So can Paul do something about this? How about running for the Montgomery County Board of Education, or whatever the relevant government agency is, and making an issue of the paternalism and condescension of the curriculum? For instance, if the curriculum asserts that private property is racist, then denounce the curriculum supervisors by name for peddling white supremacist propaganda; the point is that the claim that private property isn't suited to blacks was one of the arguments once made against freeing the slaves, as are others recently revived among progressives. Get personal and get nasty, or you just aren't as serious about winning as the left is.
This piece is very welcome. Schuyler has been no more than a familiar name to me. I will try to find out more about him.
I will add, though, that DuBois and Robeson deserve to be lionized, in Black History Month or in any other circumstances. DuBois' "Souls of Black Folk" is an excellent book. Robeson was a remarkable man. He was a star athlete, a successful lawyer, but most importantly, he was one of the very greatest American singers of the 20th century. He sang all kinds of music, including opera, popular music (of the Great American Songbook variety), and spirituals. Go listen to him singing "Ol' Man River" on youtube if you doubt his excellence.
It is unfortunate that both these distinguished men turned to Communism. Most African-Americans had too much sense to do so. But if we are to assess them, we should remember that as Blacks they had far more reason, in the U.S. of the first half of the twentieth century, to reject America and what it stood for than the innumerable white intellectuals who were Communists or fellow travelers. Not to mention today's progressives, who mostly do not call themselves Communists but deny everything that is good about America. We should be able to note this failing in Robeson and DuBois while "lionizing" them for their remarkable contributions to American culture.
So can Paul do something about this? How about running for the Montgomery County Board of Education, or whatever the relevant government agency is, and making an issue of the paternalism and condescension of the curriculum? For instance, if the curriculum asserts that private property is racist, then denounce the curriculum supervisors by name for peddling white supremacist propaganda; the point is that the claim that private property isn't suited to blacks was one of the arguments once made against freeing the slaves, as are others recently revived among progressives. Get personal and get nasty, or you just aren't as serious about winning as the left is.
This piece is very welcome. Schuyler has been no more than a familiar name to me. I will try to find out more about him.
I will add, though, that DuBois and Robeson deserve to be lionized, in Black History Month or in any other circumstances. DuBois' "Souls of Black Folk" is an excellent book. Robeson was a remarkable man. He was a star athlete, a successful lawyer, but most importantly, he was one of the very greatest American singers of the 20th century. He sang all kinds of music, including opera, popular music (of the Great American Songbook variety), and spirituals. Go listen to him singing "Ol' Man River" on youtube if you doubt his excellence.
It is unfortunate that both these distinguished men turned to Communism. Most African-Americans had too much sense to do so. But if we are to assess them, we should remember that as Blacks they had far more reason, in the U.S. of the first half of the twentieth century, to reject America and what it stood for than the innumerable white intellectuals who were Communists or fellow travelers. Not to mention today's progressives, who mostly do not call themselves Communists but deny everything that is good about America. We should be able to note this failing in Robeson and DuBois while "lionizing" them for their remarkable contributions to American culture.