WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 4 (DPI) – The NYT’s Charles Blow came out with a surprisingly predictable postmortem on Terry McAuliffe’s election loss in Virginia, as the paper’s staff columnist declared that “white racial anxiety” drove the outcome.
But nearly all readers – including those who wrote the most popular comments among all posters attached to the column – didn’t agree.
In fact, some pointed out that Blow’s reflexive views as evidence of why first-time candidate Glenn Youngkin won: “A good deal of why Terry McAuliffe lost in Virginia is neatly encapsulated in the title of this opinion piece and the general thesis,” as one popular post put it.
Moreover, as another wrote, Charles Blow ” sometimes lets his racial-centric view of the USA blind him to other obvious political factors in voters’ choices.”
Nearly all the most popular comments gently corrected or challenged Blow on his conclusions of the Virginia governor’s election. The most popular comments:
You state that CRT, as Youngkin imagined it, isn’t being taught in Virginia schools. But the following is on the education website for Virginia state government and it sure seems to bear the imprint of Professor Kendi’s ideas to me. https://www.virginiaisforlearners.virginia.gov/anti-racism-in-education/ The Terms and Definitions are quite substantive and seem to embody a fair amount of circular reasoning. And the following statement has no business being included as an axiomatic statement in the definitions: “There is no such thing as a non-racist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups. (Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an Antiracist. New York: One World)” So whether we call it CRT, woke, or what have you, that’s on the Virginia state government website. Then you have about a dozen paragraphs that I think I completely agree with, talking about the southern strategy, the war on drugs, Nixon, the Willie Horton ad, and Trump. Let’s talk more about all that and teach the kids about it too. But then you throw in what you call “Youngkin’s critical race theory lie” with the list. No. Opposing the theories of Professor Kendi and Ms. DiAngelo is not the same as supporting the historical examples you discussed, or similar examples. Those theories are deeply flawed. People are right to be upset.
No, this is not “racial anxiety”. What just happened is reasonable moderate voters reacting, among many other things, to: – Defund the police – Having the ideas about sexuality of a vocal minority rammed down their throats – Attacks on their European roots, culture and history perpetrated by mediocre and resentful academics. – The failure to stop the onslaught of illegal immigration and to admit that our country does not have the capacity to admit any more refugees, no matter how sad their plight might be. – The existence among Democratic legislators of incompetent and shrill “progressives” in the House and equally incompetent and unprincipled “moderates” in the senate. I am terrified of the almost unavoidable return of Trump, and am sad to see a decent and patriotic man such as President Biden being condemned to failure by his own party. Let’s place blame where it belongs.
This election in Virginia is a well-constructed scientific experiment that tests Charles’s hypothesis that everything is based on race. But his ideas failed spectacularly. The same “white racial anxiety” voters who elected Youngkin, also voted for a Black Lt. Governor and a Hispanic Attorney General. It cannot be made any clearer that this same electorate has not problem voting for non-white candidates. If Democrats are supposed to be the party of science, then please look at this evidence and stop using the boogey man of race for every setback.
Nice history lesson, but trying to dismiss Youngkin’s strategy as a lie because “CRT is not being taught in his state’s schools” is incredibly myopic and risk drawing exactly the wrong lessons from this terrible defeat. The issue is not whether CRT narrowly defined is being taught in high schools, the issue is that a huge number of Americans, regardless of party affiliation, categorically reject the “anti-racist” agenda as is it currently being prosecuted. I consider myself of liberal democrat, I have voted blue my entire life, and I do not accept that the founding fathers’ statues should be torn down, that my children should be made to feel guilty for slavery, that math tests are racially biased or that BIPOC kids should be held to a different standard than other kids when it comes to college admission or anything else. I totally reject the attempts by the woke mob to intimidate and harass people who don’t share their opinions on these issues or get them “canceled” when they don’t fall into line. The illiberal left has gone way too far and is pushing huge numbers of otherwise receptive moderates away from the Democratic party. The traditional Democratic focus on income inequality, healthcare, environmental protection, gun control, women’s choice, building a stronger social safety net, all of it is slipping out of our reach because a bunch of woke crusaders have completely overplayed their hand.
Mr. Blow is simply wrong in stating CRT isn’t being taught in schools. Please read Yascha Mounk’s take in the Atlantic whereby “CRT is an academic concept that is taught only at colleges or law schools might be technically accurate, but the reality on the ground is a good deal more complicated. Few middle or high schoolers are poring over academic articles written by Delgado or Crenshaw. But across the nation, many teachers have, over the past years, begun to adopt a pedagogical program that owes its inspiration to ideas that are very fashionable on the academic left, and that go well beyond telling students about America’s copious historical sins. In some elementary and middle schools, students are now being asked to place themselves on a scale of privilege based on such attributes as their skin color. History lessons in some high schools teach that racism is not just a persistent reality but the defining feature of America. Effective opponents of these developments, such as Youngkin, explicitly acknowledge the importance of teaching students about the history of slavery and even the injustices that many minority groups continue to face today. They don’t pretend that grade schoolers are reading academic articles. Instead, they focus the ire of many parents on curricular content that can fairly be described as popularized, less sophisticated cousins of CRT.” The hyper-racialized lens the far left is promoting is extremely unhealthy and claiming otherwise is simply untrue.
Another column that doesn’t get it about CRT. Blow, like so many others, just dismisses the concern about what is being taught by just playing on the technicality of CRT. Yes, CRT is not being taught. But the ideas of white privilege are being taught. The idea that racism is systematic and endemic and that all white people are racist by virtue of being in our society are being taught. So white children are taught that they are racist, by virtue of being members of society. That is what people voted against. People did not vote against teaching about the horror or slavery and racism in this country. Those subjects have been taught for decades without objection. There had been no movement against teaching about slavery or Dr. King. But relying on a technicality, as Blow and others do, does not get to the heart of the reasons people are concerned about what is being taught.
Charles, is there an issue that you see without racial tint. and this woke problem is the reason for many moderates not to vote at all or vote Republican.