It has become a culture war issue
Matt Gaetz wants us to think the US military is too woke.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, responded sharply to questions from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on Wednesday about the examination of critical race theory in the U.S. military.
“I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding — having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?” Milley said.
He continued brusquely: “And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, noncommissioned officers of being, quote, ‘woke’ or something else, because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
Gaetz shook his head while Milley talked. Gaetz did! Pinhead Gates shook his pin head.
Until recently, critical race theory was anything but a household phrase. Rather, it was used to describe an approach to studying institutional racism, as NPR’s Barbara Sprunt has reported. But it has become a culture war issue, and the phrase has been stretched well beyond its initial meaning, as conservatives in particular have used the phrase to raise concerns about race in venues including state legislatures and local school boards.
Or rather, conservatives in particular have used the phrase to try to discredit any systematic inquiry into the history of racism.
Gaetz wasn’t the only member who asked about the military’s approach to addressing race. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., cited a letter he received from West Point’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, which states that one course at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point teaches about critical race theory (Waltz’s office provided a copy of this letter to NPR). Waltz also referenced a seminar at West Point where an instructor reportedly taught about “understanding whiteness and white rage.”
In his response to Gaetz, Milley referenced Waltz’s concerns as well, saying that such education could be useful in understanding the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.
“I want to understand white rage, and I’m white, and I want to understand it,” he said. “So what is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out.”
Gaetz on the other hand is on the side of the insurrectionists.
Gaetz thinks if he yells loud enough about wokeness being bad it will get him off the hook for paying to have sex with teenagers.
And at least one under-aged teen at that.
I’m actually not sure how much CRT would help anyone understand the insurrection (certainly a portion of the participants). Still, I doubt they’re paying for DiAngelo’s diversity training so Gaetz has nothing to stand on there.
Again, this shit should’ve never left academia without figuring out what a lay person actually should be using so that it wasn’t such an easy cudgel for “conservatives” to beat anti-racism with. But fuck that, having a concrete definition is “white”.