Critical Race Theory Meets Cancel Culture: OK Gov and Space Force Officer Fired

Even the Governor of Oklahoma and a Space Force colonel are not immune to retaliation for speaking out against critical race theory. School districts and states are also embroiled in the debate.

Summary

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law preventing public school lessons based on critical race theory a week ago. Since then, he was removed from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission after the Commission faced pressure from activists.

• Stitt’s office dismissed the importance of his removal, saying it was “purely ceremonial” and criticized the commission for spending “some much effort to sow division.”
• Space Force Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier was relieved of duties after speaking out against critical race theory, Marxism and their growing influence in the military on a podcast.
• The efforts to stop critical race theory school lessons are expanding, as the North Carolina and Utah legislatures are debating bills to ban it.
• In the DC suburbs, a growing group of parents are fighting back at proposals from the Loudon County Board of Education on an “equity plan”, saying they are concerned about the possible inclusion of critical race theory.

• Left wing Black website The Root made fun of Republicans saying “these fools are obsessed while CRT doesn’t even know them like that” and that it’s similar to Republicans “obsessed with cancel culture.”
• CNN reported on LTC Lohmeier’s firing, saying he specifically called out the academically-flawed 1619 Project, and quoted a Defense Department official who said the Department’s “loss of trust and confidence in [Lohmeier’s] ability to lead” is what led to his dismissal.
• The Washington Post’s latest reporting on race focuses on the new faces of “the far right”, saying they play an outsized and “increasingly visible” role in activism on the right, which one Yale professor called “a multiracial kind of fascism.”
• The Sun noted the hypocrisy when one of the founders of Black Lives Matter posted about how the housing market and home ownership is racist despite having just bought a $3 million home in California.

• The Blaze highlighted testimony from one of the parents in Loudon County criticizing the school district’s “equity plan.” The parent, who is black quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. then blasted critical race theory as not “honest dialogue” and compared it to efforts to convince other blacks they could not think for themselves.
• The New York Post reported on White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s answer to a question about critical race theory, quoting her as saying it would be “responsible” to teach American children that every institution is racist, while the Washington Examiner characterized the same exchange as Psaki mocking the reporter.
• Fox Business’ report on LTC Lohmeier’s removal from command highlights specific quotes from Lohmeier in which he was careful not to personally criticize or attack the Secretary of Defense, but “to make it clear to both him and every service member this agenda – it will divide us”, referring to “diversity, inclusion, and equity training” he alleges is rooted in Marxism.

Author’s Take

I don’t know if critical race theory is rooted in Marxism or not. But if the Defense Department began instituting diversity training like Coca-Cola’s “be less white” classes, there should be a justifiable outrage. More importantly, Marxism isantithetical to the American experiment. Marxism’s goal of the elimination of capitalism runs in stark contrast with the American ideals.

The Yale professor quoted in the Washington Post, like so many academics and leftists, are purposely misusing the word “fascism.” There is no inherent political bias in fascism. The domination of the state in culture can take on left-wing and right-wing forms. But the media allows academics and leftist activists to get away with the mischaracterization. Anything that doesn’t adhere to their ideology is racist. And if they can’t call it racist, they’ll call it fascist, regardless of the actual meaning of the word.

The Root’s snide and dismissive tone in poking fun at conservatives who are “obsessed” with critical race theory and cancel culture is hypocritical, tone-deaf, and lazy after Oklahoma Gov Stitt’s removal (AKA cancellation) from the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission due to his signing into law the banning of critical race theory-based lessons.

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© Dallas Gerber, 2021