that if he had a son, he would want him to be like “Trayvon.” Thus, Martin was displayed as an example for black youth to emulate, which I feel is sad.

Zimmerman was blamed for shooting Trayvon because of RACISM, something that in no way was illustrated in the life of Zimmerman in that he and his black friend opened an insurance company in Florida. He dated a black girl and took her to prom in high school, and his great grandfather was black. But the politically incorrect term, RACISM, is the stereotype that the progressives use to develop the “Black Lives Matter” movement, a movement that divides and creates problems in the school settings.

Michael Brown, the other black teen who inspired the “Black Lives Matter” movement was shot and killed after a robbery, and records and interviews with friends and family reveal problems, as shortly before his encounter with Officer Wilson, the police say he was caught on a security camera stealing a box of cigars, pushing the clerk of a convenience store into a display case. He lived in a community that had rough patches, and he dabbled in drugs and alcohol. He had taken to rapping in recent months, producing lyrics that were by turns contemplative and vulgar, and He got into at least one scuffle with a neighbor, according to the New York Times.

The officer who shot Brown was cleared in that it was evident that the officer shot him out of fear for his own life. The evidence supports the facts that the Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson suffered severe facial injuries, including a fractured eye socket, during a confrontation with Michael Brown on August 9, 2014 that resulted in Wilson fatally shooting the unarmed black teenager. But can you believe it, that Brown too along with Martin have become heroes for the “Black Live Matter” movement.

The “Black Lives Matter” protests are disrupting education in colleges all over our land.  But the emergence of this movement should come as no surprise in that American education has cultivated this from progressive thinking for decades. Our schools and popular culture are brainwashing students into thinking racism is everywhere, creating a hypersensitive type of individual who is now offended and full of fake outrage at virtually anything that is politically incorrect—be it homophobia, sexism, religious fundamentalism, racism or whatever.

Defending the “Black Lives Matter” movement, our President, Barack Obama, said the protests are giving voice to a problem happening only in African-American communities, adding, “We, as a society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously.” He said the movement, which sprung up after the deaths of unarmed black men in Florida, Missouri and elsewhere, quickly came to be viewed as being opposed to police and suggesting that other people’s lives don’t matter. Opponents have countered that “all lives matter.”  Nevertheless, this movement has now become very much active on many college campuses such as Yale, Dartmouth, Missouri, Louisville, Dartmouth, and others. As many as twenty other campuses around the nation have planned “Black Lives Matter” marched, according to the Seattle Times.

Covering the situation in Dartmouth, it was written:  “Protesters at Dartmouth University disrupted students studying in the library, reportedly directing profanity towards white students and physically pushing others. The conservative Dartmouth Review listed some of the epithets hurled by the protesters: “Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!” “Fuck you and your comfort!” “Fuck you, you racist shits!” In addition, the Review reported that some of protesters became physically violent: “Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. ‘If we can’t have it, shut it down!’ they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting ‘filthy white bitch!’ in her face” (“Black Lives Matter” Protesters Disrupt Students in Library, Media-ite by Alex Griswold, November 16, 2015.)   I wager to say that in this the children were not taught of the LORD, as this is outdated to the progressive thinking!  And they certainly don’t have what we would call “peace.”

Dr. Ben Carson has spoken often about how the “Black Lives Matter” movement is divisive, for all lives matter.  He said “No, this is the only thing you can say,’ that’s sickening to me.”  But he went on say: “I obviously prefer that we focus on everybody. At the same time, I recognize that they’re trying to say that they feel that they’ve been treated unfairly — in many cases they have — I’m not going to take that away from them.”  Never-the-less, he told Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File”, “This is just raw emotion and people being manipulated…by outside forces who wish to create disturbances.  He responded to the unrest on the campuses at the University of Missouri and at Yale that these were examples of society being “too tolerant” in accepting what he called student activist’s “infantile behavior.”  Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Our schools have from pre-school to post-graduate placed such a focus in race in education that it has been harmful in many ways.  It has been divisive and harmful. Why not just let people be people.  In an article, “100 Amazing Facts about the Negro by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., March 17, 2014) he brings out that a lot of white people have “hidden African ancestry.”

Dr. Katarzyna (“Kasia”) Bryc, a Population Geneticist, using statistical models,  leveraging genetic data to learn about ancient human history and migrations, recent population admixture and other forces shaping the human genome, brings out that many “whites” in the Southern states that have had the highest African American populations tend to have the highest percentages of hidden African ancestry,” For example,  In South Carolina at least 13 percent of self-identified whites have 1 percent or more African ancestry, while in Louisiana the number is a little more than 12 percent. In Georgia and Alabama the number is about 9 percent.”

Furthermore, in another article by Gates,”Exactly ‘How Black” Are Black Americans?” (Feb. 11 2013) he brings out that According to Ancestry.com, the average African American is sixty-five percent sub-Saharan African, twenty-nine percent European and two percent Native American.  According to 23andme.com, the average African American is seventy-five percent sub-Saharan African, twenty-two percent European and only 0.6 percent Native American.  According to Family Tree DNA.com, the average African American is 72.95 percent sub- sub-Saharan African, 22.83 percent European and 1.7 percent Native American. Race is not black and white in America, but a mixture of all.

When we divide people into groups, we ignore individuals, and people learn as individuals, not as groups.  The great leveling of humankind, true equality, comes in the knowledge of God in Christ, and this has been greatly neglected in American education. Colossians 3:11 speaks to this saying: “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”  This is the great leveler, the equal accepter of all people of every race in this right standing with God, so as to be raised up for the glory of God.  The right understanding of righteousness or right living is not equating RIGHTS to be RIGHTEOUSNESS as the politically correct crowd does.

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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