Posted by On January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. In the text of the order is the following:
“Entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.”
The expectation that at least some of the “disparities in our laws and public policies” would be documented in the executive order never materialized. In fact, in Section 4 Identifying Methods to Assess Equity, Biden directs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to “study methods for assessing whether agency policies and actions create or exacerbate barriers to full and equal participation by all eligible individuals.”
So, the accusation, without evidence, of “[e]ntrenched disparities” actually needs to be identified and documented.
Of course, the response of the Department of Education was to issue Proposed Priorities—American History and Civics Education which supports the accusations of the executive order. (The proposal is posted in the Federal Register dated Monday, April 19, 2021). This action is designed to embrace the work of “scholar Ibram X. Kendi” and “the New York Times’ landmark ‘1619 Project’”. Both Kendi and the New York Times have been elevated as experts on systemic racism worthy of guiding/redefining the nation’s curriculum on American History.
Ironically, the OMB is tasked with generating a report on government “laws and public policies” which “have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities”. The report is due within 6 months of the issue date of the executive order. To date, I have not seen the announcement of the report being published.
Since the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education of the Department of Education was to issue Proposed Priorities—American History and Civics Education this work is designed to be used in the K-12 classroom. This proposal is not designed to vet the truth of the Kendi-New York Times systemic racism claims through research in higher education before it is introduce to the K-12 curriculum. The Department of Education has accepted systemic racism as a documented historical fact, in spite of the current presidential effort to document the “[e]ntrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions”.
Clearly, this administration is determined to sow the seeds of disruption in the youth of America in ways more heinous than those used to create the January 6 capitol riots. (This does not diminish the guilt of those involved on January 6th. My views align with Rep. Liz Cheney [Complete remarks from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY)]) The Democrats’ obsession with inciting social activism in the classroom is a major threat to responsible civic duty.
I encourage all patriots to review Proposed Priorities: American History and Civics Education and submit their comments by May 19, 2021. At the time of typing this post, 17,852 comments had been received. Of these, 5,707 are available for review.
As always, in the words of Edward R. Murrow, “Good night and good luck.”
Joe Allen 