As Twitchy reported on February 23, Christopher Rufo had obtained whistleblower documents from the Buffalo Public Schools teaching middle school students that “all white people” perpetuate systemic racism.
In middle school, students are told that “all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism” and that “white elites work to perpetuate racism through politics, law, education, and the media.” Whites derive their wealth from slavery and are "unfairly rich." pic.twitter.com/MyqWkKOf93
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 23, 2021
Three days later, Newsweek decided to do a “fact-check”: Are Buffalo schools teaching students that all whites perpetuate racism?
Fact Check: Are Buffalo schools teaching students that all whites perpetuate racism? https://t.co/gHp7Ed0fyP
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) February 27, 2021
Writer Mary Ellen Cagnassola arrived at “half-true.” But as Rufo reports, Newsweek appended a correction to the piece Monday morning, reading, “The ruling of this story has been corrected to ‘true’ from ‘half true’ and information has been added on Buffalo high schools.”
On Friday, Newsweek rated my story on Buffalo Public Schools as "half true." So I fact-checked the fact-checkers—and forced them to retract their judgement and change it to "true."
Remember: most fact-checkers are semi-literate partisan hacks. Treat them accordingly. pic.twitter.com/gmhMvEVaVS
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 1, 2021
Dr. Fatima Morrell, BPS’ associate superintendent for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives, led the charge for the incorporation of BLM-based curricula for grades K-12 for the 2020-2021 school year. It is derived from the organization Black Lives Matter at School, an educator-driven movement advocating for racial justice in education.
Its guiding principles include “restorative justice,” “empathy,” “loving engagement,” “trans affirming,” “globalism,” “queer affirming” and others aimed at expanding community understanding of racial justice.
…
Morrell told WKBW Buffalo that the curriculum is designed to empower students and teach historically marginalized voices. The materials are meant to be used as “fodder for discussion,” not hard and fast facts. She called the claims that the district is telling students that all white people perpetuate racism a decontextualization pulled out to be “sensational.”
One of the articles used in the curriculum, however, plainly reads, “While all White people and even many POC play a part in perpetuating systemic racism, it is important to recognize the powerful role played by White elites in maintaining this system.” So … the claim is 100 percent true.
??????
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) March 1, 2021
That looks like Lead Stories, which issues repeated false factchecks and even admitted it rated one of our articles false without even reading it.
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) March 1, 2021
"Fact checking" is a meme and anyone who takes a fact checkers assessment over the original source of data/info, needs to change their life approach.
It's just appeal to authority dressed up to be palatable to the masses.— Nick Quick (@AuthorNickQuick) March 1, 2021
— Sizzlean 熱培根 (@left_on_alpha) March 1, 2021
Boom! ?
— The King of Wrong (@KingOfWrong) March 1, 2021
what made them originally say "half true?"
— Darren (@Raydeus84) March 1, 2021
You add "half" when you don't want to say it's true. Usually some BS excuse about "lacking context" that can get arbitrarily applied to any statement ever made, no matter how accurate.
— Shift Lant (@LantShift) March 1, 2021
The lie is Still being propagated here; https://t.co/clnkfk7juW
— Matthew Hickey (@hickeymad) March 1, 2021
Yup; MSN picked up Newsweek’s story but didn’t update it with the correction. Here’s the original “half-true” reasoning.
It’s true that one of BPS’ middle school teaching materials includes an article that states, “While all White people and even many POC play a part in perpetuating systemic racism, it is important to recognize the powerful role played by White elites in maintaining this system.”
However, educators at BPS are not organizing lesson plans around that one phrase, which is for middle school students only, nor are they pushing any of the research as hard and fast facts.
It’s true; however …
I can't believe you got them to correct it. That's got to be a first.
— doggone (@trnrbrnt) March 1, 2021
Awesome. This needs to be done on all fact-checks.
— Dr. Caroline, Unfettered Conversation Haver (@Carolin45762919) March 1, 2021
If your school is going to adopt this curriculum, at least own up to it — don’t say it’s just “fodder for discussion.”
Related:
School district’s diversity czar promotes Woke Kindergarten’s texts featuring black children lost to racist police violence https://t.co/YozeD10WpE
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) February 23, 2021
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