I love reading this stuff to figure out what new words elite white people have for me. Apparently I’m not a “minority” or a “naturalized citizen” anymore, and my kids aren’t “second generation Americans.”
I'm involved in local politics in Oak Park, IL, also known as the People's Republic of Oak Park, 85.5% Clinton in '16, 72% college educated, median income about $15k higher than Evanston, and I have never heard any of these words in the elite white conversations I am continually dragged into.
These guides get published to give The Groups something to do. Very few people in the real world --- yes, even the elite whites --- take them seriously. The only durable change I've noticed in the last few years is capitalizing Black, which is something our mutual fave John McWhorter has been advocating for some time.
I'm in academia, just underwent this sort of training this week. Not interested in risking self identifying so I'll only go so far as to say that the Sierra Club's language is fairly close to how we are expected to talk with students, faculty, and staff. It is of course a "learning process" and so there is room for "growth and critical conversations", but the die has been cast, so to speak.
The parent comment is referring to high schools. I'm not surprised, and don't think anyone else is either, that there might be a university that has gone fully up its own butt this way. I'm curious to hear stories about high schools that have formalized it in some way, though. Do you have a story like that?
Couldn't say, they don't let me near the schools any more, not since I argued that sometimes breaking into the school with thermite could be justified.
More seriously, as much of a bastion of progressivism as these hallowed halls are, I'm 100% certain we are behind the curve of most blue state schools when it comes to how up to date we are on the appropriate ritual goat sacrifices.
I'm sorry I can't point you to a public online source. My comment is anecdotal; relying on my own observations across family and friends with kids at the HS level. It is pretty obvious speaking to them that their advisors and administrators expect all written pieces to comply with DEI principles. I have asked if there is a formal style-book and no one has pointed me to one yet. But there is a powerful group think. Not complying is asking for censure or excommunication.
There's a sign in the assistant principles offices at my local high school which defines what critical race theory is, including the "critique of liberalism" part.
I would ban public high schools from encouraging a "critique of liberalism". Being a critic takes no skill and doesn't help the world. Critical theory, and critical thinking are extremely overrated skills. We need constructive thinking and constructive communication.
It is not in fact the case that you can work out what Critical Theory, Critical Legal Theory, and Critical Race Theory (3 distinct concepts originating at 3 different points in the 20th century) axiomatically from the the word "critic".
I know you were responding to the "elite white people" bit, but is there an age element at play with this? If there are people that have absorbed the idea that you unquestioningly adjust your speaking/writing to be a perfectly respectful person, I'd guess they were 20-30yo?
He started hedging when the NYT adopted it as their house style (understandably, because the NYT's rationale was silly, overreaching, and a little incoherent), but he's talked about this on Lexicon Valley before: it's proper noun describing a specific set of people for whom "African" is an imprecise descriptor.
