Another proud and patriotic immigrant has lent a strong voice to the mounting opposition to the divisive critical race theory curriculum (or the equivalent under other names) by citing her own lived experience.
The woman who hails from the former Soviet Union provided a thorough yet concise history lesson to the Bedford, New York, school board in response to what appears to be the centerpiece of a far-left indoctrination agenda in the educational setting.
Identifying herself as Milena K, the mother of three in the district didn’t mince words in her less than three minute stirring presentation in which she forthrightly explained that she is operating from a framework of reality rather than theory:
“The proposed ‘anti-racist program” is just a prettier name for racial Marxist teaching. You don’t need to sugar coat it for me. I lived it. Same methods, same vocabulary, same preferential treatment for certain groups. That’s why equity is packed with good causes like diversity and inclusion, so nobody can challenge it. But I know,” Milena ssserted.
“I was born in Soviet Union, and my family has seen it all. Suffering first from **** and then from tyrannical Soviet ideology. Back there, what started with ‘equity for all’ quickly ended with ‘nothing to eat’ for my people. And now my family is here because of it, because equity does not work. We did not come here for a blanketed synthetic equity; we had enough of that one. We came here for equal opportunity under the law and freedoms in this country…”
The mother explained what she saw as the real agenda behind “equity.”
“Equity was just a tool used by communists to make sure everyone was equally poorly educated, so people didn’t question authority,” she said. “While in definition, it was about fairness, in reality, it means same outcome: nobody excels, mind-boggling sameness. The key tactic is to remove all the incentive and motivation to succeed for all the students…what equity means in reality [is] making everyone mediocre.”
“I have a message for everyone here… I lived in Siberia, I switched the continents because of equity,” Milena K concluded. “I can and I will switch the school district if the equity gets pushed, but I will never switch on American Dream and equal opportunity for my children…which lifts people up, which gives second chances to people like me, motivates, and brings the best in the people regardless race and ethnicity. I lived it.”
Bedford is located in the New York City suburb of Westchester County.
In a similar vein, a mother who grew up in China and endured Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution recently tore into the Loudon County, Va., school board at a public meeting.
“The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people,” Xi Van Fleet declared. “The only difference is they used class instead of race…The critical race theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our school,” she added.
And perhaps even more disturbing, a defector from totalitarian North Korea has a called out Columbia University for anti-Western indoctrination that is similar to what she experienced in her home country and as a result, Yeonmi Park worries for America’s future.
Even North Korea was not this nuts she said.
Sensible, fair-minded Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life want U.S. history to be fully and thoroughly taught in all its dimensions, good and bad, but without liberal filters.
Obviously, there is room for improvement in the U.S., otherwise the populist, MAGA movement never would have gained traction. Concerned parents like Milena and so many others across the country object to indoctrinating students into a far-left ideology with Marxist undertones that seeks to devalue the country’s founding and its freedom-creating, constitutional underpinnings.
Some school boards, and other woke institutions, seem inexplicably to be digging in their heels despite the loud-and-clear message from their constituents.
In the guise of anti-racism, critical race theory seeks to shame, if not smear, one group of people while creating resentment in another, based only on immutable characteristics and by creating a mythical bifurcation of oppressors and oppressed, according to its opponents. Guilt by association has never been part of the American tradition.