As Critical Race Theory (CRT) is simultaneously promoted and denied by liberal elites in academia, media, and politics, it continues to rear its ugly head. A recent report shows that more than two dozen public and private schools are pushing CRT by using a picture book — Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by author Anastasia Higginbotham — that has been introduced as part of the reading program for those schools.
Corlears School — a private elementary school in Manhattan’s tony Chelsea neighborhood that charges $55,000 per year for pre-K through fifth grade — has added Not My Idea to the school’s recommended reading list for students eight years old and up. In using the book, Corlears has joined at least 31 other schools using Not My Idea to teach about the evils of “whiteness,” according to a list of such schools compiled by anti-CRT activist Christopher Rufo. The list shows that at least 25 public schools and a few private schools — such as Corlears — use Not My Idea. The author is a true believer in the doctrines of social-justice activism and uses her writing skills (such as they are) to twist the minds of children.
Higginbotham’s website describes her by saying:
Higginbotham writes for social justice organizations and taught full impact self defense for 10 years. Her work has been featured in The Believer, The New York Times, Huffington Post, Women’s Media Center, Ms., Bitch, The Sun, The Women’s Review of Books, and in anthologies, including Yes Means Yes (Seal, 2009).
Not shy about the contents of her book, the author’s website describes it by saying:
Racism was not your idea. You don’t need to defend it.
A white child sees a news report of a white police officer shooting and killing a person with brown skin who had their hands up. “We don’t see color,” the child’s mother says, but the child senses a deeper truth. An afternoon in the library uncovers the reality of white supremacy in America. The child connects to the opportunity and their responsibility to dismantle white supremacy — for the sake of their own liberation out of ignorance and injustice.
Living up to the hype, the book includes a page that states, “Whiteness is a bad deal. It always was.” Another portion of the book shows a depiction of the devil complete with hoofed feet and a pointy tail. The devil produces a “contract” for “whiteness” that offers in exchange for one’s soul “stolen land, stolen riches, special favors” and states, “Whiteness gets to mess endlessly with the lives of your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and all fellow humans of color — for the purpose of profits.”
One line in the book, seen being read by a child in the “trailer” for the book (available on the author’s website) says, “Racism is a white person’s problem.” What of the racism that causes a white liberal — in this case the author — to capitalize on manufactured “white guilt” by declaring that there is no distinction between white and racist?
One portion of the book reads, “Skin color makes a difference in how the world sees you and in how you see the world,” and continues, “your skin color affects the most ordinary daily experiences.” Another reads, “Racism is a white person’s problem and we are all caught up in it.”
Higginbotham says, “I wrote this book because the black women educators at my children’s school told me I could do better. It’s not enough to not condone racism, it’s not enough to be outraged, to understand it intellectually. What I was told was to focus on whiteness.”
A sane person would have found another school for her children, instead of following such blatantly divisive, racist advice. But this is not Higginbotham’s first rodeo. She is the author of other subversive books before Not My Idea. In fact, Not My Idea is part of an entire series of books known as the Ordinary Terrible Things children’s book series. Some of her other books include:
- What You Don’t Know — A book about a gay sixth grader who fears coming out to his parents. The description of the book on the website says, “He might not be out yet, but he can sense his parents’ concern, his friends’ acceptance, and the church’s hypocrisy. But what all of them don’t know is that it’s never occurred to him to do anything but love himself, and until he senses that it’s safe to come out, he just plans on radiating love.”
- Tell Me About Sex, Grandma — Described as a “version of ‘the talk’” that emphasizes that “sexuality is your birthright, and it develops over a lifetime.” So, this is essentially another book designed to “queer” kids by perverting their sexual formation.
- Death Is Stupid — A book that appears to discount the afterlife. The description reads, “As a child views his grandmother in a casket, he overhears a relative say, ‘She’s in a better place.’ Furious, he asks, ‘Would I be in a better place if I died?!’ He wants his grandmother back and is freaked at seeing his father cry.”
Higginbotham and others like her are producing children’s materials designed to push a “woke” leftist agenda on an unsuspecting, innocent generation of children. Not My Idea is one more such dangerous book — but it fits neatly into the big picture of other subversive works by Higginbotham and others. Using a variety of means, the leftist powers-that-be are going full tilt to twist and pervert the minds of an entire generation of children about sexuality, race, reality, and anything else that matters.
This is a prime example of why parents — not the government of school administrators — are the proper guardians of their children’s education. One thing that must be realized by those who have not already realized it is that all public (read: government) schools and many private schools seek to remove the parents from the process of educating children. They usurp parental authority and push psychological and social experiments with children as the test subjects.
While Corlears has joined a few other private schools in teaching this dangerous nonsense, it is important to note that more than two dozen public schools are doing so, as well. And while parents of students at Corlears can vote with their checkbooks to bring about change, public schools are out of the hands of parents. The answer — the only real answer — is to bring the system down by depriving it of the one thing it cannot operate without: your children. If rational, reasonable, right-thinking parents took their kids out of government schools and either homeschooled them or found a private school that shares their values, “public” schools would dry up and blow away.
It is time to Save Our Children from the Anastasia Higginbothams of the world.
