A Parent Fights Back: Andrew Gutmann on Critical Race Theory and "Anti-Racism" Indoctrination at His Daughter's School | Ep. 99
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 41 minutes
Words per Minute
202.66782
Summary
Andrew Gutman has a daughter at an all-girls school in New York City named Brearley. He wrote a blistering letter to all the parents of his daughter's classmates asking why their daughter wasn't getting into the school.
Transcript
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Like that woman over there with the designer jeans.
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Your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
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at one of these Tony New York schools, Brearley.
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It's an all-girls school on the Upper East Side
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where people like Tina Fey, Drew Barrymore, and Chelsea Clinton,
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Andrew has a daughter at Brearley, and he pulled her, or he's going to.
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And he went public in a scathing letter to all 650 plus parents at Brearley about why he did it
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and what they needed to be paying attention to and how bad the critical race theory indoctrination
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And he was promptly attacked and essentially blown off by the head of school.
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Um, one of the students at the school wrote a piece accusing him of doing things he didn't
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The board has done a collective shoulder shrug.
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And all these parents who underground support Andrew so far have been deadly silent about it,
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Um, wait until you hear what they're doing to kids at Brearley when it comes to COVID too.
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So Andrew's sort of lifting up the veil on what's going on inside of these schools.
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And as you know, sadly, it's all too infrequent that a parent is willing to do this because
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You don't want to do anything that's going to compromise their ability to get into a good
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school or make their teachers like them or have the administration turn against them.
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So I give the guy credit and we're going to get to Andrew in one second.
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Is it, is it because I know it's not easy to talk about this stuff?
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I think, yeah, the first few days after the letter came out was, was pretty stressful.
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My wife and I didn't really eat or sleep for about five days.
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What happened that the letter would get this attention, but no, I'm pretty comfortable talking
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And just so our audience, they, they know the general background, um, knows, but Brearley
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is a, is a top, top school in the United States, nevermind New York.
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Um, and we know this because our daughter is at a similarly rigorous, rigorous and competitive
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It's, it's, it's a golden ticket to get into one of these schools.
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And it's, it's hard, especially when, cause I think your daughter is around our daughter's
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So, uh, and we have a fifth grader and we have a fourth grader and, and a first grader.
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But my point is, especially back then, right now, I think it's a little less competitive
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because people have left New York in droves over COVID.
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But back then, I mean, when you get an acceptance from Brearley or, you know, where we go Spence
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or collegiate where my boys were, it's like, yes.
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Cause it's just like, you know, your kid is so lucky.
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And I think most parents are cognizant of how lucky that is and what a, what a 1% situation
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And the schools do a good job of trying to bring in underprivileged kids as well.
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So it's not all 1%ers in there, but I'm just talking about not every kid in America gets
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So, no, I will tell you, I mean, the, the admission process and for the people that like
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yourself that have gone through this in New York, know this, this was the most stressful
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We, we actually had applied to 12 schools, um, because we were not super wealthy.
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We were not well-connected our preschool that we were at a small preschool.
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That was not really a traditional feeder preschool.
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And so she, the advice we were given was apply broadly and did that.
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And, uh, you know, you're sort of having three events at all those schools over a period
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Um, and yes, when, when, uh, we were very lucky, my daughter, you know, did well in the
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We chose Brearley because we thought it was absolutely the best education that, that she
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Um, and, and there's some other terrific schools, like the ones that I know your kids go to that
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Um, but you know, we love Brearley for, for the education.
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So, so just to set it up, because most parents in New York go into these schools completely hopeful
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and feeling very grateful to be there and just thrilled.
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I mean, I went to public school, so it's like, I can't believe, right.
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I'm like following along with their homework so I can finally learn all the damn things
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I have no idea how you, how you multiply fractions, honey.
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Let me look at this YouTube video and I'll get back to you.
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Well, the math, I don't know if you got, if your schools use the Singapore math, which
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is very different than the way we know we learned to back, back in the day.
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We, we don't, our schools do not use Singapore math.
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Um, but I, I love that, that scene in the, uh, the latest Incredibles movie where the Mr.
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Incredible played by voiced by Craig T. Nelson is like, they changed math.
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It's like those of us who barely hung onto it the first time are like, oh, now I'm really
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So, so she's in Brearley life's going along great.
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So she's a, a, at the point you wrote this letter had been a lifer at Brearley.
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And, and had you been enjoying Brearley prior to this?
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Look, I think it, look, there's still aspects of it that are very, very good.
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You know, I have some pretty strong views on education and curriculums.
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The math was, was, was one thing, but yeah, we were happy.
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We never really had any issues with the administration until, you know, very recently.
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Um, and we, and I'll tell you, we're not the sort of, you know, the PETA pain in the ass
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Um, we are not, I mean, we, in the seven years until, you know, this last year, there was,
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we have one meeting with the, with the school, the head of the lower school about something.
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Um, so, you know, there are parents, I know that call weekly about stuff and that's not
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Um, some of the anti-racism and diversity stuff started creeping in a little bit and,
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And my daughter was cognizant of that, but we were happy, uh, at the school.
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I, I, a year ago or so, you know, pre this and pre COVID, uh, there was every assumption
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that she goes K through 12, that she would stay here for the full 13 years.
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So loved our schools, loved our communities still, you know, my closest friends in New
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York are all from my daughter's school and we, we had communities in these schools that
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And I still love, I still have very close friends at both schools and love the administrators
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And I really felt like as this started to emerge, this shit was being forced on them.
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Some of the teachers, as we saw in that Dalton letter with all the, you know, the 110
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signatories are completely committed to radicalism in some of these pockets, but a lot of them
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aren't and just want to teach normal subjects without seeing everything through a racial
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I was ideologically, I think at the same place you were like, love it.
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Um, and what was, do you remember the first thing that caught your attention of, well,
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That's actually potentially dangerous and deeply problematic.
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And now suddenly I got to start paying attention in a way I kind of wasn't before.
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Look, I think, again, I think some of these things were creeping in a little bit and, and
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not just on, on the anti-racism on other issues, um, you know, really, and, and I know, you
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know, you've experienced that also, uh, uh, you know, single sex schools, uh, really very,
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very much, uh, about empowering women and feminism.
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And, you know, there were discussions about, I had with my daughter about some of the history
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and social studies curriculum are, you know, are you learning about any, you know, males?
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So I think, you know, the antenna was, you know, the antenna was up a little bit because
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they did do in fifth grade, for example, was American history.
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They changed this now a lot in the last year, but, uh, the, uh, you know, colonial period
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in the American revolution and the constitution.
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Um, so, so some of this stuff was sort of getting the antenna up, but this was a night
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and day change, uh, in the last year since George Floyd and black lives matter.
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And I know you had, you know, I listened to your podcast a week or two ago.
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Two ago with, with Paul Rossi, the, the grace church math teacher.
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And he, you know, it was interesting to hear him talk where he said that this was really
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And I think, I think you had the same reaction when, uh, you know, about a year ago with,
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Um, this is when this orders of magnitude got ramped up.
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Uh, and that's where it said, wait a minute, what is going on here?
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It started earlier than that because about a year prior to George Floyd, a group of black
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students had written an open letter to collegiate raising what I thought were some legitimate
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They're like, there aren't enough black students here.
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And can we work harder to improve some of that and improve some of the awareness of
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the issues that those of us who are here and are very clearly in the minority are feeling
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I mean, I think most people, I don't know of a single person who wasn't legitimately like
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And collegiate started to do more things to sort of like take that into account.
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And, uh, our, our then fourth grader was learning about the American revolution and he came home
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and he was like, he could name 12 black people who had helped in the American revolution,
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But then I asked him, I'm like, did they mention George Washington?
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We have the same reaction, same exact reaction.
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Um, I, I, that's the one thing if you've asked me, you know, where, where were you critical
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of, of really curriculum wise, um, more than anything else that I didn't really articulate
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this to the school, but it's sort of the history.
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And civics curriculum, which I think personally is the most important thing that kids should
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And it's probably the academic subject at all schools that gets the least amount of attention.
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But for us, uh, it was also, you know, yes, they're, they're learning not about, uh, you
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know, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, um, for really it was also, you know, women.
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And again, that's not, it's absolutely worth learning about.
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I don't think there's anybody in any of these schools that say, you know, don't appreciate
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diversity and, and don't learn about more than just the dead white males, right?
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But, you know, I've said this a lot is look, you know, you want to, you want to teach civil
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But you can't understand Martin Luther King, unless you understand Abraham Lincoln, you
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can't understand Abraham Lincoln, unless you understand Thomas Jefferson, you can't really
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understand Thomas Jefferson, unless you really, you know, look at the, you know, ancient Greeks
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And I think these schools, uh, you know, have completely lost, and this is the, I agree with
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Um, they've completely lost the context in, in teaching history and, and, and civics, or
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Well, and now, and now Joe Biden's got a push to add civics.
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Like there's a, there's a bill actually making its way through Congress to push for civics
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It's trying to push the 1619 project and the teachings of Ibram X.
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So it's like the push by the Biden administration and the Democrats right now in Congress is not
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They want to push this far left agenda, uh, or I don't even know where there's far left.
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And to the point you just made, um, just to tell the audience, Howard university.
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Howard university, which is, it's the greatest, I think the greatest black university in the
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It's, it's, um, you know, traditionally black, it's a black institution and it is now going
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They want to get rid of the classics in Cornell West, professor Cornell West.
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And, uh, a coauthor, Jeremy Tate just had a really good piece on this in the Washington
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post saying, um, about you, Howard university dissolving its classics department, um, saying
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how alarming this was and talking about how MLK that, that he, he was reading Socrates.
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He mentioned Socrates three times in his 1963 letter for Birmingham jail that to, to dissolve
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the light of the wisdom that preceded us just because these guys weren't exactly enlightened
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And it's damaging to our young people, but they won't listen.
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But anyway, so if it's happening at Howard at the university level, it's, you know, it's
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not particularly surprising that these younger institutions, you know, dealing with K through
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So I'll, I'll, I might be jumping ahead and I apologize for that.
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Um, but so, so I've really seen you wrote a rebuttal to my letter, which, which was sort
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of publicly talked about and it was very nice and she wrote very well.
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And she stood up for her school, but what the main point she was really making, and I
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think she sort of missed the point of my letter, which was, we still teach Latin.
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I am very well aware that they still teach Latin in high school.
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The question is, will they still teach Latin in high school next year?
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And I actually commented on, on something she wrote and said, listen, if you're really interested
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in this topic, you got to look at what's going on in the lower middle school.
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You can't just look up what's going on in the upper school where, you know, there's, there's
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more limit to what they can do to the curriculum because you've got your AP classes and things
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But the broader point, yeah, we're, we're, we're, we're a danger.
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And this is a much bigger point of, of, you know, extinguishing the enlightenment here.
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If we stop teaching the classics, uh, if we stop teaching history, this is, this is a
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much broader point, but this is incredibly dangerous.
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What is going on and that, yes, that the Biden administration is putting this at the forefront.
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And one of the, you know, things that, uh, on their policy about education is terrifying
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Oh, well, I mean, on the AP classes, they're teaching them for now, but there was, I just
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I think it was Virginia, um, and a school district there abolished AP classes.
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And, and we're seeing a push for this in more and more schools.
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That was one of the things that the Dalton students were demanding.
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Uh, the school either gets complete parody between black and white students on AP classes
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Now I will full disclosure at my public school.
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But my point is I see a lot of smart kids who could, who can do it.
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And, and that includes a lot of smart black kids and equal parody among everyone.
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Like, what about the Irish, my people, we had discrimination against us, horrible discrimination
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Let me tell you, I never would have a parody with some of the black and white students that
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But so they're going to get rid of AP classes in the name of quote equity.
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And the classics have to go because, you know, Socrates and Plato weren't evolved enough.
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And we don't mention George Washington, you know, general, then general George Washington,
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when we're talking about the American revolution.
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So you decide finally, after this explosion in the woke Arati inside Brearley to write this
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Because had you been talking with other parents or how was it growing?
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So, so I thought about writing the letter at the beginning of the school year or writing
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Um, cause I could see the writing on the wall here.
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I decided, look, I know, and I said this in my letter and I believe this even more given
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the reaction, more than half the parents were very unhappy with the direction of the school.
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And I still, and I believe very strongly that's the case more than half.
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Just talking to people, just talking to people about this.
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We were forced, although we refused to sign a community agreement, a pledge about this
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Uh, that we would not only teach, this is the beginning of the school year, actually
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Uh, and they didn't want to let my daughter in unless we signed it and we can talk about
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I don't know if you guys had, did you guys have some kind of pledge like that?
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I mean, I saw when Brearley made it mandatory that parents applying their children had to
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affirm something about aligning with Brearley's ideology on, on all this stuff.
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But I didn't know the existing parents had to sign a pledge.
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So, so prior to the school year starting on labor, I think it might've started a little
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Uh, we were supposed to sign a community agreement.
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Not only, and I don't have the exact wording, but not only are we going to support this in
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the school, but we will help teach and support this in the home.
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And, uh, and, and, and so I, I sent an email to the head of the middle school because they
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kept reminding us, you have to sign this, you have to sign this before the first day
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And finally I sent an email saying, well, are you not going to let my daughter in school
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So finally we got on the phone and he was, you know, he really wasn't in the power to
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He had to run it up the food chain and they came back and said, well, we need her to sign
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And I said, well, this is, you know, I pushed back and said, look, this is, this is blackmail.
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This violates every principle that a school like really is supposed to stand for.
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Um, and they backed off and said, okay, you don't have to sign it this year.
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Uh, as long as you do the two required, every family has to do two required anti-racism training
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Now I know a lot of people signed it under protest and made that point clear, but I, as
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far as I know, everybody, you know, most people said, well, probably everybody signed it.
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We didn't, then they incorporated that language into the re-enrollment contract.
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So it's not just for incoming kindergarten students and families, they put that language
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and I, and I, and I saw that and, um, and we didn't re-enroll, obviously we were, you
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know, pulling her out after the end of the year.
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Uh, but we, I, you know, I, I very carefully compared the language in the enrollment contract
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Uh, one was about vaccination policy and one was about anti-racism.
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Uh, and again, not just supporting it in the school, supporting it and teaching it in
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Oh my God, how dare they, how dare they tell you what you, knowing of course, that this
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No, despite their best efforts and the schools like them, how dare they try to immerse themselves
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And I've had people reach out to me in the last few weeks and say, Hey, you know, maybe
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there's a legal angle to, to, to, you know, to, to try to fight that, you know, we did,
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Um, but to go back to your question, you know, so, so we started talking to parents and again,
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I know, you know, I had a sense for what, you know, there's a few constituents that were
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Um, and I know a few other people did speak up, but, but very few.
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And then the message was, Oh, this is ridiculous.
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This, especially after these anti-racism sessions we had to do in over zoom in the evening.
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And, and, but everyone said, look, yeah, I should write a letter.
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And this is the, look, there's this pervasive fear, this cancel culture fear of doing two
00:21:50.460
So they don't help you with these missions to either boarding school, you know, for high
00:21:55.740
Nobody wants to piss off the school or the fear of losing your job.
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Because if you work at a, you know, at a Goldman Sachs or a big law firm, you can not
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Um, and so we tried to talk to people all through the school year and could not try to
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organize and look, organization during COVID times was virtually impossible.
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Normally you talk about this stuff over dinner, over drinks, whatever.
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Normally you'd have parents barge into the head of school's office while parents aren't
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So, uh, again, I think a lot of this doesn't happen absent COVID, but that's a separate
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issue, but it, but it was just impossible to organize families.
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And it was virtually impossible to get people to speak up because of the overriding cancel
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So when we decided not to re-enroll her and, uh, and, and, and unfortunately it was an easy
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decision, you know, as much as the really education is great.
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And, and, and in a lot of ways it's still good as much as it's a status symbol, which
00:22:55.340
for a lot of parents, that's the primary reason that they're sending their kids to
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And as much as it's the feeder to, you know, Harvard and Princeton and Yale, in the end
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of the day, it was an easy decision not to, not to send her back.
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I care deeply about sort of this history and civics education that's being changed or eradicated
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And so that's when we decided not to re-enroll her back for next year is when I said, you
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And, and, you know, the goal of the letter was not to change anybody's mind on this anti-racism
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You know, it was not to educate anybody on what is going on.
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Most parents are very well aware of what's going on.
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It was simply to encourage other parents to speak up.
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I said, look, I'm not personally, professionally cancelable.
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We've already decided to not enroll her for next year and I can do this.
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And someone has to do this was, was my, why are you not, why are you not cancelable?
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Um, so I've got, I've done a number of things in my background.
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I was, I was, I've been, I've been described in many different ways in the press in the last
00:24:04.880
Um, I, I, I got involved with my family's business, so hopefully they won't fire me.
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I, one thing I do do, I got an email yesterday.
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I have been, and I have not been very involved in the last couple of years, but for 10 or
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12 years, I've been a, uh, advisor to MBA students at Columbia business school, where
00:24:28.980
Uh, they started the program 10 or 12 years ago.
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I was one of the original, uh, coaches and been doing it.
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I, I've been very, I've not been very active in the last year or two.
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Uh, but I got an email yesterday around five o'clock saying my, my, my services are no longer
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required, uh, which, which was sort of expected.
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So yeah, I got canceled in a very, very small way.
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And they just said it was because I haven't been active, but, um, you know, I can, but that's
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And, uh, you know, again, I, I, you know, a lot of people have said, and I appreciate
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it and I get it, you know, you're courageous and brave, but.
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And again, I know, you know, with Paul Rossi, who you had on the show, I think what he did
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is, is much more courageous because he was cancelable.
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Um, you know, he was risking his livelihood and his career.
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Did, did you, did you, do you know where you're sending your daughter next year?
00:25:32.440
No, no, we're gonna, we're gonna try out, uh, some, some variation of homeschool.
00:25:43.500
I mean, it was even without that, but like not having her place, not knowing where she'd
00:25:49.820
I, I've been there, you know, where it's like, all I know is I'm not sending them here.
00:25:57.240
It's scary because you, you go from like this gold standard of education to, uh, we're going
00:26:04.960
I know it's stressful a little bit, but you know, I, I have this dream.
00:26:09.960
I'm sure later is, you know, what, what, what we'll do next.
00:26:12.320
Um, but you know, starting a school is, is a possibility.
00:26:18.120
So one of the reasons you might not want to speak out if you're a parent in Andrew's
00:26:21.860
situation is you're worried about how it's going to affect your child, right?
00:26:25.380
Like what, what's going to happen to him or her.
00:26:28.080
We get into that next and you might be surprised at what Andrew's daughter said to him.
00:26:33.180
I've had a number of schools reach out to me and said, Hey, we'd love, we'd love to
00:26:45.100
Well, and she's learning that the most important thing is she's, she's learning.
00:26:50.020
She's seeing you stand up for what you believe in, for what you think is right.
00:26:54.520
And even though you're getting considerable blowback for it, it's hard for her.
00:27:01.120
Um, you know, it's complicated, but I think that's a lot of things.
00:27:03.160
I think the overall lesson to her is definitely a positive one.
00:27:10.480
Uh, one, one, at the end of the day, this was her decision.
00:27:13.460
If she had wanted to stay, we absolutely would have let her stay.
00:27:17.080
We would have tried to fight this more quietly, you know, within the school, but she was supportive
00:27:25.560
The three of us, my wife, myself, and my daughter.
00:27:27.900
Now I'll tell you a little story, which is, uh, again, the teachers have been terrific at
00:27:34.380
The administration, you know, I can say different things, but one of the things that the administration
00:27:39.300
did, which was a little bit nasty was to try to, in a letter that, that the head of school
00:27:44.420
sent me and I've been excommunicated from the school.
00:27:50.980
I'm not supposed to contact anybody at the school.
00:27:53.540
I actually tried to send the head of school right when this happened, an email saying,
00:27:57.240
look, you know, as I know it's difficult as a human being, I know this is difficult for
00:28:01.860
She was criticized in the press, really was criticized in the press.
00:28:05.160
So I tried to send that email and it bounced back.
00:28:13.820
Um, so, and I don't know, look, I think they wanted to kick her out and I think they couldn't
00:28:21.060
I don't know what would have happened if she had been in person.
00:28:24.340
Um, there, you know, really has had the remote option this year.
00:28:27.580
I don't know what would have happened, but, but being her remote, it's been fine.
00:28:31.580
You know, you don't really know issues, but so, so, so my daughter of her own volition,
00:28:35.800
when this happened, after we got that letter from head of school in her own words, sent
00:28:41.740
an email to the head of the school and the head of the middle school.
00:28:45.020
And we actually had to tone it down because it was too strong for a 12 year old.
00:28:47.920
Did she, did she, did she crib off of your letter?
00:28:54.640
She said, I used the term, I used the term in my letter and it was about, it was a minor
00:28:59.500
part of the letter about the, this consulting group Pollyanna that, uh, that I criticized
00:29:05.280
because I think I called them rent seeking charlatans, which they are, but I said something
00:29:09.860
They, they fail the letter that the head of school sent them, which became public to the
00:29:15.240
entire community took those words in content and delivery.
00:29:21.200
My daughter used those same words, which I thought was funny.
00:29:25.500
We, we, we, we told her that we, we told her you got to tone it down.
00:29:28.300
It's a little inappropriate from a 12 year old, but her message was, I agree with my dad.
00:29:33.820
I support what he did and I'm really proud for that.
00:29:38.580
He stood up for what he believed in and my daughter got a, I think it was like a four
00:29:46.340
That's, that's, I mean, for them, that's brave.
00:29:54.360
So it's addressed to fellow Brearley parents, which is interesting.
00:29:58.340
And you, you sent it to all 600 plus families at the, at the school, the entire, it's like
00:30:09.780
That was the hardest thing with stuffing those envelopes.
00:30:11.820
My daughter wouldn't help, but my wife helped a little bit.
00:30:14.560
She was too busy, but yeah, you know, you know, there's a rumor.
00:30:19.460
There was a rumor that was floating around that I only sent it to the white parents, which
00:30:26.500
I sent it to every single family, save three that happened to have, uh, overseas addresses
00:30:33.600
And I just didn't want to deal with the post-its for overseas.
00:30:35.600
So 656 letters went out to every single family address to both parents that, that in and of
00:30:42.000
itself, trying to everybody, but I mean, people have asked, how did you get the list?
00:30:46.280
Um, I mean, we all have a school directory and, and I assume to the administration as well.
00:30:56.920
And teachers, but I only sent it to the parents, not to the kids, to the parents addressed to
00:31:03.420
And I, you know, I, you know, people have asked why didn't you know, why to email it?
00:31:07.300
I look, I thought, I thought this was appropriate as a letter.
00:31:10.040
Um, and then, uh, you know, the reaction came really reacted, but yeah, just to bring it,
00:31:20.140
Um, I'm just going to read a little bit of it here and there.
00:31:25.920
She's been at Brearley for seven years, beginning in kindergarten.
00:31:28.640
You're more articulate than my short form there, but bear with me.
00:31:31.600
Um, in short, we no longer believe that Brearley's administration and board of trustees have any
00:31:39.020
Moreover, we no longer have confidence that our daughter will receive the quality of education
00:31:42.340
necessary to further her development into a critically thinking, responsible, enlightened,
00:31:48.620
I write to you as a parent to share our reasons for going.
00:31:52.160
It cannot be stated strongly enough that Brearley's obsession with race must stop.
00:31:57.880
It should be abundantly clear to any thinking parent that Brearley has completely lost its
00:32:02.960
The administration and the board have displayed a cowardly and appalling lack of leadership
00:32:07.840
by appeasing an anti-intellectual, illiberal mob, and then allowing the school to be captured
00:32:15.400
While followers are my personal views, I know other parents have expressed them too.
00:32:19.000
I object to the view that I should be judged by the color of my skin.
00:32:22.220
I cannot tolerate a school that not only judges my daughter by the color of her skin, but
00:32:26.340
encourages and instructs her to prejudge others by theirs.
00:32:31.060
By viewing every element of education, every aspect of history, and every facet of society
00:32:35.320
through the lens of skin color and race, we are desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther
00:32:39.480
King Jr. and utterly violating the movement for which such civil rights leaders believed,
00:32:47.440
I mean, that is like, it's strong and it's true.
00:32:51.300
And I think a lot of us who have been dealing with this for a long time were cheering when
00:32:58.200
I mean, can you just talk about how it manifested when you talk about their obsession with race?
00:33:03.520
We know about the contracts you just mentioned, but why use the word obsession with race?
00:33:08.100
It seemed like, again, I can't speak to what is going on in the school.
00:33:15.020
You know they're having all these diversity, equity, inclusion, assemblies, this stuff for
00:33:22.200
There was a Zoom at the very beginning of the school year talking about their new initiatives
00:33:26.720
where they basically said, we're going to incorporate this anti-racism training into
00:33:37.320
It's not just the classical literature curriculum.
00:33:39.560
It's integrating it into every aspect of the school.
00:33:44.280
Again, I'm not observing, even though she's remote, I don't observe what she's learning.
00:33:51.560
I mean, everything they're talking about is race-related.
00:33:59.560
We're not saying we shouldn't talk about diversity.
00:34:02.360
We're not saying we shouldn't talk about racism.
00:34:04.940
We're not saying we shouldn't highlight civil rights leaders.
00:34:09.160
But this is absolutely an obsession, really, and a lot of other schools.
00:34:15.580
Now, you go on to say a lot of really smart and indisputable things in here.
00:34:20.440
The part that I think got you in trouble, if there was trouble, is the next part.
00:34:27.600
Where you say, reading again, I object to the charge of systemic racism in the country
00:34:33.680
Systemic racism, properly understood, is segregated schools and separate lunch counters.
00:34:38.000
It is the interning of Japanese and the extermination of Jews.
00:34:42.660
Systemic racism is unequivocally not a small number of isolated incidents over a period of
00:34:48.780
Ask any girl of any race if they have ever experienced insults from friends, have ever felt
00:34:52.560
slighted by teachers, or suffered the occasional injustice from a school at which they've spent
00:34:57.700
up to 13 years of their life, and you're bound to hear grievances and some petty, some
00:35:05.560
We've not had systemic racism against Blacks in this country since the civil rights reforms
00:35:11.320
To state otherwise is a flat-out misrepresentation of our country's history and adds no understanding
00:35:18.120
If anything, long-standing and widespread policies such as affirmative action point in
00:35:26.120
I object to a definition of systemic racism, apparently supported by Brearley, that any educational,
00:35:31.060
professional, or societal outcome where Blacks are underrepresented is prima facie evidence
00:35:35.980
of the aforementioned systemic racism or of white supremacy and oppression.
00:35:43.320
I know a dad, a Brearley dad, who is, I think, with us on being anti-woke, reasonable guy,
00:35:49.920
very successful guy here in Manhattan, and he got your letter.
00:35:55.980
But this was the part that made him say, I'm not going to publicly come out and support this
00:36:00.960
in any way because I don't want to sign on to that.
00:36:03.420
That pissed too many people off and was too diminishing of the country's history to the
00:36:10.660
point where I just, I can't give him a thumbs up on this.
00:36:13.700
I can't do something to say I support the letter.
00:36:16.020
Did you, did you hear much of that in response?
00:36:18.120
And do you have any regrets about what you wrote there?
00:36:22.840
And I, and I'm aware that's the part that, that's been, you know, criticized the most.
00:36:26.920
I stand by what I said and, you know, and I'll address that.
00:36:30.460
It hasn't been made public where I, where I address that a little bit more.
00:36:33.600
Um, yeah, look, I, if, if, if that is what, and that's news to me that people have, I
00:36:38.860
know people have said, you know, they don't necessarily agree with that.
00:36:41.600
If that's a reason that a lot of people didn't stand up for that, then, you know, maybe I
00:36:48.740
could say I regret that in the, in, in the sense that I agree with what I wrote, but if
00:36:53.260
it was less effective, I've had a lot of people at Brearley and elsewhere say, you know,
00:37:00.580
And this is why I wanted to go strong on a lot of these issues.
00:37:04.280
They, it's okay to say, we don't agree with everything.
00:37:08.880
In my opinion, it was about the inability to have discussions about race and more broadly
00:37:17.440
So I don't view this as about race, but superficially people thought it was about race.
00:37:22.720
Um, I think it's an example of like, this is your opinion.
00:37:27.860
I think if I had Glenn Lowry on this show, he might say a lot of the same things that
00:37:32.940
Um, not, not, not perhaps exactly, but, but close.
00:37:36.780
I had just read, I had recently read Shelby Steele.
00:37:39.520
I was just going to say Shelby Steele, White Gilt, all of that.
00:37:43.740
Um, and, and that I, I, I was very impressed with, with, with that.
00:37:48.220
But like, to your point, you're entitled to this opinion.
00:37:51.960
And this, this is the opinion you're not allowed to share.
00:37:56.740
It's, it's so controversial and hot button and toxic to put it in there because no one's
00:38:01.680
hearing that because you can't put Shelby Steele on TV.
00:38:07.500
Paul Rossi got, he got told when he said, let's bring Glenn Lowry to the school and
00:38:11.860
have him talk to, you know, our students, the, the, the head of school was like, can't
00:38:15.640
you find a white person who's going to say all this?
00:38:17.600
Cause cause to have a black man saying this, um, you know, it could be a particular problem,
00:38:24.160
Well, so let me say a few things about this systemic racism.
00:38:26.680
One is I think people who read it superficially were, were assuming I'm saying there's no racism
00:38:33.100
I mean, I thought that was so obvious and a point that I didn't need to address that.
00:38:38.940
What I was trying to get at is the way, and that's the next paragraph that you, you know,
00:38:42.660
you read the way that this critical race theory movement is describing systemic race and their
00:38:49.340
definition and their masters, by the way, at redefining and co-opting these words, right?
00:38:54.700
If you're not anti-racist to racist, the systemic racism, which even, you know, Biden has, has
00:39:00.960
Um, I, I, I vehemently disagree that again, what I wrote any outcome where there's not
00:39:07.000
a, you know, equality of outcome, which you addressed a little bit earlier is racism.
00:39:12.680
No, that is not systemic racism or institutional racism.
00:39:19.660
Um, I'm not saying there's no racism in this country.
00:39:21.920
That would be absurd, but I was arguing the principle that no, what, what we are, we have
00:39:26.680
been fed in the last few years, you know, in the media, uh, with the assumption now that
00:39:32.800
people have just, you know, taken in that, that we live in this society with systemic
00:39:38.000
I disagree with, um, but again, what, what, what, let me ask you about the sentence.
00:39:42.040
Systemic racism is not a small number of isolated incidents over a period of decades.
00:39:49.700
So, so we're, we're a lot, you talked about this, I think in collegiate, um, there was
00:39:54.960
a black at Brearley Instagram group that, uh, that, and then they, yeah, they, they, um,
00:40:04.180
then, uh, wrote a letter to the head of school.
00:40:06.660
And that was a lot of the impetus for a lot of these changes of Brearley, or apparently
00:40:11.440
And so I went through that and there's, I don't know how many there are, uh, dozens,
00:40:15.600
maybe, maybe less than a hundred, I think, but somewhere of, of people who wrote in mostly
00:40:21.540
They didn't say when most of them, they were in school.
00:40:26.220
And I, so I read through them all, uh, before I wrote the letter and look, I am not saying
00:40:33.640
So you're not talking about the United States there.
00:40:35.760
You're talking about the public complaints made about Brearley.
00:40:40.260
So, so one of them was, and I'll pick a few, you know, one of them was, well, my, my, in
00:40:44.200
kindergarten, everyone wanted to play with my hair.
00:40:46.120
Now I had a, I had a mom of a first grader call me the day the letter became, uh, they,
00:40:51.120
they should receive the letter and said, and she brought it up to me.
00:40:55.200
She had also gone through that, that black and Brearley Instagram page said in kindergarten,
00:40:59.580
that's all the girls did is play with each other's hair.
00:41:05.320
There was another, there was, there was two other, I'll, I'll pick out just, you know,
00:41:09.200
There were, there were two comments, uh, on the black and Brearley.
00:41:11.740
One person saying, I got into like 11 Ivy league and equivalent type of schools, you
00:41:20.860
Um, but people, but, but people said, you know, I only got in because of my skin color
00:41:26.960
Somebody else said, well, because I was black, the guidance counselors or the career counselors
00:41:32.760
told me not to apply to any Ivy league schools.
00:41:39.860
How can they both together be evidence of systemic racism?
00:41:45.600
Anybody ever told a black girl that, that really zero.
00:41:49.800
I'm just going to call bullshit on that right now.
00:41:54.720
Yeah, no, but that's the problem with these black, it really black, it's black, wherever
00:41:57.780
because in the law, the lawyer in me would say we wouldn't allow these claims into
00:42:03.780
Certainly not as a claim because they're untimely, but not even as evidence.
00:42:08.100
You wouldn't even be allowed to tell that story on the stand in anybody's trial as like
00:42:11.740
evidence of a pattern because they are so out of time and so unsupported.
00:42:16.400
There is no way of understanding whether they are reliable.
00:42:21.040
I mean, who knows whether these are real accounts or not?
00:42:24.280
Who knows whether race was really behind this stuff or not?
00:42:27.160
There's no way with the passage of time for us to have any way of following up and figuring
00:42:32.880
So but but instead, the schools take these and the people and proponents of critical
00:42:43.220
And even now, I mean, one of the ones that was listed in one of the rebuttals to your
00:42:45.900
letter was an example of and some of them are obviously racist.
00:42:49.520
I mean, no one's going to dispute that some of the stuff that were put on there if it
00:42:54.880
But but here's just an example that's so like, wait, what?
00:42:57.680
Well, a black student's mother was called into a private meeting for which she had to
00:43:01.980
take a day off of work to be told that her daughter was speaking too much in class.
00:43:05.840
That's racism because we're supposed to believe that black people, black children are not
00:43:14.860
And so they should be allowed to dominate the class, to talk over the teacher, to talk
00:43:19.640
And if you object to that, that's your white supremacy.
00:43:22.700
This is actually a strain I'm seeing in a lot of the critical race theory reporting
00:43:26.100
right now at the K through 12 and the college education levels.
00:43:29.240
This is how nuts it is that for the school to say, can you try to get her to dial it back?
00:43:34.380
And there's no way that teachers hadn't tried to handle this first with her.
00:43:37.520
You don't go to the administration and call on the parent until it's become an ongoing
00:43:42.280
So anyway, these black at whatever school Instagram accounts are in some ways illuminating,
00:43:49.540
but in other ways, totally useless because there's no way of testing any of the assertions.
00:43:55.820
And like you said, look, some of them are racism, but that is not systemic racism.
00:44:03.440
There is no evidence of systemic racism in a really zero, in my opinion.
00:44:09.820
I don't believe there's systemic racism in this country if you use the correct definition
00:44:15.040
or institutional racism, if you use the correct definition.
00:44:18.320
But you can argue that and you can disagree with that.
00:44:22.240
The bigger point here is in this country, on a bunch of issues, race, certainly, we are
00:44:32.080
Someone immediately puts their finger in their ears and cries racist, right?
00:44:37.100
Democracy doesn't work fundamentally if we can't have discussions of these kind of important
00:44:45.160
And that's where we are on race, you know, the third rail, right?
00:44:50.860
So, yeah, look, I know I was criticized for the systemic racism.
00:44:56.440
Again, not saying there isn't racism, but saying, look, I think the definition of systemic
00:45:00.680
racism that is used by these critical race theories that has now become adopted by the
00:45:06.620
media and the president and, you know, and everyone thinks it's the case.
00:45:21.620
And I thought this was actually a very interesting and good point.
00:45:24.420
Um, you say I object to mandatory anti-racism training for parents and this that you called
00:45:30.740
it, especially when presented by the rent seeking charlatans of Pollyanna.
00:45:36.300
Whatever the words you use, it's deeply problematic.
00:45:38.400
And if it's at your kid's school, you better do some Googling ASAP.
00:45:41.160
Um, I object to Brearley's vacuous, inappropriate and fanatical use of words such as equity,
00:45:50.980
If Brearley's administration was truly concerned about so-called equity, it would be discussing
00:45:55.100
the cessation of admin admissions preferences for legacies, siblings and those families with
00:46:10.480
You know, what we really, I forget if I wrote this, but you know, I did write this.
00:46:17.180
We get these daily, you know, weekly or month or whatever they are, you know, emails from
00:46:20.760
the DEI committee, diversity, equity, inclusion committee.
00:46:24.900
Now they're 15 page emails about all the events they're doing and everything you should do at
00:46:30.060
Um, and they always say over and over, we want you to have, and we want to have these difficult
00:46:44.940
You know, they don't want to, they're playing lip service.
00:46:54.540
We'll, um, you know, we'll have some mandatory training for teachers and for, and for parents.
00:47:03.800
Let's talk about why are there racial discrepancies, you know, socioeconomically?
00:47:07.140
Why, why did I think I read to this week, only eight blacks get into Stuyvesant, you know,
00:47:11.220
very, very difficult to get into test-based admission, uh, you know, in, in high school
00:47:24.520
Um, they, you know, they, they, they're not taking it.
00:47:26.400
If they didn't, if they didn't give such a preference for the little sisters of the
00:47:30.960
existing students, uh, of the legacies, meaning like the children of Brearley, you know,
00:47:36.380
alums, um, they'd have more spots for the underprivileged, for children of color who might
00:47:46.780
And, and the thing is they won't because that's where the money starts to dry up.
00:47:54.020
They want to take both of your girls instead of just one of your girl.
00:47:57.060
Cause that's more tuition and that's more loyalty to Brearley and more donations.
00:48:00.680
Because let me tell you, I mean, I can speak to this and I'm sure you can too.
00:48:03.820
As a parent, the New York city private school system, they don't just want your 54, $57,000
00:48:11.560
And as soon as you get in, they hit you up for additional donations and they, they might
00:48:17.320
They might even say, may we suggest a donation of X?
00:48:27.940
And the way they, the way they work the pressure is to buy, is by like suggesting that there's
00:48:35.720
So they're not going to say no to the siblings.
00:48:37.700
They're not going to say no to the legacies, like the little kids who are the, you know,
00:48:42.140
And until they start doing that, they should really stop lecturing the rest of us.
00:48:48.700
I really went through a whole building campaign.
00:48:50.420
They built a new building that opened about a year ago.
00:48:53.400
So there was an, and we're not, we're not that high net worth that we were asked to donate
00:48:58.840
But yeah, I mean, this is, these are fundraising organizations.
00:49:02.360
And one thing I've realized, this is a broader point, was that, you know, these institutions,
00:49:06.460
and you see how they, what, you know, after the, after the press of my letter, you know,
00:49:23.480
Up next, we're going to talk about how other parents at Brearley reacted to Andrew's very
00:49:28.220
public letter and also the COVID restrictions going on there.
00:49:32.680
And also just recommended by the CDC for your child.
00:49:35.420
If he or she is planning on going to camp this summer, have you seen these?
00:49:46.920
And if you haven't heard of it, you're going to hear it next.
00:49:50.260
But first we're going to bring you a feature we have here on the show called real talk,
00:49:54.000
which is just a chance to talk about anything I want to talk about.
00:49:57.000
I guess I can do that even without labeling it real talk.
00:50:01.440
I just want to take a moment and say a word about the vaccines.
00:50:04.760
Doug and I both got vaccinated this past weekend, the first half.
00:50:08.420
So we originally were going to go and you got to understand because I know I posted this
00:50:13.400
I did not pose one of the what I call the dumbass pictures of myself getting vaccinated.
00:50:19.140
I don't need to see you get the damn shot in your arm.
00:50:23.200
Um, and Doug and I originally were going to get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and I did
00:50:30.660
Especially for women who are of childbearing age.
00:50:33.500
I don't think that includes a 50 year old, but technically I guess, you know, before the
00:50:54.080
Because if you've got blood clotting issues and so on, maybe you get a different recommendation.
00:51:00.400
Abby, of course, who runs my life, gives me a printed out piece of paper from CVS, right?
00:51:06.260
She is, she's so, she's upset still, it says Megan Kelly, Doug Brunt, CVS, our address
00:51:12.780
of our CVS right around the corner, Johnson and Johnson, 11 o'clock.
00:51:16.700
So we go, I go to the, the, the pharmacist, you like the little counter.
00:51:21.140
And I'm like, yeah, we're here for the vaccine.
00:51:24.860
I'm like, here, we have this paper saying that we're, you know, we're supposed to be
00:51:29.980
And the guy looks at it, he goes, I don't understand this.
00:51:33.260
He said, not only do we not offer the vaccine here, we've never offered the vaccine here
00:51:41.080
And so I didn't, Johnson and Johnson or any other.
00:51:43.820
And I have, first I'm thinking, he must not be a fan.
00:51:49.680
Is there like some secret vaccine counter for the liberals?
00:52:00.280
So now I got to scramble because we really just want to get it over with.
00:52:07.160
And I definitely want to be able to travel to places like Europe and inside the United
00:52:11.280
States that won't let me in without a damn vaccine passport, which I'm opposed to.
00:52:16.660
I will tell you, honestly, even if they weren't going to require that, I'm pro-vax.
00:52:33.760
So we got an appointment at the CVS in Midtown.
00:52:35.820
And we went in and we got the first half of the Pfizer vaccine.
00:52:38.900
And for whatever it's worth, and it may be worth nothing to you, it was a nothing.
00:52:43.260
Now, some of the side effects are supposed to come after the second dose.
00:52:45.620
So we'll see my arm hurt for like a day, mildly same for Doug was fine.
00:52:52.740
I had a nice small talk with the guy who gave me the shot.
00:52:54.600
And with the people who were also getting the shot, there was a guy from Israel who was
00:52:59.360
He didn't want to get it, but his wife made him.
00:53:03.060
You got to remember, New York is just New York got leveled by this damn thing leveled.
00:53:07.440
And so people here are still masked up everywhere you go.
00:53:10.420
And I guess I sort of also feel a responsibility living in New York to do it.
00:53:13.860
I will say for the record, I have zero concerns about what's going to happen to me long term.
00:53:18.260
My feeling on it is if there's some long term awful thing that comes from these vaccines,
00:53:22.320
then the same damn scientists at Pfizer and Moderna and elsewhere who came up with these
00:53:26.080
great vaccines are going to come up with a fix because American science is still the
00:53:32.600
Like there's a reason we are bathing in all these vaccines and nobody else is.
00:53:40.580
And if we didn't, if it turns out long term, there's a problem.
00:53:49.300
Even young people, even though the risk is minuscule that you will die from COVID if you
00:53:54.240
were under the age of 80, people have died from it.
00:54:01.660
If you're if you're really afraid of the vaccines, talk to your doctor.
00:54:07.780
That's a person you've entrusted with your skit, with your life, your well-being.
00:54:15.180
Don't listen to cable news or any other pundits tell you whether to get it or not to get it.
00:54:24.160
Just want to tell you that I got the first dose.
00:54:37.080
Oh, I texted Doug saying, did you do you have my card?
00:54:47.060
I should have said, could you mail that directly to Abigail Finan?
00:55:12.280
I have faith in the vaccine and my doctor and in CVS.
00:55:15.920
Not the one right around the corner from me, which is putting out misinformation on its
00:55:34.460
The discussion that we're having reminds me of the NBA in China.
00:55:38.220
They're wonderful about virtue signaling when it comes to Black Lives Matter and then messages
00:55:42.400
on the court and on the players' jerseys and so on.
00:55:44.200
But when it comes to money, like cold, hard cash that they're getting from China, they won't say a word.
00:55:53.860
Just go back and listen to my podcast with Mark Cuban, if you don't believe me.
00:55:57.560
Didn't want to talk about it at all because that's cash out of the pocket.
00:56:02.460
And now what they're starting to learn as people revolt against all this nonsense and wokeness in the NBA and all these other sports, it's costing them money.
00:56:13.660
They went out in the woke train, and there's a great piece on National Review about how they've gone non-woke not long after they put themselves on that train because they're losing business.
00:56:23.480
And they fired their general counsel who'd been pushing a lot of it.
00:56:26.400
And the new general counsel is like, we'll see whether we're going to do any of that in the future.
00:56:30.820
So there's a commercial cost if parents like you, if people who object to what the NBA did, to what Coke did, stand up.
00:56:38.580
And that's why they just try to get out of bounds by pushing it back on you as saying, racist, racist, we're not, you are, bye.
00:56:45.640
Okay, let me shift gears and talk about the reaction now.
00:56:47.920
So you send this out and you get, like you said, you get a reaction from, among others.
00:56:53.880
Well, first, let's talk about the head of school, Jane Freed.
00:56:56.700
It says, your letter was deeply offensive and harmful.
00:57:00.280
And I quote, this afternoon, I and others who work closely with upper school students met with more than 100 of them, many of whom told us that they felt frightened and intimidated by the letter and the fact that it was sent directly to our homes.
00:57:16.240
And I should mention in your letter, there was a, there was an objection to, is it, I don't know if I, I don't want to mischaracterize it, but to the, uh, like affirmative action policies and letting students in, you said, who basically their academics wouldn't justify admission.
00:57:32.000
No, that, that point was, if this can, if we don't stop, this is continues.
00:57:38.960
About, about you're going to lower standards, you know, that, that was that point.
00:57:42.980
Um, but yeah, you know, what did you make of her response?
00:57:46.240
Well, I think the same that most people did both in the Brearley community and in the broader community, since this was picked up by the press, uh, it was appalling response.
00:57:57.080
And the thing that, what you just read, what people picked up and I, the first thing I picked up on and everybody did was that comment on the frightening, the, the high schoolers, the upper schoolers.
00:58:06.640
And I've said this a number of times, but really it's been around, you know, 140 years.
00:58:11.940
Uh, it is, you know, one of, if not the most, the preeminent all girls school in New York, maybe in the country.
00:58:17.460
If there's one single thing that Brearley has prided itself on, and we've heard this in the seven years, my daughter's been in the school is producing intellectually courageous girls, intellectually brave girls.
00:58:32.640
And to say that our upper schoolers are frightened by a piece of paper, not to them, even to their parents or the words on that piece of paper is absurd.
00:58:42.220
And it's one of two things, either they're lying about it, uh, which I don't really believe, or frankly, they've done an appalling job doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is creating intellectually courageous girls.
00:58:52.840
Uh, and then, and, and, and, and look, I, I, you know, a lot of these girls are in, in sort of indoctrinated into this, you know, wokeness, uh, which is a bigger issue.
00:59:02.000
Uh, but that's the line that I think an awful lot of people criticize.
00:59:06.880
It's like, if that's your goal, courageous conversations and intellectual curiosity fail, fail Brearley fail.
00:59:12.940
And by the way, I mean, this is what they always say, right?
00:59:15.640
Like the people who are woke, anything that you say, that's not consistent with their messaging is dangerous.
00:59:27.300
You were very kind in speaking about the young girl's message who, who posted publicly in response to you.
00:59:32.800
Um, I, I will do her the, the courtesy of treating her like the grownup she's purporting to be in this, in this public letter and say, this was not a fact-based piece.
00:59:45.180
It was not because her, this young woman who wrote publicly about your letter, um, said, and I quote, that she called you, your, your position on systemic racism, ignorant at best.
00:59:58.400
Uh, but then she says as evidence that there's no system, that there is systemic racism, quote, Shirley Guttman has read the news lately.
01:00:05.240
People of color are being shot and killed, quote, accidentally on the regular, on the regular, she says.
01:00:14.040
And, and then she goes on to say, I am so tired of hearing that my existence takes up too much space.
01:00:20.660
I am tired of hearing debates about whether my voice belongs in the classroom.
01:00:30.180
Your mind has been so corrupted by these race hustlers that you've been led to believe that there, that there is an epidemic of police shooting, shooting people in the street.
01:00:40.060
Black people, there isn't, and that somebody saying your existence takes up too much, who, what did you make of that?
01:00:49.060
Let me address the police shootings issue, if you don't mind.
01:00:51.720
Um, cause I wrote a, I wrote a follow up and it has not been published and I don't think it will be.
01:00:58.640
But, um, but I, I, cause I wanted to address the systemic racism issue.
01:01:01.760
Um, and, uh, so I, I did some digging cause I knew this cause I've read about this, but I did some digging and, you know, department of justice, 2018 about, and I have this in front of me, but 20% of offenders of violent crime incidents were identified as black.
01:01:18.000
29% FBI data says about 27% of people arrested in this country were identified as black.
01:01:24.560
And according to website, uh, statista in that same year, 23% of the number of people shot to death by police were identified as black.
01:01:34.120
So there was no evidence that blacks are being killed by police, by white police officers out of proportion to the crimes they commit.
01:01:43.520
There is simply no evidence of this systemic racism.
01:01:47.520
And, but we have been drilled in our heads by the media over the last few years.
01:01:51.720
And certainly since George Floyd, that these high profile police shootings of, of, you know, white killings of black men and women, which are tragic and may be instances of racist cops.
01:02:02.480
They, they certainly may be, but data says these are not, there is not evidence of systemic racism and people don't know that.
01:02:12.020
No, they think the exact of the opposite, but, and, and the problem is everything for her is anecdotal, right?
01:02:16.180
If I'm sure if you went back to her and asked her for stats, she wouldn't give them to you.
01:02:19.140
It's, you know, her lived experience and watching George Floyd played over and over and over and watching, you know, people like, um, Oh God, what's his name in, in the, uh, in Wisconsin who got shot, Jacob Blake and the Breonna Taylor.
01:02:30.440
And because the media picks these cases and tries to play them over and over and over and misleads people.
01:02:36.120
By the way, when you say that you had a vaccine clause in your Brearley contract is, do you think they're trying to set you up to agree to a mandatory COVID vaccine for your kids?
01:02:48.160
Uh, so a number of families kept their kids remote mostly because of fear of COVID.
01:02:53.780
I haven't talked about that publicly, by the way, but we have, uh, we had every intention in September of sending her back in person.
01:03:01.980
I think, I mean, they really does, it's done a great job, but it still sucks.
01:03:05.580
Uh, we had every intention of sending her back and there was a zoom, uh, to talk about right before school started, all the restrictions.
01:03:14.260
Um, and I said to myself and my wife said, and my daughter said, these are abusive to children, these restrictions.
01:03:22.140
And I, I believe they are, this is child abuse.
01:03:24.640
What they are, uh, the restrictions in schools and as bad to mental health is as remote school and not being with your friends and in person.
01:03:33.540
I think these restrictions are worse for the mental health of children.
01:03:38.640
I think they are terrorizing children and this is not going to go away in a year.
01:03:42.980
This is going to be with them for a long time, if not forever.
01:03:48.140
Um, and we can, so I, you know, I, I, I have some, some, again, non-mainstream views on COVID policy, but, but to your point, it's, it's, it's, that's right.
01:03:56.700
I don't know if you're, I don't know what you're saying, non-mainstream, if you're against some of these crazy restrictions, you're a hundred percent mainstream.
01:04:08.680
There was a long piece of the Atlantic just this week.
01:04:11.180
No, of course, New York is, New York won 87% for Joe Biden.
01:04:14.780
But in the country, I mean, even some of my lefty friends in New York are starting to come over to this sort of place of reason and logic in between where they're, they're rejecting this partisan Jersey now because they're like, they can see the hysterics over the COVID lockdowns and what it's doing to children.
01:04:29.920
Um, and we would like, there was an article in the Atlantic this week that was amazing talking about how liberals are now starting to reject the, the crazy sort of fear porn COVID liberals who are triple masking with the face shield and never want to go back into the classroom or any place else public because they refuse, even though they've been double vaxxed to resume normal American life.
01:04:54.100
And if you challenge them, you know, they, they bust out their fake little coffin and say, you want them in it.
01:04:59.720
I was like, yeah, you really have double masks mandatory for the kids.
01:05:10.920
At our old school, they, they were having the kids like the upper schoolers, like they had their own little plexiglass shield to walk around.
01:05:18.800
So a lot of the, so, you know, one of the things that we, and I communicated in addition to the anti-racism,
01:05:23.940
I communicated this to the school, um, that, that I thought the policies were abusive.
01:05:28.360
And, uh, you know, so they have the six feet distancing now, now not every classroom, they
01:05:33.720
So they have a separate annex for a lot of these kids where they're watching the teacher
01:05:38.280
So, you know, we said, okay, if he's going to watch on TV, you have the kids are, or whatever
01:05:44.020
But just as an aside, now this brings me to something, I'm like, I'm infuriated with this
01:05:48.860
and it's not exactly your issue, but it sounds like it might be.
01:05:52.160
Um, the CDC just released guidance for, um, summer camps.
01:06:02.840
We go to New Jersey for the summers where we have a little house on the shore, down the
01:06:05.780
shore, as they say, my husband grew up going down there.
01:06:14.540
The kids had to wear the masks all day, even though they were running around, like the kids were
01:06:17.360
practicing like sailing where you're out on a little tiny boat.
01:06:23.240
I mean, it's like a baby sailboat, um, by yourself.
01:06:26.520
And you had to have your freaking mask on, but we know what we were grateful that they
01:06:31.420
And so we all went along, everybody, you know, they canceled all the social events and all
01:06:35.040
The kids basically, you know, just saw each other from afar.
01:06:38.080
Uh, now here we are, your leader where everybody's getting vaccinated.
01:06:41.380
The kids have never been proven to be effective communicators of the, of the virus and so on.
01:06:46.080
Here are some of the restrictions I'm quoting from reason magazine, reason.com right now.
01:06:49.900
Everyone at the camp, everyone at the camp, including staff and every child over the age
01:06:52.940
of two must wear masks at all times, unless eating or swimming.
01:06:59.880
They should wear two, two layers of masks, especially when social distancing is, is difficult,
01:07:07.220
regardless of whether they're indoors or outdoors.
01:07:09.860
Even if you're outdoors, two layers of masks, they have to be in cohorts.
01:07:15.080
This is how it was last summer where a year later, where their interaction with people
01:07:20.420
They have to always be at least three feet away from each other, six feet between campers
01:07:26.240
Staff has to stay six feet away from the campers at all times, whether inside or outside distance
01:07:31.420
maintained while eating, napping, or riding the bus.
01:07:35.160
Use of physical objects that might be shared among kids, toys, art supplies, electronics should
01:07:40.780
You just admitted that it can't be transmitted via surfaces, that there's almost zero chance
01:07:56.240
So again, the outdoor masking while playing sports, which is not safe.
01:08:02.280
And they say if anyone that this is reason, if anyone's curious, there are separate restrictions
01:08:12.840
It's I mean, Andrew, we've lost our ever loving minds.
01:08:21.480
And our COVID reaction, lockdowns, masks are the stupidest thing human beings have ever
01:08:30.820
You know, there's been other bad things in human history.
01:08:44.820
And we could I'm sure we could talk about this all day.
01:08:46.940
My daughter goes to sleepaway camp up in Maine.
01:08:49.860
And she was one of the she's very lucky that they had a session last year.
01:09:03.560
Last year, we were closer to where, you know, COVID was actually raging.
01:09:11.060
Now, there's a there's a lag on when people die, obviously.
01:09:15.380
But when we get back from spring break last year, we were done.
01:09:18.500
I think most of it's not to say you're zero, but it's a sleepaway camp in particular.
01:09:25.280
You're you're you're in a little you're encamped.
01:09:35.860
It's it's so I'm very hopeful that it's not as bad as the CDC.
01:09:39.240
I read that with terrifying what I read, which you just read.
01:09:41.800
And I think it's going to be worse than last year, which makes absolutely no sense.
01:09:45.660
I think, look, people are starting to push back.
01:09:48.140
I even thought she has gotten criticism for saying kids should wear masks outside.
01:09:53.360
You know, and finally, people are pushing back.
01:09:57.440
Something else, double masking your child and telling him to run around in 90 degree weather
01:10:07.920
I didn't do it last summer and I'm not going to do it this summer.
01:10:10.840
And if our camp thinks that it's going to impose these restrictions, and I don't think
01:10:14.420
it is because they're actually reasonable people, I'll fight.
01:10:20.040
Talk to your pediatrician about whether it's safe to have your kid do running or any physical
01:10:23.180
activity that's strenuous outside in that kind of weather with a double mask on.
01:10:28.760
What risk are we preventing against other than weird COVID fear porn mongers feeling unsafe?
01:10:41.060
I care more about my children and your children than I care about those grown adults who refuse
01:10:50.540
Well, I, you know, I, I don't know if you know, I don't know if you, I wrote a paper
01:10:57.080
So, you know, I, I, I have been following this issue for, since the beginning.
01:11:02.600
It's on my little blog where I actually, there was, there was an initial, the first, the first
01:11:08.280
sort of report where, where people said masks work was, was found, funded by the WHO
01:11:12.820
and within the Lancet, you know, prestigious medical journal.
01:11:15.360
And it was this meta study and it got picked up in all the press.
01:11:18.620
It was written about all over, and this was the justification for masks.
01:11:24.300
And I read it and I said, eh, so they looked at 29 studies.
01:11:27.680
They looked at social distancing and eye goggles too, I think.
01:11:29.840
But, but I just focused on the mask piece and 29 studies of a meta study, right.
01:11:36.620
So I said, you know, I don't, I don't, I'm skeptical here.
01:11:42.400
I got all, the only, I could, there's one, one of them was in Chinese.
01:11:45.680
I couldn't get, uh, just the, just the overview.
01:11:47.900
So I went through and I spent a couple, a week or two, read them off like three times.
01:11:52.280
And this study was, the meta study was absolute garbage mistakes.
01:11:57.680
I think in like eight, I'm, I'm doing it from memory.
01:11:59.720
Eight of them complete, the 11 of them shouldn't have been in there because they weren't actually
01:12:08.280
And I sent it to a few scientists and nothing ever happened and no one ever picked it up.
01:12:12.280
Um, but you know, the science wasn't there and I have read, and then people say, well,
01:12:18.600
Cause I have read probably just about every single paper on masks that have come out in
01:12:26.200
And the science pre COVID was very, very clear.
01:12:30.520
Masks are not effective in stopping the transmission of respiratory viruses.
01:12:36.420
Well, and of course it's what Dr. Fauci told us too.
01:12:41.720
Cause I didn't want you to buy up all the PPE that the medical providers.
01:12:44.500
It's like, oh, well, well, weirdly, I no longer believe you.
01:12:54.400
Oh, the one that's covering for China, trying to keep the story about this coming out of a Chinese
01:12:58.720
lab appears to have been accidental, though the military was working with the lab.
01:13:02.580
I don't know what happened, but listen to my last COVID podcast, because we had Josh
01:13:07.080
Rogan from the Washington Post, who's done extensive reporting on this, talking about
01:13:10.460
how this thing looks like it came out of a Wuhan lab where they were studying coincidentally
01:13:14.120
back coronaviruses and how to make them more dangerous to humans in an effort supposedly
01:13:22.120
Anyway, my point is I don't trust the WHO and I don't trust Fauci and I don't trust the
01:13:27.580
And that's just the way I feel after now a year of listening to these people reverse
01:13:37.020
It's, you know, this trustee, this tyranny of the experts that aren't really experts.
01:13:41.520
You know, the real scientists, which are not the ones that go on TV and that speak publicly
01:13:48.240
And they're the ones saying we don't know much.
01:13:49.820
And here's what we know, which is, you know, no, the masks aren't going to stop respiratory
01:13:54.700
Wearing them outside is disturbing because there's no outside transmission.
01:14:00.660
Kids are at less risk of, you know, COVID, significantly less risk than seasonal flu.
01:14:09.120
Now, this is a bigger fight to get masks out of schools because they're going to be in
01:14:23.940
They we were informed, actually, because we talked about this with them, not only to
01:14:28.780
expect these restrictions, including masks, to continue into next school year, but to
01:14:37.280
Not many change, but that is a sort of direct quote from a Brearley administrator.
01:14:46.420
I mean, that's how long are parents going to let this happen?
01:14:50.400
I mean, my friends who almost all my friends here in New York are liberal.
01:14:56.420
They went their kids haven't been in school all year.
01:15:00.580
Their middle schooler has been going to school.
01:15:02.720
So what as of recently, one day a week for four hours a day, and they last weekend went
01:15:18.520
Counter protesters calling them white supremacists.
01:15:28.060
My I mean, I've said this before, but my only comfort here is that like overreactions
01:15:31.380
like that tend to bring people who are farther out on the ideological scale, close to where
01:15:38.360
I am in the center, where I think it's reasonable and I'm center right, but I don't care.
01:15:43.620
I just I feel like that's going to send everybody over here to the place of reason and off of
01:15:47.580
these ideological teams because ideologues are not trustworthy.
01:15:54.820
I haven't read those studies, so I'm not in a position to challenge what was in them.
01:15:58.080
And I do, however, trust my doctor when it comes to my vaccines, when it comes to any
01:16:02.300
I trust my kids doctor and I trust my doctor, my doctor who happens to be an infectious
01:16:16.680
And he did say that he thinks the long term effects of covid are more of something to
01:16:21.260
worry about than the long term effects of a vaccine.
01:16:24.140
So I do do I wear the mask here in New York City.
01:16:29.740
You can either either mask outside or do six feet away.
01:16:32.480
So I do six feet away unless it's like a jammed up crowd because I'm just sick of people's
01:16:37.380
And I know Tucker wants you to get in their face.
01:16:41.780
But it needs to end because I think a lot of people here, a lot of people are rule followers
01:16:49.280
I kind of I kind of am not as much as the average Joe, but I I get it.
01:16:53.200
And they need permission before they're going to take off these masks when there's a mask
01:16:59.220
And we and so we need to lift it like we need to be realistic if not, if not for us, then
01:17:06.180
I mean, I've only done the research on masks, so I'm not knowledgeable to speak about any
01:17:13.720
I mean, people are going to follow the rules for the most part.
01:17:15.620
I've seen in New York City the last week or so people there's fewer outside for sure.
01:17:20.240
Where this pandemic, the New York Times did did it's done horrific on this issue, but
01:17:27.280
there was one piece they did at the beginning of this, which I thought was really good, which
01:17:36.520
Pandemics end when people get over their fear and learn to live with it.
01:17:42.220
I mean, the 1918 H1N1 flu, I think, variants still circulate of it.
01:17:48.740
And I think that a lot of infectious disease people and doctors will tell you, look, this
01:18:05.160
And the masks, whether they work or not, and again, I have a strong view on that, having
01:18:09.120
done research, so you can disagree, but you can't say I'm uninformed.
01:18:23.880
You know, we have to rebuild, you know, our industries that have been decimated, travel
01:18:29.780
I mean, you see so many empty storefronts and restaurants closed in New York City.
01:18:33.600
We've literally destroyed the city and we're destroying the country and we're destroying
01:18:39.720
Again, we can argue about it, how, you know, whether it was worth it or not.
01:18:42.860
I don't think that was worth it, you know, given how deadly this was.
01:18:46.360
And the demographic of who COVID really affected.
01:18:51.020
You know, if this was killing children in a way, or young people, in the way that 1918
01:18:57.880
This is most similar to the Asian and Hong Kong flus in the late 50s and 60s, you know,
01:19:02.800
the second of which you had Woodstock raging during it.
01:19:10.420
I have done a hell of a lot of research on masks.
01:19:12.960
I can speak to that, but we got to get, we, we, we kind of go back to life.
01:19:18.260
We have to, or we're destroying the world here.
01:19:23.220
Well, in a way we're on topic because fear is what's also motivating these parents who
01:19:29.920
support you behind the scenes to not speak out.
01:19:32.980
There's no, there's no, like one of the things that's pissing me off about your situation
01:19:39.700
Like you're twisting in the wind and none of those barely parents, even anonymously, they
01:19:44.180
need to come out with an anonymous letter that can just sort of be family X, family Y, family
01:19:50.560
They're letting you twist in the wind, just the same way Paul Rossi's twisting in the
01:19:55.660
Met, you know, people like my, you know, the organization fair foundation against intolerant
01:20:01.580
Yes, we are, we are supportive, but the other parents in the, in the student body, even anonymously
01:20:08.800
need to come out because otherwise this, you know, Jane's response to you, trying to make
01:20:15.300
you just look like you're this insensitive, scary guy who's terrified the Brearley student
01:20:25.620
I know people have written to the school and in support again, if they don't have to agree
01:20:31.000
with everything I said, you know, the key point is about, we can have a discussion and
01:20:35.800
there's no indoctrination and that's, but I heard, you know, we talk about the response
01:20:41.420
I've gotten somewhere close to a thousand people email and message me on this.
01:20:46.120
About 10 of them have been negative, overwhelmingly positive support from around the country.
01:20:51.260
Now, the scary part of that is I had no idea how entrenched this systemic, this CRT, this
01:20:57.080
critical race theory was in schools and how many parents are dealing with it.
01:21:00.620
That's the scary part, but overwhelmingly support.
01:21:03.640
And I had somebody who is on the board of his kid's school outside of New York City.
01:21:09.160
And he said to me, you have no idea how good, how much, how much good your letter has done
01:21:17.320
Your letter is being discussed in board of trustees meetings at every single private school in
01:21:23.100
the country, because they're starting to realize the boards are that people will speak
01:21:29.460
And no school wants to be the next Brearley in terms of being, you know, in the news
01:21:35.940
I don't know that that's true, but the person that said it is quite well respected.
01:21:40.780
And in fact, look, whatever happens to Brearley, I hope they fix it.
01:21:47.200
I hope it goes back to being a phenomenal educational institution.
01:21:54.940
And I don't think you can reverse it unless you have a change of administration.
01:21:57.560
But maybe this letter is doing some good, you know, in other schools.
01:22:02.920
And look, in the last few weeks, and I'm not going to take credit for it, but in the last
01:22:05.560
few weeks, there's been an awful lot of media attention on this issue, on critical race theory
01:22:10.020
in schools, on critical race theory more broadly, on cancel culture, you know, a lot of media
01:22:19.900
Let me ask you this, because I mean, I think certainly this is going to this is where Brearley
01:22:22.860
is right now, but it's where a lot of these schools that across the country are right
01:22:29.060
This was a response posted to your letter by somebody named Claire Potten at seminar.org.
01:22:34.800
And she said, let me just quote in part claims that children are being harmed by critical
01:22:40.720
race theory are a thin cover for returning to a world where white people don't have to feel
01:22:46.580
bad about racism, she says, the tribalism and division that the Brearley dad, you claim
01:22:56.520
critical race theory is causing already exists, as does the harm Paul Rossi fears it is causing
01:23:03.580
prestigious private schools offer real opportunities to black students, but it can come at a very,
01:23:08.000
very high emotional and intellectual cost to them and their parents.
01:23:11.140
And basically what she's saying is, and this is the end quote, um, that white people, including
01:23:22.780
But in this case, it also shows that these men also understand what's at stake in anti-racism
01:23:27.940
work, their own power and the position of their white children as uniquely authoritative
01:23:43.120
You can, you know, what do you want to, so what do you, okay, I would ask this person
01:23:49.200
Okay, you want me to admit I'm, because I'm white, I'm guilty, right?
01:23:52.240
I mean, my, my family, you know, a lot of them perished in the Holocaust.
01:23:59.840
We weren't in this, you know, in the Jim Crow era.
01:24:03.000
So, so what do you want to, do you want also all white people to admit what, where does that
01:24:07.640
You know, at the end of the day, this is, this is, you know, the Marxist argument for
01:24:12.020
equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity, which, you know, will destroy every, you know,
01:24:19.680
But, you know, you want to, you're trying to teach a kindergarten kid that they should
01:24:28.940
My mom told me, you know, they, so when my daughter was in kindergarten, they had to do
01:24:32.760
They all given a silhouette of their head, you know, like head, draw whatever you want,
01:24:37.020
draw, you know, however you look, draw your freckles, draw your hair, whatever you want
01:24:41.080
Well, this, this exercise apparently in kindergarten this year, they were only given skin color crayons.
01:24:46.000
And it was, look, we don't care about anything.
01:24:47.540
The only thing that we want you to focus on is getting your skin tone, right?
01:25:08.200
We're not saying we shouldn't teach, you know, the, the, the, the stains in our history.
01:25:12.580
We have terrible stains in American history of, of slavery and Jim
01:25:19.520
I, I maintain, I wrote in this followup, which again, hasn't been published.
01:25:24.400
I think we're the most diverse country in the world.
01:25:27.220
We're the only country or one of the very, very few that is even attempted to address
01:25:37.780
Of course, are there, you know, are there racist cops out there?
01:25:40.640
But what benefit is there of telling a kindergarten kid to feel guilty for his or her color of
01:25:51.380
They're incapable of paying for the sins of those, of somebody else's fathers.
01:25:55.460
Um, I, I want to, I want to read this piece, uh, just a bit, forgive me a lot of reading
01:26:00.280
today, but there's been some great stuff I've, I've, I've been reading lately.
01:26:03.360
Uh, this is from Ross Kaminsky at the American spectator and his piece is called the, the
01:26:09.120
And he says this, he says, he does say that he thinks America is awakening to quote the
01:26:16.360
And he says, it should infuriate you that schools across the nation, keep that in mind.
01:26:21.040
Our audience knows it's not just Brearley, these sort of Tony New York schools, it's public
01:26:27.660
It should infuriate you that schools across the nation are telling some kids that other kids
01:26:32.460
are evil or that they themselves are evil for things over which they have and never had
01:26:37.820
and never will have control, such as the melanin content of one's skin or the particular shape
01:26:46.200
And for the distinctly un-American practice of teaching that free speech, critical thinking
01:26:51.240
and questioning authority are simply indications of one's own irredeemable privilege.
01:26:58.000
And he ends by saying, the problem is that even this initial national, national awakening
01:27:05.220
We are in the midst of a stage four societal cancer.
01:27:09.680
Critical race theory has metastasized from Harvard outward through other universities.
01:27:14.000
And from there into almost every other internal organ of our nation, from businesses to governments,
01:27:23.020
So that brings me to the question that you mentioned when we started.
01:27:30.560
You did the parents at Brearley and everyone else a favor by not staying quiet about it,
01:27:39.700
So what is next in fighting the stage four societal cancer?
01:27:44.020
Well, let me say first, I 100% agree with what you just read.
01:27:48.980
I've had a lot of people reach out to me that grew up in, you know, Soviet Union or communist
01:27:55.020
Eastern Europe that had saying, but, you know, we left there to come to America.
01:28:08.140
And it's not just critical race theory in schools.
01:28:18.380
I think if we don't fix it, we go down a very, very dark and scary path.
01:28:31.040
Look, I promised a lot of people who reached out to me I would continue to speak out on this
01:28:37.240
I'm going to join FAIR and get involved in FAIR, which you mentioned.
01:28:40.360
And seriously, I've had people, you know, encourage me to start a school in New York City.
01:28:47.820
And that's something I'm seriously thinking about.
01:28:52.400
We don't solve, in my view, we do not solve the school issue until we solve the cancel culture issue.
01:29:02.180
And you mentioned, you know, Coca-Cola may be reversing themselves a little bit on this
01:29:07.680
after, you know, the Georgia and baseball and all-star game incident.
01:29:12.360
Such cowardice, generally, in the corporate boardrooms, in these, you know, school boardrooms
01:29:18.720
But just such cowardice in these corporate boardrooms to cower to the, you know, the woke
01:29:26.020
We need some courageous CEOs and business leaders to say, look, we recognize that our
01:29:32.440
employees are going to have some different opinions on things.
01:29:36.420
We acknowledge that some of those opinions in the day and age we live in are going to wind
01:29:42.960
And we will not terminate them for their views.
01:29:47.780
We will not, you know, penalize them for their views because they're preventing parents.
01:29:54.100
I've heard this so many times in the last few weeks in these hundreds of emails.
01:29:57.040
They are preventing parents from speaking out on behalf of their children and on behalf
01:30:05.560
I think we have to solve a cancel culture issue.
01:30:12.560
This is this, you know, anti-intellectual illiberalism, Marxism.
01:30:17.740
We're going down that path in so many different scary ways.
01:30:26.380
You know, again, I said this earlier, you know, democracy, we've been led to believe
01:30:30.500
in the media lately that, you know, what is democracy?
01:30:32.940
Democracy is all about how many people vote, right?
01:30:34.700
And that's why there's such issues over who can vote and voting, you know, registration
01:30:41.060
That's not what democracy, that's not what democracy works if people vote.
01:30:50.300
And I think of both political parties, we have very few wise and virtuous leaders.
01:30:55.140
And I wrote that in the context of really being the training ground for these leaders.
01:30:58.720
If they don't learn the education, they're not going to be that.
01:31:02.280
And the other thing, you know, for democracy to work, you have to be willing to have discussions
01:31:08.020
of these issues, again, race, COVID, guns, immigration, you know, all these issues, climate
01:31:20.660
So somehow, and, you know, media polarization, you know, is a lot of this, which I don't know
01:31:26.660
But if you don't, if you're not willing to discuss these important issues, democracy
01:31:35.000
I mean, I'm hopeful that we have, you know, made a little dent.
01:31:38.480
I don't think the dam is broken here on critical race theory, but I think we're starting finally
01:31:43.840
And I'm hopeful we make a dent there and this movement continues.
01:31:47.100
But these are bigger issues that we are completely forgetting, losing, destroying, you know, toppling
01:31:54.940
statues of the foundations and principles of this country.
01:31:58.540
And again, that's not to say there aren't stains on this.
01:32:00.560
You know, Thomas Jefferson's controversial and he should be, and he should be taught it
01:32:04.320
But that doesn't mean you ignore the Declaration of Independence.
01:32:06.900
That is the founding principle of this country.
01:32:10.960
And maybe we failed in a lot of ways in our history, but to not teach it and to lose those
01:32:16.480
Sorry, I'm preaching here, but to lose those founding principles, that's what's happening.
01:32:21.260
And that's really, really scary, the path we're headed down, I think.
01:32:28.680
I said, Mitch McConnell, he was out there just saying, and it was great.
01:32:32.980
I was happy to see him object to the 1619 project, which has been totally discredited being
01:32:41.180
Now, Nicole Hannah-Jones has been given a journalism professorship.
01:32:46.480
At UNC, yes, they give her a Pulitzer Prize, which a bunch of scholars, black and white,
01:32:52.540
have demanded be pulled back, be revoked, because the 1619 project is so non-factual.
01:33:04.260
Now, instead of having the prize taken away, they're elevating her to a journalism professor
01:33:10.680
Anyway, McConnell came out and said, voters didn't ask for this.
01:33:15.700
There is no mandate to teach our children that America is inherently evil.
01:33:22.060
That seems like something that should have been run by us before we innocently sent them
01:33:27.640
I wrote this in the letter, and I'll say it here.
01:33:31.040
This country will not survive teaching our children to hate our own country and to hate
01:33:38.100
No other country in the world does that, and that is what we are doing.
01:33:47.720
But I'm unfortunately confident in saying if we teach our children to hate our own country
01:33:56.040
Or this way of life, the foundation of freedom and liberty and prosperity and equal opportunity,
01:34:02.260
not equal outcome, equal opportunity, which has been the beacon for the rest of the world
01:34:08.560
And yes, we haven't always lived up to it, but we have been the beacon of these principles
01:34:13.760
If we teach our children to hate our own country and hate its history, we won't survive, and
01:34:24.560
I do want to say to people, go to fairforall.org, fairforall.org, and you will see a lot of faces
01:34:33.800
there that you know and love, like Barry Weiss, like Glenn Lowry, like Coleman Hughes, like
01:34:39.120
Eli Steele, John McWhorter, who's coming on the show this week, and so on.
01:34:43.760
Uh, Daryl Davis, all there together, me, I'm there, trying to fight back against this
01:34:51.380
and try to make it easier for you to connect with other parents in your schools or businesses
01:34:55.240
or elsewhere who are silently objecting but don't know how to come, come out with it publicly,
01:35:02.600
you know, for fear of being canceled or punished.
01:35:11.400
We're just trying to, it's a, it's a group of people trying to, you know, fight for reason
01:35:16.980
Uh, so I, I've become a, you know, a preacher for them.
01:35:21.180
I, I want to proselytize about them and we're just getting our act together too, where it's
01:35:25.240
going to grow and it's going to get better organized and all that, but it's a place to
01:35:30.220
We need just, we need millions more just like you.
01:35:34.360
So the founder of my, I've, I've met a bunch of times now online and in person, and we're
01:35:40.540
talking about how I can get involved because I absolutely want to get involved.
01:35:46.100
I will say just one other thought when I was still, um, at, at our boys, boys school,
01:35:50.860
and I don't know, I, I, I tend to think that the schools are not necessarily honestly searching
01:35:58.580
I think they're like, my experience has been, the schools are totally devoted to this ideology
01:36:02.200
and are going to lean into it because they think it's what's quote, right.
01:36:05.500
But if you think your school is genuinely curious about, or maybe fearful about losing a
01:36:10.240
significant portion of its parent body, one of the things I think could work potentially
01:36:14.100
is to get an outside person to come in sort of like an auditor, uh, to have private meetings
01:36:19.420
with parents who shall go nameless in the ultimate report about how they actually feel.
01:36:24.060
I really would love to see honest schools do this.
01:36:26.320
I thought of it because of what, uh, what my, what my former employer Fox news did in the
01:36:32.780
You know, um, they, they brought in Paul Weiss, an outside law firm, doesn't have to be a law
01:36:37.500
firm, but women who would never go in and speak to Roger Ailes's human resources department,
01:36:44.580
Never because they knew what was going to happen.
01:36:47.200
Did go to Paul Weiss once they realized and were reassured that it truly wasn't independently
01:36:51.780
where they could say how they actually felt when it actually happened to them.
01:36:54.920
I think this could work at the school level for, for, and it would give school boards cover
01:36:59.180
because a lot of school boards don't actually want to do this crap, but they feel pressured.
01:37:03.100
You bring somebody in, you take the temperature of the parents without a name attached to it.
01:37:07.240
It's just somebody, you know, like you only get invited if you actually are a parent at
01:37:12.320
Uh, and you say how you actually feel, and then they'll get a real temperature of how their
01:37:19.680
And if you do that and you get a negative result on this indoctrination and you proceed with
01:37:27.340
You see what happens to your parent body within the next three years.
01:37:30.340
Can I, um, I'll add something if you don't mind.
01:37:31.800
Um, I had someone reach out to a friend that's on the board of a prominent, uh, West Coast
01:37:38.900
Um, and he is in the process and he's very confident of getting the board to agree to
01:37:46.860
And he would like myself and Paul Rossi to participate.
01:37:50.220
Um, so these conversations are starting, I think.
01:37:53.720
And who the hell is going to stand up and say what you and Paul Rossi say?
01:37:56.860
They're all going to be scared shitless in San Francisco, in the Bay area.
01:38:00.220
I, you know, I think, look, this, this issue is a broader issue, right?
01:38:05.900
Obviously it gets a lot of attention on, you know, uh, the right way on conservatives and
01:38:11.320
We cannot win this issue unless it crosses over and education crosses over.
01:38:16.800
You have to get, you know, the centrists, you have to get the moderate left.
01:38:22.640
Like it's gone, whatever that percent, 10%, whatever it is, right?
01:38:27.200
But this is an issue that can really cross the divide here.
01:38:30.680
And I, and I think so because everybody cares about their kids' education.
01:38:35.840
I have heard from a lot of parents at Brearley privately that you would consider very, very
01:38:42.300
And again, they may not agree with my definition of systemic racism, but they agree with a lot.
01:38:50.000
We need to talk about this and they're against indoctrination and they are for free speech.
01:38:54.140
And so I think, you know, there's a much bigger audience for this.
01:39:00.760
I mean, there's a much bigger movement potentially than, than just, you know, just conservatives
01:39:07.420
I don't think we win with just conservatives here.
01:39:14.600
So I really think that, that the parents are starting to realize, I think they've seen
01:39:20.020
I think a lot of schools aren't as far gone as the New York city schools, but they're seeing
01:39:26.080
And we're the canary, we're the canary in the coal mine.
01:39:30.920
It's, it's already there, but it's, it's going to come full force.
01:39:35.300
And so look, if, if, you know, if the fancy West coast school is willing to, and again,
01:39:39.980
I don't know if this is happening, but, but he seemed pretty confident that they could
01:39:43.980
And at least having the discussion about this, that, that is a first step.
01:39:49.320
But, but again, if we don't solve the cancel culture issue that too many people are afraid
01:39:57.420
And I think we have to solve that, but, but, but that schools are willing maybe now to have
01:40:05.720
Andrew Guttman, good luck and good luck to your sweet daughter.
01:40:10.120
Sounds like, sounds like she doesn't need it, but, uh, she's okay.
01:40:32.440
And I read all the ones that start now with you say you read every,
01:40:39.240
Um, but don't miss Monday's show because we've got one of my heroes on John McWhorter.
01:40:49.080
They talk about race a lot on the Glenn show and other programs,
01:40:51.560
and he's been debating it for a super long time.
01:40:56.820
And we're going to get into all of this stuff with him.
01:41:04.820
This is an hour and 15 minutes of your life that is going.
01:41:08.780
It's basically you want to be doing this rather than cleaning the house.
01:41:11.400
You could do both rather than going online shopping.
01:41:25.920
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