Mark Gooden is the Eanes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant. In the 2020-21 school year, the School Board hired Gooden to survey all Eanes employees.
In his survey of District employees, Gooden asked 50 questions. Eight of the questions use the term anti-racist. This is a term of art in the DEI “space.” At first glance, it sounds like a word that any liberal parent should embrace. Yes, yes, I’m against racism, so please know that I’m anti-racist!
But DEI consultants use the term anti-racist in a narrow way—and it’s ugly. If you are a liberal parent, Gooden’s use of anti-racist is anathema to the very core of your values. (See chart below.)
Worse yet, in his survey, he uses the term in a way that presupposes that responders accept his view of the world. But once you know what the term means, I challenge you to articulate any reason why anyone who believes in liberal values should embrace his ugly conception of the world.
I further challenge the members of the School Board to justify why they would hire a consultant to impose this view on the District’s employees. By hiring Gooden and letting him loose in the District, they are endorsing—no, they are forcing an anti-liberal, anti-individual, anti-science worldview onto teachers and students. (Those School Board clowns think they are so virtuous for embracing and imposing this anti-liberal ideology. What ignorant hubris.)
As we’ve talked about before, where do you come down on Andrew Sullivan’s question: “This debate is not about whether you are a racist or an antiracist. The debate is about whether, in your deepest heart and soul, you are a liberal or an anti-liberal. And of those two options, I have no doubt where I stand. Do you?”
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Here’s Gooden’s survey in an easy-to-read format. When you check it out, really look critically at his questions. They’re a mess. (And they’re expensive. For 2020-21, the School Board paid Gooden $140,000.)
Here’s a short video from New Discourses comparing anti-racism and liberalism. Below, you’ll see the same info in chart form.
(Are you following New Discourses? You should be. This video from October 2019 is a great place to start.)
