EDUCATED TO FAIL

It turns out that there really is an education desert called Portland Community College. They have struck on a novel way of getting to the very core of what will actually enrich their student's lives and lead to greater success in their future. PCC has found one of the many keys that often lead to success but unlike their passionate devotion to slavishly reading and following every word of Alinsky, Orwell and Hitler, the young socialist pioneers of Portland are welded to the philosophy of deconstructing whiteness because, power, success, wealth, stuff.

The history of whiteness ​h​as largely been unexamined (Daniels 2014).

​​Whiteness is a socially and politically constructed behavior. It has a long history in European imperialism and epistemologies. Whiteness does not simply refer to skin color but an ideology based on beliefs, values, behaviors, habits and attitudes, which result in the unequal distribution of power and privilege based on skin color..... Whiteness is a state of consciousness, often invisible, shaping how white people view themselves and others and thus perpetuating ignorance throughout communities. Cultural racism is founded in the belief that "whiteness" is the universal...and allows one to think and speak as if Whiteness described and defined the world. The meaning of whiteness is historical and has shifted over time​.

Color me a cultural racist because I think the good people of Europe are rediscovering that the spearhead of monomaniacal fanatics from a very different culture, is detrimental to European cultures. Cultures are different and some are successful and others are the most dismal failures. You can easily scope out which one you prefer to live in by observing where people are moving to and away from.

The funny thing about Portland Community College, is that it has hit the nail precisely on the head. America was created, primarily, by people who were either expelled from Europe or who left in the hope of a brighter and better future in the new world, where they expected that hard work, personal accountability, and responsibility coupled with faith, or at least a sincere desire to make money, would leave them better off than those who remained behind stuck in the miserable broken down remnants of feudalism.

If PCC was really interested in improving student outcomes, they would study the beliefs, values, behaviors, habits and attitudes which result in the creation and retention of wealth, power and privilege and attempt to replicate them to the very best of their ability. I'll help them out with the syllabus. They could learn all about whiteness at aesop's fables.