No one can silence you unless you silence yourself.
The people peddling remarkably bad ideas like victimhood and racial reductionism are counting on you to self-censor.
Do not surrender the power of your voice.
Recognize that the sequence of life decisions around your
If you are concerned that the decision to end race-based affirmative action will result in less black students in college, consider this:
In 2015, 18% of 4th grade black kids read at or above Proficient defined by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (aka Nation’s
Years from now, black students admitted to top schools will say Thank you Supreme Court for a decision that removes the perception the only reason I got in is due to my race. You re-established merit as the core criteria to be considered against a standard bar of excellence.
The $160K wealth gap in favor of whites over blacks when only race is considered is often used as “proof” of present oppression; but is reversed in favor of blacks when married, college educated black families are compared to white, single parent families
It should be a criminal offense for think tanks, academics, policy orgs., etc. to release studies on racial "wealth gaps" without a single mention of marriage or family composition. I don't understand how "reputable" organizations and scholars get away with this.
After multiple years promoting
@ibramxk
and his so-called anti-racist ideology that actively encourages racial discrimination, the
@nytimes
has published an op-Ed entitled “Antiracism Was Never the Right Answer.”
Such a profile in courage to now tell the truth, is no doubt
Do you remember this powerful moment from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Will Smith's character confronts the pain of his absent father, expressing his determination to succeed despite the abandonment.
Will vows, "I’m gonna get through college without him. I’m gonna get a great
A primary source of today’s much discussed mental health “crisis” among young people, is immediate access to mobile devices and the toxic social media apps that typically accompany them.
That’s why each morning at arrival at Vertex Partnership Academies, our virtues-based,
I frequently challenge the victimhood rhetoric that says the racial wealth gap “proves” there is nothing black people can do. But the response from
@NewEmergingKing
below is far more epic!
The 1619 Project is a travesty of history & journalism that has humiliated the Times & undermined its status as “the newspaper of record.” No amount of self-serving flattery by dishonest editors can disguise the fact that the Project has been discredited.
The road to excellence for the rising generation of black students really has to be paved by strong black parents like Kofi Montzka who reject the poisonous “oppressor/oppressed” narrative that victimizes children of all races
#Agency
@FreeBlckThought
Before I spoke at the
@EquianoProject
conference, I visited Michaela Community School Katharine Birbalsingh
@Miss_Snuffy
Awe inspiring to see 100+ uniformed students vigorously saying “I am the Master of My Fate, I am the Captain of My Soul”
There are no victims in this school
The next time someone tries to convince you that America is a racially oppressive nation, it would be a good time to share this analytical masterpiece by Dr. Wilfred Reilly.
While not denying the reality that racism persists, Reilly’s evidence shows how ignored, but blatantly
Happy 93rd Birthday to the great
@ThomasSowell
. Through the free
@WoodsonCenter
curriculum, discover the incredible life of one of America’s greatest thinkers, and be inspired by his courage and insistence to tell unpopular truths.
I run schools because I want my students, who are 100% black and Hispanic, to understand the pathways to power that exist for them, and that the sequence of life decisions around their education, work, marriage and the timing of family formation matter far more than their race.
“I run schools because we want kids to know they can do hard things. That success is within their grasp, & there are values around hard work, entrepreneurship, family, faith…Those things matter, & they’re accessible to kids of all races.”
@AEIeducation
@HBSAlumni
@benshapiro
"Let’s focus on having high expectations, not actually implementing anti-racist policies that actually plant the seeds of this idea of white superiority and black inferiority."
--
@1776Unites
scholar
@IanVRowe
on The
@BenShapiro
Show
@realDailyWire
Brilliant teachers who reward insightful & correct student thinking. We want you. Join us at Vertex Partnership Academies, our new network of character-based, International Baccalaureate high schools opening in the Bronx. Others like below, need not apply.
“If you are a baby about to be born, your best odds are to choose married black parents over unmarried white ones”
My review of Two-Parent Privilege-How Americans Stopped Getting Married & Started Falling Behind
Family structure > Race
@kearney_melissa
Take a glimpse inside Vertex Partnership Academies, our new virtues-based, International Baccalaureate high school in the Bronx. There are no victims in our school, only architects of their own lives. Welcoming Ninth Grade Students. Courage | Justice | Temperance | Wisdom
Another dumb idea in the name of “equity” - California’s standards ensuring math teachers be “committed to social justice work” rather than educating middle & high school students in the sequence of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus & Calculus:
"My concern is that
#CriticalRaceTheory
is becoming a massive distraction to the core issue for kids of all races," says
@IanVRowe
, citing literacy as a main factor: "There's a massive number of White kids that are not reading at grade level that dwarfs the number of Black kids."
For the 2nd year in a row, Michaela Community School was first in the entire country of England, posting the highest progress score on their national GCSE exams across these subjects:
English, mathematics, the sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, computer science), history,
Roland Fryer w/ great idea post race-based Affirmative Action:
Instead of making the admissions process shallow, elite colleges should found and fund 100 feeder middle and high schools that educate disadvantaged students.
@GlennLoury
@FreeBlckThought
When the prevailing notion seems to be that black people’s efforts are futile in the face of white supremacy, we must accentuate the positive stories of millions of black men and women who are living the American dream.
@HBSAAA
@RFS_Vista
I am quite confident a ninth grader at Vertex Partnership Academies in the Bronx could debate
@DrIbram
(if he has the courage) and easily repudiate his misguided ideas. Our students want equal opportunity as individuals, not forced equity outcomes by group
Had a thought-provoking discussion with
@benshapiro
about the problematic narrative of the Reparations Math curriculum produced by the
@nytimes
1619 Project and
@pulitzercenter
and its impact on young minds.
We delved into the dangers of perpetuating
#victimhood
and the
“If you finish high school, get a job, and get married before having children, you have a 98% chance of not being in poverty.”
In his Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “The Biggest Root Cause of Crime is Fatherlessness,”
@jasonrileywsj
cites my book Agency, highlighting how
“In the quest to make men moral, it is not only necessary to cultivate boys to be respectful, to honor individual dignity, to do the right thing even when no one is watching. We must also cultivate strong girls with equal moral fortitude; girls who expect principled behavior of
Notice the headline puts “Americans” and “Black People” in two separate categories. How much more intentionally divisive, mean-spirited and wrong can the
@nytimes
be to publish this?
@FreeBlckThought
“The most highly correlated factor with upward mobility at a neighborhood level was the share of two-parent households in that neighborhood.”
That is a quote from
@kearney_melissa
describing key findings from Raj Chetty’s extensive
@OppInsights
research that unfortunately has
I am humbled to join the Board of Advisors for the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism. FAIR is a pro-human nonpartisan org that advances civil rights & liberties, & a common culture of fairness, understanding & humanity
@fairforall_org
Please join us:
The great
@p_m_robinson
has scored the ultimate interview with
@ThomasSowell
on his new book Social Justice Fallacies. Can’t wait to see this future episode of
@uncknowledge
.
In 2022, Peter had an incredible discussion with me and two of my other heroes
@GlennLoury
and
In a Town Hall on Education, Vertex Partnership Academies high school in the Bronx is hailed for our resounding victory defeating the UFT teacher’s union and for providing an education organized around the four cardinal virtues:
Courage: I reject victimhood and boldly persevere,
Those who share wealth gap data without sharing the impacts of critical factors like family structure & education level are being disingenuous & certainly not helping young people understand the levers of control they do have to lead a life of flourishing.
Beyond the obvious benefit for a child raised in a two-parent household is this
@OppInsights
finding: Boys who grew up in neighborhoods where there were more fathers present — even if not their own — had significantly higher chances of upward mobility, especially for black boys.
The obvious is found, again.
Per at least a dozen studies: with everything adjusted for, usually including IQ proxies, having two parents instead of one has a giant positive effect on later-life income, social mobility, criminal behavior, etc.
“it’s assumed that black kids are these marginalized, oppressed human beings, & white kids are somehow the privileged oppressors...expectations are being lowered in the name of equity by teachers and principals to somehow level the playing field.”
Parents across America are undergoing a “Great Awokening,” fighting K-12 wokeness, public humiliation of children for independent thinking & threats to free speech-in high school! Join me
@NaomiSRiley
& Bonnie Snyder
@TheFIREorg
@1776unites
@realchrisrufo
Even Bernie Sanders agrees that Equality of Opportunity is - correctly - preferable to equity (defined as equal outcomes). A free society flourishes when there is a focus on equality of opportunity, individual dignity and our common humanity.
#Agency
Well done Katharine!
@Miss_Snuffy
The video does a beautiful job dismissing the myth that Michaela Community School is a joyless place. The faculty and students are happy and engaged. It makes your opponents so mad. Let them fume while you deliver an outstanding education
In 2022, only 12% of Illinois black fourth graders were proficient or above in reading. Yet the Illinois Invest in Kids scholarship program that serves 9,000 low-income kids was ended by leaders who send their own children to private school. Hypocrites.
To learn more about how to empower the rising generation to overcome the victimhood narrative and learn how they can lead self-determined lives of meaning and purpose, consider picking up a copy of Agency:
“Sorry, Harvard, fathers still matter - including Black fathers.” Young white men from single-parent families are more likely to end up in prison than young Black men from intact, two-parent homes. My latest w
@BradWilcoxIFS
@1776Unites
@AEI
@drantbradley
I am proud to be a founding member of the
@WoodsonCenter
@1776Unites
. Happy 4th of July! As Alexis de Tocqueville said “The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
How do we proceed today as Black Americans? As Americans in general?
By remembering our history — one of triumph, struggle and resilience — and confronting our present, honestly.
Learn more ➡️ 🇺🇸🎆
& Happy
#July4th
|
#1776Unites
New NYC Chancellor
@Realdavidcbanks
: “We want to scale excellence, so if that means opening a few more charter schools, that’s what we’re going to do” The sound you hear is tens of thousands of families in low-income communities rejoicing
@FreeBlckThought
Great column “In Defense of Manly Tears” by
@JonahDispatch
for
@thedispatch
: Complete in order Education, Work, Marriage, then have Children (& throw in faith commitment). You are much more likely to lead a successful, self-determined life of agency.
The goal to close the racial achievement gap in reading is misguided.
According to the National Assessment for Educational Progress (aka Nation’s Report Card) there has never been a year in which a majority of white students are reading at NAEP Proficient levels.
So achieving
The
@nytimes
#1619Project
&
@pulitzercenter
have sunk to a new low in their obsession to convince young black people that they are entitled victims who remain enslaved and unfree. A 🧵 on their new high school curriculum “Reparations Math” (1/7)
For every so-called black leader feebly insisting on “systemic, institutional or structural“ racism, there are those of us who profess “surmountable” racism, by building schools that empower, cultivate agency and pursue excellence
@ImmuneHack
The driver of Asian success in the West, has been their unapologetic pursuit of academic excellence.
Why have 'Black leaders' pursued the dismantling of 'systemic racism', instead of academic excellence, to improve Black outcomes?
Don't they think Blacks are capable?
30 years ago, I read Content of Our Character, a must-read by Shelby Steele. His words helped me realize that one’s character, based on knowledge & virtue, matters far more than race or skin color.
A full circle honor to have him visit Vertex Partnership Academies
@Hebro_Steele
What a fantastic interview with
@IanVRowe
at Vertex Partnership Academies. Great to see
@pauldrossi
in action. The school was immensely impressive and is a much needed endeavor to revive the American Dream for all.
#WhiteGuiltDoc
“Don’t dishonor my amazing achievement by chalking it up to favoritism. I resent it. I don’t like it. I don’t need it. I don’t want it…I’m defending my own dignity here. So you’re going to call me a sellout because I’m defending my dignity? F**k you! Please, will you get your
“America is thirsty to reward grace and virtue…[but] the emphasis on race now is acting as a primary barrier for us to address the deeper malaise facing this country.” Powerful words from my mentor, colleague & friend
@BobWoodson
What makes Roland Fryer’s research so compelling is not that he argues that race/racism are not factors in policing & education. Rather, his analysis dives deeper to show there are far more prevalent levers that lead to positive outcomes in both areas. His courage is infectious.
Roland Fryer at
@jilvorg
's NEW ALLIANCES RETREAT w/ FBT &
@CACAGNY
:
UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS ABOUT EDUCATION & PUBLIC SAFETY
"On low-level uses of force by police, we find really important racial differences. Black dignity matters."
WATCH ⬇️
Powerful words from Sahar Tartak, a then high school student who had the courage to stand up to coercive doctrine. “Students and parents across the country are finally asking tough questions about anti-American curriculums.”
@fairforall_org
I am proud to have partnered with
@BobWoodson
& the
@WoodsonCenter
to produce a curriculum on black excellence that has now been downloaded more than 100,000 times by teachers & parents in all fifty states.
Please join me, Donique Rolle
@FavoriteTeach11
and Reverend Jesse
This is sickening.
Which is worse, that Walgreens blares classical music as a deterrent to young thieves and looters, or that such a strategy actually works?
How about another approach: build schools so that our students learn a core and lasting body of
I am honored to be featured on
@AmThoughtLeader
w/
@JanJekielek
to challenge the victimhood narratives that are being perpetrated on young people and instead provide an empowering alternative to build Agency in the rising generation
“What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it. And what I see all over the place is people who care about looking good, while doing evil. F*** them!”
Extraordinary exchange w/
@elonmusk
exposing bankruptcy of virtue signalling
Must read from
@BobWoodson
: “Some people would say that their family members died for a country with ‘racism in its DNA,’ while enjoying the very freedom of expression those men & women died to protect. We owe...an apology.”
@1776Unites
@FreeBlckThought
My review of Thomas Sowell’s Charter Schools & Their Enemies Why is there such irrational opposition to low-income families who want nothing more than the opportunity to choose a high-quality public school for their child?
@ThomasSowell
@Ninacharters
@AEI
Asking students to recite empowering poems like Henley's INVICTUS or Kipling's IF, helps build a culture of personal responsibility and agency.
Teachers share a remarkably consistent mindset of high academic expectations, & all adhere to a system of rewards and consequences
In a Bronx district in which only 7% of students graduate from high school ready for college, we are opening a world class school to offer an International Baccalaureate Diploma & Careers education. Grateful to
@WSJopinion
&
@tunkuv
sharing our story
In a Bronx district, only 7% of 9th graders go on to graduate ready for college. UFT filed a meritless lawsuit to stop the opening of a world class high school. A NY State Judge dismissed the case. Vertex Partnership Academies opens Aug 22. A win for kids!
The market for old copies of classic Roald Dahl books just skyrocketed! Craziness. Hundreds of the author’s words have been changed or entirely removed in a bid for ‘relevancy’ to suit a new ‘sensitive’ generation. We need to end this victimhood nonsense.
The answer to your question is obviously no - racial inequality is not due to genetics.
Your question does however highlight the corrosive impact that Kendi’s binary thinking has had on our ability to find solutions to address racial disparities.
Kendi is famous for telling the
“Racial representation’s ultimate sin is that it dehumanizes. The phrase ‘people who look like me’ is profoundly reductionist, implying that all blacks look alike, that all Asians look alike…It obliterates each student’s full humanity.”
@fairforall_org
I was honored to have a powerful discussion with the great
@GlennLoury
on upward mobility, entrepreneurship, education, faith, and a debate on how best to empower the black community to move from persecution to prosperity.
@1776Unites
@AEI
@citizenstewart
Incredible
@wsj
photo essay re 4,978 Rosenwald Schools That Changed America: In the early 20th century, a pioneering partnership between a black educator & a white businessman brought new opportunity to the American South.
@1776Unites
@FreeBlckThought
Beat bad ideas (so called “anti-racism”) -not by cancelling- but by offering better ideas (a pro-human approach). I’m honored to be part of
@fairforall_org
& promote the empowering alternative: equality of opportunity, individual dignity & common humanity.
Reparations programs face steep opposition. But none of that viewpoint is represented in the curriculum. It is pure indoctrination. Powerful & empowering counter arguments for black agency such as from
@bobwoodson
are ignored. (3/7)
Powerful fr Kimi Katiti: I respect lived experience, but I can’t respect it, along with its overarching philosophy, if it excludes and suppresses a great many real black lives in an ironic effort of inclusivity
@FreeBlckThought
@1776Unites
@fairforall_org
In May 1900, for his valor in the battle of Fort Wagner, Army Sergeant William Harvey Carney became one of the first black Americans to receive the Medal of Honor. He was recognized for protecting the American flag during the Civil War.
Sickening.
Whenever you hear that an action in education is being taken “in the name of equity,” that usually means low-income kids suffer in some way: either lowering of standards or elimination of high quality opportunities.
Chicago follows suit:
There’s little that better highlights the moral bankruptcy of Chicago’s ‘equity’ agenda than a look at how Chicago Public Schools is treating two of its schools: Northside College Prep and Douglass High.
CPS and union officials want to end selective enrollment at Northside, a
I had an equally invigorating visit Imagine 100+ pupils vigorously reciting Invictus “I am the master of my fate! I am the captain of my soul!”
@Miss_Snuffy
will tour Vertex Partnership Academies in May. Grateful to Katharine for sharing lessons learned on how to build excellence
The free
@WoodsonCenter
@1776unites
curriculum has now been downloaded more than 17,000 times by teachers in all 50 states, as well as home schools, prison ministries and whereever there is a desire to learn a more complete American history. Join August 18
Unfortunately, these policies will ultimately harm all students, including minorities. As charter school leader
@IanVRowe
argues, the district's policies are a “modern day version of the soft bigotry of low expectations” that will “dumb down the grading system for all.”
After running a network of elementary & middle public charter schools for the last decade, my dream is coming true to launch in August a first-of-its-kind network of character-based International Baccalaureate high schools in the Bronx. Exceptional goals, Exceptional achievement
"Students shouldn't be taught on an assembly line, but instead should be treated as unique human beings, with unique strengths and talents, held to the highest expectations." - FAIR Advisor
@IanVRowe
.
We can all rise to the
#ProHuman
standard, and it starts with education.
Michaela penalizes dysfunctional behavior because NOT doing so sends two possible messages to students:
1. What you did was fine and you shouldn't receive any punishment
2. What you did wasn't fine, but it's what I expect of you and I don't believe you can do better
“School Choice and Educational Freedom are fundamental if we really want to create a society in which all kids - every kid of every race - has an equal shot to be successful” I was honored to join
@MegynKellyShow
&
@DeAngelisCorey
Rather than defeatist lessons, there are alternatives that empower black & young people of all races to overcome the victimhood narrative. Later this year, I will release such a high school Advisory curriculum based on Agency, free of charge (5/7)
MLK: “All tyrants, past, present & future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power & how malignant their evil.” My testimony to New Hampshire Board of Education:
@AEI
@1776Unites
The irony of this
@JoyVBehar
nonsense is that
@SenatorTimScott
actively rejects the “up by my bootstraps” narrative; and rather cites his embrace of Family Religion, Education & Entrepreneurship as the keys to his success
@FreeBlckThought
1/3
Once you get past the partisan window-dressing (Tim Scott is a Republican! 😱), what Joy Behar is really trying to say is that black people have a choice between (1) agency and success, or (2) victimhood and "No, we can't!"...
...and she thinks only (2) is "authentically black."
Brian Conrad, Professor of Mathematics &
Director of Undergraduate Studies in Math, Stanford University, has done the nation a great service by building a website that debunks the California Math Framework (CMF) and exposes its “many vague half-baked proposals and
“President-Elect Biden, you cannot surround yourself with the same people that got us into this mess. People that love the system more than they love our liberation. Things must change. We are starting a movement to demand better.”
@WeArePPM
@1776Unites
“What I learned…is that black people are still not free.” Proudly promoted by the
@pulitzercenter
as proof of learning, these are words of a black student who finished Reparations Math. Grammatical errors aside the intentional message of black victimhood is unconscionable. (2/7)
Whatever one thinks of
@elonmusk
his accomplishments across
@Twitter
@SpaceX
@Tesla
are breathtaking for free speech, space exploration & energy sustainability. Inspires me as a school leader to ensure young people know what they have capacity to achieve
What a disgrace for
@StanfordLaw
. I am determined that graduates of Vertex Partnership Academies in the Bronx will never cowardly skulk out of a room and never be so fragile and incapable of listening to ideas that differ from an unchallengeable orthodoxy
Great graduation speech by Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker
@buttkicker7
. Listen to the raucous cheers when he gives the sage advice of how to ensure your life has meaning and purpose across generations: GET MARRIED and START A FAMILY
After making the journey to my son’s baseball tournament, I was awed by the importance of married fathers not only to our individual boys but also by the lesson our community of married men pass on to future generations when they reach manhood & fatherhood
Welcome
@pauldrossi
and all the incredible new faculty uniting with the team at Vertex Partnership Academies. Join us as we build a great new public charter high school in the Bronx, organized around the four cardinal virtues of Courage, Justice, Temperance and Wisdom.
For two years now I've been a teacher in the summertime—no class. But this Fall I'll be teaching math again, joining the Vertex Partnership Academies team:
@IanVRowe
, principal Joyanet Mangual, and artist Mitch Hobbs. With guidance from the educational powerhouse
@Miss_Snuffy
!
Please join
@RichardvReeves
@BradWilcoxIFS
& me Tuesday
@UVA
for a live debate & discussion on arguably the most profound question of our time central to the health of families & thus to our society: what is the relationship between marriage & fatherhood?
"You ask me one-dimensional questions about...the Negro-ness of my life. I am artist, man, American, contemporary. I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due."
#SidneyPoitier
(1927 – 1/6/22 R.I.P.) on the press's reductive focus on his "blackness."