Critical Ethnic Studies in St. Paul, Minnesota
Check out the framework below in St. Paul Public Schools for Critical Ethnic Studies. This is a new social studies graduation domain replacing Human Geography. It is not optional, nor was Human Geography. It is required of all kids. I marked up my copy in glitter pencil at the bottom. Here is the original Google Doc.
Framework for critical ethnic studies
In Minnesota’s bid to ram critical social justice down the throats of K12 families, they have written these guidelines for all teachers and students to abide by. I would like to short-hand for you whom I think it applies to, and whom it does not.
BIPOC people. It applies to BIPOC people. Who are authentically BIPOC people? They are black, indigenous, people-of-color. Easy, Black, peasy. African American. Just not Africans, necessarily because they’re not ADOS, African Descendants of Slaves, so they’re not authentically black, unless they conform to BIPOC politics. Then it’s okay. But probably not Charlize Theron, even though she’s African American. If she swears to say BIPOC stuff, we can revisit her.
Indigenous. Everybody knows indigenous means Indian or Native Americans. No argument there, right? My Ojibwa students always said to call them Indian, but I don’t want to assume, so I always ask. But far as we know, and we never really know, indigenous people are covered under BIPOC. But what about percentage of ancestry? Three percent wasn’t good for Elizabeth Warren. She wasn’t acknowledge by a tribe. I’m not trying to be acknowledged, because it’s dumb, but I’m somewhere between three and four percent Mohawk or Onondaga. Something Six Nation. The “single drop of blood” that used to box in black people did not work the same with Natives.
Okay so now, let’s get to People of Color! Below list came from HealthLine. Here is the definition of POC.
East Asian
Latino/a/x
South Asian
Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander
So, some East and South Asians, Latino, or Pacific Islanders, who are whiter than me, qualify? They’re “of color?” Central Americans who are whiter than me?
These categories are ever-splintering and will not sit still for a definition. I’m trying to make sense of idiocy, and it’s impalpable. We know that when it comes to investing in the Jewish community, St. Paul schools doesn’t see them as BIPOC so they don’t qualify for BIPOC inclusion. We know they should not care about Ukrainian refugees, because Ukrainians are white Europeans. To many people, but NOT St. Paul’s equity department, students here of Jewish, European, Chinese, Syrian, Hmong, Kareni, Japanese, Laotian, Latvian, even Ethiopian, Somali, or Ghanan descent do NOT qualify for future bids for reparations. They are not descendants of slaves. The power dynamics taught by the pedophile Michel Foucault, by Marcuse and Freire, have informed instruction. Look at the number of times power is mentioned below. Don’t get me started on Kimberlé (Intersectionality) Crenshaw, or St. Paul’s continuing contracts with Glenn Singleton of Courageous Conversation™. I’m talking about the social studies requirement in St. Paul Public Schools to pass classes that teach (or is it preach?) the following frameworks.
High school junior, you are not asked to weigh or evaluate these standards. You will submit to them. They are not up for questioning. And as always, if you are white, or an African American like Charlize Theron, DO NOT APPLY FOR BIPOC ASSISTANCE.
This has been a tiresome blast from 3 1/2 percent Mohawk Theo. Keep leaning in and doin’ the work!