In a recent surge of controversy, students at Lincoln High School in Seattle were told that their love of reading and writing could be tantamount to "white supremacy." This assertion, made during Black Lives Matter at School Week, was part of a handout defining the "9 characteristics of white supremacy," which included "worship of the written word." A source, who is the father of a student and asked to remain unnamed fearing retaliation against his child, was perturbed by the lesson in a World Literature and Composition class and vented his concerns on the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, reported by MyNorthwest.
The handout criticized the hyper-valuation of written communication, suggesting it erases other valid forms of communication and is a vehicle for misinformation. According to the anonymous father, this curriculum could potentially "set students up to quickly fail" without a chance to succeed in their educational journey. "I feel bad for any students who actually internalize stuff like this as it is setting them up for failure," he told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.
Moreover, the worksheet in question also labels characteristics such as "objectivity," "individualism," and "perfectionism" as aspects of white supremacy. The unnamed source further discussed with the Jason Rantz Show that denial of one's own racism or resistance to any of the defined characteristics being considered racist was itself classified as white supremacy by the discussed curriculum. "This is truly educational malpractice," the father expressed to Zero Hedge.
The contentious material is seemingly based on the work of Tema Okun, an Oberlin College graduate and proponent of the notion that certain characteristics of Western civilization are indicative of systemic racism. Her concepts, which include the critique of objectivity and individuality, have been widely circulated and endorsed by educational institutions nationwide, despite the unlikely possibility of being steeply controversial. Jason Rantz of KTTH highlighted that these ideas are now possibly being taught to Seattle Public Schools' English students, as reported by The Blaze.
