Back in 2019, a group of historians wrote to the New York Times asking for “prominent corrections of all the errors and distortions presented” in Nikole Hannah-Jones' 1619 Project, “a major initiative” by the New York Times Magazine that sought to examine American history as if it began in 1619, the year the first slave ship arrived in Virginia. Never mind the factual errors and omissions — the Times repackaged the 1619 Project as a school curriculum, and plenty of public schools adopted it for their history classes.
Fast-forward to 2024, and elementary schools are handing out coloring books in honor of Black History Month. It turns out the coloring books promoted the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, like "Restorative Justice."
Last week, teachers at PS 321—the kindergarten through fifth grade school in Park Slope—supplied students with the coloring book, What We Believe, as part of a lesson for Black History Month. The book uses drawings and worksheets to promote the 13 tenets of the Black Lives Matter…
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) February 22, 2024
Last week, teachers at PS 321—the kindergarten through fifth grade school in Park Slope—supplied students with the coloring book, What We Believe, as part of a lesson for Black History Month. The book uses drawings and worksheets to promote the 13 tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement, under titles like “Queer Affirming,” “Transgender Affirming,” and “Restorative Justice.”
Principle number 2, “Empathy,” is described as “engaging comrades with the intent to learn about and connect with their contexts.”
The coloring book also lists Black Lives Matter’s “national demands,” including “mandate black history & ethnic studies,” “hire more black teachers,” and “fund counselors not cops.”
SCOOP: Parents are "shocked" that a BLM coloring book used in a Brooklyn elementary school is teaching fourth graders revolutionary politics and communist terms over black history.
— Francesca Block (@FrancescaABlock) February 22, 2024
My latest for @TheFP https://t.co/N5XPO1CQTR
Francesca Block reports for the Free Press:
Lessons in the coloring book tell children to reflect on Black Lives Matter’s 13 principles. Some of the exercises, parents said, appear innocuous; a page about “Restorative Justice,” for example, asks students: “Why is it important to offer to forgive someone?” But another, entitled “Transgender Affirming,” instructs students to read the book When Aidan Became a Brother about a girl who transitions to a boy, and then answer questions on a worksheet like, “How do you feel when someone tells you what you can or can’t do based on your gender?”
Another principle, “Black Villages,” is described as “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.” Another, called “Intergenerational,” encourages a “communal network free from ageism.”
Another public school parent whose family left the Soviet Union when she was a teenager said the language in the book reminds her “of the songs we were made to sing as elementary school children. ‘Dismantling’ and ‘comrade’ and everything—it really reminds me of the word salad that was a part of those songs.”
She compared the Black Lives Matter movement to communism, saying: “same salad, different dressing.”
The Black Lives Matter movement is communism, just with class swapped out for race. Its two co-founders describe themselves as "trained Marxists." The Black Lives Matter movement wants to "disrupt the nuclear family," among other goals.
Why in the world are fourth graders using a coloring book that lists Black Lives Matter’s national demands?
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) February 22, 2024
These activists want 10-year-olds focused on “hiring more black teachers,” and “funding counselors not cops” while they're playing around with crayons. https://t.co/TveU3TxA6G
My brother mocked the idea that what was in the coloring book was "radical."
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) February 22, 2024
Sometimes it is less subtle. My daughter (7th grade) had a quiz the other day on politics. One of the questions? " What makes the electoral college intrinsically unfair"?
— Stuart J Matthews (@SJM18T) February 22, 2024
Keep it out of schools.
— Andrea E (@AAC0519) February 22, 2024
School choice is the civil rights issue of our time.
— John David Soriano (@sorianojohnd) February 22, 2024
The teacher's guide helpfully provides links to resources like Woke Kindergartenhttps://t.co/PIM6QeYn0a pic.twitter.com/eFuTWHLo5V
— Dudley Snyder (@DudleyNYC) February 22, 2024
Interestingly, queerness is a political position, not a sexuality. The basic assumption is that majority sexuality is socially constructed and normative, and is really about maintaining power structures. Queer activism is about breaking down social norms to dismantle power.
— Paul Roundy (@PaulRoundy1) February 22, 2024
Comrades?!
— Diane DiPiero Rodio (@DianeOhiodiane) February 22, 2024
Nothing says welcome to Soviet New York like referring to each other as "comrades"...
— Rabid Jackalope (@Rabid_jackalowp) February 22, 2024
Comrades? The BLM leadership are all admitted Maxists. That divisive and subversive propaganda should not be allowed in US schools.
— NoSellOut (@starmack86) February 22, 2024
The very name of the coloring book, “What We Believe”, is chilling, given that its purpose is partisan brainwashing. Meanwhile, a civics book with the same title espousing principles such as equal treatment under the law would garner outrage.
— Qué (@quevinhualquer) February 22, 2024
BLM a Marxist movement that pocketed the money given to them and in no way improved black communities. And schools are still pushing their agenda?
— Torey Cervantes (@toreycervantes) February 22, 2024
I love that some of the parents commented that it didn't teach their children about actual Black history. They had no problem with their kids learning actual history, which is what this should have been.
— LetThemEatCake (@10000marblespls) February 22, 2024
Thanks for this post Bari. Incredibly crazy. Small kids cannot even understand many of the words you've listed. Its not education, its clearly indoctrination. Leftists want to drill these terms and ideas into kids' heads, way before kids could process complex ideas. Terrible.
— rob berg (@robberg15) February 22, 2024
Critical race theory is a curriculum that can be described as a breeding ground for systemic racism that they claim they are educating against….
— Victoria O (@CrownVic2023) February 22, 2024
Deception, delusions, sick and twisted
How much money did the schools pay Black Lives Matter for these coloring books?
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