Alive Summer 2021

It was while teaching in Nigeria, that I first was exposed to the African Writer Series, novels published by Heineman. I was immediately captivated since they opened up a whole new world of literature to me. After reading Chinu Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ followed by ‘No Longer at Ease,’ I wanted more, I needed to be educated about this amazing country. Even with all of my advanced degrees my education was falling very short as a preparation for the work I was committed to. Achebe has been called the ‘Father of Nigerian Literature’, in which he frequently weaves together oral tradition with Ibo folk tales. Against a background of cultural norms, he intertwines changing societal values, and the individual’s struggle to find a place in this ‘new world.’ Achebe’s expression of anticolonial sentiments showed me how naïve my own English attitudes were and how simplistic my understanding of Nigerian history. All of this was a revelation to me, and I wanted to learn more. That in itself had its own challenges since I was working in a fairly remote part of the country where there were few amenities, and the nearest bookstore over two hundred miles away. But I was hooked!

It was Achebe’s works that turned me to another Ibo writer, Cyprien Ekwensi. His ‘People of the City’ was the first major novel to be published by a Nigerian. His most widely read novel, ‘Jagua Nana,’ appeared in 1961. It was a return to the same setting of People of the City, the capital Lagos, but boasted a much more cohesive plot centered on the character of Jagua, an aging prostitute with a love for the expensive. Her life personalized the conflict between the old traditional and modern urban Africa. Almost better known for his short stories, I was particularly taken with ‘Burning Grass’, a collection of vignettes about a nomadic Fulani family.

I read ‘House Boy’ in French by Leopold Oyono, a writer from the Cameroun, who later became ambassador to Libera. I followed this by ‘The Old Man and The Medal’, both books reflecting the growing sentiment of anticolonialism of the 1950’s. T.M Aluko, a Yoruba writer uses similar themes in his novel ‘One Man One Matchet.’

Wole Soyinka, also from the Yoruba tribe, and eventually winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, held me riveted with his focus on oppression of the poor and exploitation of the weak by the strong. Nobody is spared, neither the white speculator nor the black exploiter. During my ten years in Nigeria, he of all the writers made me question what I was really doing there.

I discovered several female writers which shouldn’t have surprised me but did, since at the time, there were few females in academia generating creative thought and expression. Flora Nwapa is considered to be the ‘Mother of Modern African Literature’ and the forerunner to a whole generation of African female writers. Balaraba Ramat Yakubu wrote books of love in Hausa, a language I was avidly learning. Oyindamole Affinnih gave up law to write and publish among others, two beautiful novels, ‘A Tailor-made Romance,’ and ‘Two Gone…Still Counting.’

The modern generation of Nigerian female writers has produced several remarkable women, but none more so than the Ibo writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. Her novels have garnered universal acclaim. The first two, ‘Purple Hibiscus’ (2003) and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ (2006), used the tension filled political situation of Nigeria as the backdrop. The latter set amidst the violence of the Biafran war, follows the lives of two sisters, and their lovers, clearly set Adichie apart as a talented new voice. Interestingly enough, Adichie herself was born seven years after the end of the civil war.

‘Americanah’ (2013) is a book every person concerned with racism, immigration and globalization should read. I feel it is more pertinent today than when it was first published.  Essentially a love story, it traces the lives of Ifemelu and her childhood sweetheart Obinze, who are separated when she goes to study in America. She is fortunate to leave Nigeria during a time of military dictatorship, and that moment is captured by her Aunt Uju, who having emigrated a few years earlier, becomes her confident. Never slow to speak her mind with a bluntness and insightfulness that often shocks, but is always close to the truth, she tells Ifemelu, ‘the problem is that there are many qualified people who are not what they are supposed to be because they won’t lick ass, or they don’t know which ass to lick, or they don’t even know how to lick ass.’

Alternating between past and present, Ifemelu tries to adjust to her new home, learning what it really means to be black in America. The award-winning novel is a love story that straddles three continents, Africa, North America, and Europe. It’s about love, loneliness, and race. But it’s also a poignant, funny, sometimes scathing look at the reality of being a new immigrant in the USA…from an African perspective.  

When I think of the summer vacations of my youth the magic always started at 3:00 pm on June 8^th. That was the last day of school. Back in the olden days the school year was always September 8^th to June 8^th no exceptions. By some cosmic glitch in the calendar of the sun those days never fell on a weekend so we could religiously schedule those dates into our 12 year PDA (if we had one back then) starting in Kindergarten. When the final bell rang the chains of academia broke loose and freedom rained on the youthful masses. A heard of mating bison couldn’t have stopped me from busting through the door of my classroom into a world of staying up late, sleeping in and no responsibilities. Of course me and every other kid in my neighborhood usually waited until June 10^th before uttering the inevitable phrase, “Mom I’m bored, there’s nothing to do. “

The best part of summer is no school, no tests and no homework.  Charlie L. 9 years old in Alamo

June also meant the conclusion of the little league baseball season. Little league was for ages 9-12 before the days of minors, majors, minors majors and Senior Major Minor’s. The number of boys that continued playing organized summer league baseball dropped off significantly as they got older as many gave it up in favor of summer jobs, year round commitments to other sports or to become stoners, but everyone played little league. In our town every little leaguer still has delusional aspirations of playing pro ball. Our McKelvey Park had a snack bar, PA announcer’s booth and a home run fence. If you could “park one” over the fence you were a stud. My last year of little league Jay Hines hit 15 bombs in an 18 game season. If that happened today he would be tested for steroids or Human Growth Hormones. But in 1974 he was the king of the park. I loved the glory days of little league probably because that’s when my own baseball career peaked. When we weren’t at McKelvey we were usually putting together pick up lob ball games in the streets of our neighborhood. We ate, drank and breathed baseball and the occasional broken window was just an occupational hazard paid for out of our allowance.  

I like everything about summer, especially playing sports and video games with my friends. Logan P., 10 years old in San Ramon.

Summer nights were reserved for various forms of mayhem and mischief. Namely hide and seek, door bell ditch and sleepovers. Evenings were triggered  when one by one we were called into the house for dinner by our crazed mother’s, who were crazed because they had been sweating over a hot stove for hours due to the fact that virtually no one had central air conditioning and no one ate light or healthy. Salads were something you ate before the meatloaf, corn on the cob, bread and mashed potatoes arrived. Once the sun set a group of a dozen or so boys and girls became children of the night and it wasn’t until the old people on the block, today they’re known as “empty nesters”, started to complain about the frenzied noise or their door bells being rang continuously for hours without a hint of an actually visitor that we were finally called in for the night, unless of course we could maneuver a sleepover. Sleepovers usually meant sleeping outside with a group of buddies in a make shift beach chair fort with no curfew. Since Dad and mom rarely stayed up past Carson, this allowed us to sneak out of the backyard for a well orchestrated TP blitz on someone’s house. 

Summer is great because you get to hang out with your friends and you have so much freedom, Elliot B. 11 years old in Danville

Another haunting memory of summer was chores. My dad liked to say, “Being out of school doesn’t mean you aren’t going work young man”. To earn money you had a list of chores to complete every week. Not sissy things like putting away your CDs/ DVDs or turning off the computer, we had heavy lifting jobs like mowing the lawn…with a push mower, washing cars, pulling weeds, sanding the fence, scrubbing the patio and replacing the TV antenna attached to the chimney, but that last task wasn’t added to my list until I was 7. I felt like a chain gang convict doing time on Dalma Drive. 

What summer was complete without the annual road trip car vacation? Name a kid who doesn’t enjoy being trapped in the back seat of a car for hours on end with warm air blasting into their face as his dad winds his way through a series of hairpin mountain passes with his mom making him eat homemade tuna sandwiches to avoid stopping. I experienced more motion sickness than if we were on a small fishing boat during the perfect storm. These trips from hell (and I don’t think Satan even takes his kids on long car trips) were topped only when we got a car with air conditioning whereby we were forced to inhale secondhand cigarette smoke for 8 hours a day from two parents each with a pack a day habit. Coal miners have cleaner lungs than me and my sister. The trip was only worth the pain if we staying in hotel with a swimming pool. Back then I dreamt of living in a Holiday Inn with an attached Denny’s restaurant. Visiting relatives was always a jip because we didn’t get to eat out or swim. Boy I loved a good chicken fried steak and a spritz.

The best part of summer is taking cool vacations with your family. Austin C., 12 years old in San Ramon

Now as I stare at my computer screen or make a sales call in the late afternoon of another hot summer day I still have flashbacks of sun burns (Coppertone is not sun screen) from a day at Santa Cruz, building a fort in the backyard, waiting for darkness at the drive in, bleacher seats at an A’s game and neighborhood pool parties. My kids wish adults got work off for the summer and frankly so do I. Reality is we don’t but I do take pleasure knowing that they are swimming, at day camps or enjoying a play date with one of their friends. Summers are a time of joy for kids and although the circumstances may be different than mine I’ll try to ensure that they have as much fun as I did. Hopefully they’ll treasure the adventures or misadventures they encounter along the way.

For the past couple hundred years, evidence has been dug up that indicates civilization, in one form or another, of one level or another, has been cycling on planet Earth for eons. For one reason or another, each of these iterations of ‘civilization’ disappeared, to be replaced by a new version. However, between each new iteration, a great span of time elapsed before that new version developed to the point of actually being called a civilization.

For the longest time, everybody who ever went to school believed what we were being taught; that various ages took X amount of time as humans evolved from primates, to eventually become sentient creatures who start thinking and creating.

Of course, in order to do that, they had to develop a language so that they could communicate and start keeping records. They then would start thinking about being able to count and measure, and eventually to design structures to live in, to conduct business and to worship those celestial beings who they claim, had transported them here, to planet Earth, in the first place.

You see, somehow, all iterations of our predecessors, have attempted to somehow communicate with us that they (or their forefathers) had been brought here from somewhere else and then taught certain things to be able to survive and keep populating the planet. The Bible as well as the religious writings of other cultures all have tales of ‘Superior’ celestial beings guiding and teaching our ancestors the necessary skills to survive, such as agriculture, animal breeding and domestication, to have a steady supply of food, so they won’t starve. They then instructed them on how to build living quarters and even fortifications, in case they encountered unfriendly neighbors, perhaps relocated here, from somewhere else in the cosmos, by some competing factions within the EFG (Enlightened Federation of the Galaxy) or even some Alien factions from outside out galaxy. And there is plenty of evidence that has been uncovered regarding some sort of Extraterrestrial or Celestial Assistance, from numerous cultures around our globe.

The more we look at the uncovered evidence, with an open mind and opened eyes, the more we are able to discern that Celestial Beings have been involved in our earthly affairs for eons. If we read the many ancient writings as factual accounts rather than folk tales and mythology, we realize that even with the inexact writing of these tales, there is plenty of evidence that rather accurately describes physical interaction between human earth dwellers and Celestial Beings (Extraterrestrials). In other words, Homo Sapiens (thinking human being) were probably relocated to planet Earth, several millions of years ago to (possibly) see if they could survive on this wild planet, with dinosaurs, earthquakes, and worldwide floods. And the proof is in the pudding as they say!

The footprints of modern man have been found, alongside that of dinosaurs, at the bottom of riverbeds, at times several strata deep. These footprints having been made when that particular layer or stratum was soft and over the eons, had hardened to stone. And it is not only one set of footprints that we are talking about. In some cases, the footprints go on for quite a distance to disappear at the base of a hill or rock formation. There are numerous instances of these finds, which unfortunately have been kept locked away because, mainstream science has deemed these finds as OOPARTs, or out of place (and time) artifacts that did not fit in with their narrative regarding the theorized timeline of Modern Man’s evolution.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever seen any examples of the footprints in stone that I wrote about previously, in any museum? I sure haven’t!

So here again, it appears that ‘Modern Man’ has been around for quite some time and probably arrived on planet earth, pretty much as he appears today; physically that is, not with a suit and tie and a briefcase or a modern dress. Which again supports my theory or hypothesis that we did not evolve from apes, here on planet Earth. As I remember asking one of my teachers, Mr. Johnson, as he was puffing on a cigarette between yellowed chops, way back, last century, around 1960-61, “If we did evolve from monkeys, why are there still monkeys around?” To which, my learned teacher could not come up with an answer. All he could reply at the time as he exhaled a giant plume of cigarette smoke was, “We don’t have time for silly questions like that. Let’s move along…”

So then, if we did not evolve from monkeys (or Apes) where did we arrive here from? Right about now, you might know what my answer would be. We (actually our distant ancestors) were transported here by Celestial Beings, or Aliens from another galaxy, or even possibly from some other distant part of the Cosmos, possibly to be tested; to see if we could survive the rigors of planet Earth. The question is, where were we ‘relocated from’ and did all ethnic groups actually come from the same planet, or, did all the ethnic varieties of planet Earth, all come from different planets, possibly from totally different solar systems?

A number of smarter folks than ‘moi’ have postulated that we, that is, our ancestors, were relocated here on planet Earth, from a dying or devastated, planet Mars or Mars-like planet.

I, on the other hand believe that Mars may actually have been a former safe haven that we had been temporarily relocated to millions of years prior, until the (Alien) scientists discovered that, we actually needed to move on, again.

Now, where could that planet of origin of ours have been located, I haven’t a clue. There must have been a darned good reason why there was a need to relocate us Humans to Mars and then, millions of years later, again to relocate us to planet Earth. Is it possible that this cycle of relocation has been going on since time immemorial as some means of populating or repopulating planets that were devoid of intelligent, bipedal hominids to take care of it, or was it out of necessity due to galaxywide planetary disasters that had forced our benefactors to relocate us to a safer, more favorable location. There might have been other, perhaps darker reasons for our relocations (s).

We may never, ever discover the true nature of our (Humanity’s) wonderings from planet to planet. However, I do believe that there is an answer out there, somewhere. And when we get a chance to meet up with our celestial benefactors, they may just reveal to us, the secret of our origin.

Now, why do I claim that our distant ancestors have been moved about our galaxy from planet to planet for eons, like some sort of galactic refugees. Perhaps, it is because I have been a ‘Displaced Person’ myself; not due to some galactic conflict but rather to a major ‘Terrestrial ‘conflict known as World War II (WWII). So, just like my family and I were relocated to a safer place, to remove us from harm, so could our very distant ancestors have been moved from place to place in our own galaxy, ‘the Milky Way’ because we might have been victims of some enormous, galactic conflict. Then again, we may just have been transported here from some neighboring galaxy that was in some ginormous internal conflict of its own. Here’s a tidbit from the web:

“The long-term evolution of a galaxy is influenced by being part of a group. The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest spiral neighbor, are headed toward each other. In about five billion years, they may collide and merge. Eventually, our remote descendants could be living in a much larger elliptical galaxy.”

Did you get that? Is it possible that our remote ancestors were the victims of some major galactic collision, billions of years ago, when some other galaxy and the Milky Way, or whatever it was way back then, collided to form what is now our own Milky Way? We are talking here about billions of years ago. Now, the other part of this galactic planet hopping is the fact that, we have been relocated (again, our ancestors) to one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, furthest away from its center; why? And again, we are also located very close to the biggest empty void in the Universe. Again, was this done on purpose and if so, why? I am going to seriously think about this.

So, for now, let us return to the issue of our Extraterrestrial benefactors. It is becoming more and more apparent in recent times, that these very same celestial voyagers who might have transported our very distant ancestors here to planet earth, are still around, keeping an eye on us. As a matter of fact, now, even the United States Government has finally admitted, in the open, that exceptionally speedy Unidentified Aerial Vehicles have been caught on radar and video, by our very own US military pilots. And, when asked if (They) knew who or what these UAVs were, even our top ‘Intelligence Agencies’ were unable to come up with an answer.

Now, if you believe that sightings of these UAVs are something new, you are in for a surprise. It was first brought to our attention, when according to some reports, a UFO, or perhaps, several UFOs crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, during the 4^th of July week, in 1947. I have written about the ‘Roswell Incident’ in a past issue of ALIVE Magazine. The crux of the matter is, the United States Army Air Force originally claimed in the Roswell Daily Record (a New Mexico Newspaper) article of the time that, that they had in fact captured a “Crashed Flying Saucer” in the fields of a local rancher. The very next day, before the ink was even dry, the story totally changed to “It was nothing but a Conventional Weather Balloon”. And the Government cover-up of UFO incidents thus began with zeal.

An interesting twist to the whole UFO story is that, not only ordinary folks or the Military have had encounters with them. Several United States Presidents have in fact had encounters with ‘Out of this World’ flying vehicles and even ‘Celestial’ or Extraterrestrial beings. Here is a list of the United States Presidents who have at least admitted of having had a strange out of this world encounter. We have the very first US President, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. As of 2019, let’s just say that even President Trump knew more about UFOs and Extraterrestrials then he was willing to share with Tucker Carlson in an interview in Tokyo, Japan.

Let us start with George Washington, our very first US President. At Valley Forge, in the winter of 1777, being very dejected, as the war of Independence was not going quite the way he had expected or wanted, GW knelt down to pray for some spiritual guidance. Suddenly, a brilliant apparition among the trees, reassured our first president that the war would be won by Washington’s rag-tag army. And, it was so, sending King George’s Army packing, back to the British Isles.

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson, who would later that year become the 3^rd President of the United States, was given a report of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomena seen over Batton Rouge, Louisiana by a number of folks. Jefferson dutifully entered the report of the event into the ‘Official Transactions of the American Philosophical Association’ as having taken place on April 5, 1800. According to several witnesses the object was approximately 70 to 80 feet long and was travelling at about 200 yards’ altitude. It disappeared over the tree line and moments later a large explosion was heard. By the time the witnesses made it to the point of impact, all there was left was a giant fire which had apparently consumed whatever debris had been left of the mysterious object.

Our 16^th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, would have a very strange, or even possibly an out of body experience before every battle that the Union Forces were engaged in. On April 14, 1865, just mere hours before he would succumb to the bullet fired by John Wilkes Booth, he went and told General Ulysses S. Grant of this, what he called at the time a ‘strange dream’ wherein he was transported over the battle scenes at a very high rate of speed in what he believed may have been some sort of a ‘clear capsule’.

On August 1, 1907, at the Oyster Bay, Long Island estate of Teddy Roosevelt, our 26^th President, a large group of friends and neighbors, including Teddy, observed a large orb of light overhead. Might this sighting have been the impetus for TR’s idea for the development of a more powerful naval presence? Might he have received some sort of subliminal message from the occupants of the glowing UGO (Unidentified Glowing Orb)?

Our 33^rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman was the one who had the most to do with UFO secrecy and governmental coverups.  The Roswell Incident took place on his watch as well as the ‘Roswell Coverup’. The 1952 Washington DC UFO Incident also known as the ‘DC UFO Flap or Merry-Go-Round’ also took place on Truman’s watch. The 1947 National Security Act concocted by President Truman was probably what led to the government sanctioned UFO Cover-Ups!

On February 20, 1954, Dwight D. Eisenhower, our 34th President arrives at Palm Springs, Ca, for a few days of golfing and relaxation. He however fails to show up for a major, public dinner event with no explanation. The following day, as the press pushes for an explanation, a chipped tooth and a dental visit are used as an excuse. However, the real story has to do with a meeting between Ike and some Aliens (Extraterrestrials) and some sort of pact or treaty between the two parties, allowing for the Aliens to surveil us while flying through our skies, in exchange for Alien Technological Assistance. According to various sources, Ike actually had as many as three meetings with Aliens.

With all the Atomic bomb testing at White Sands in New Mexico as well as the hell dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were the Aliens perhaps concerned with Humankind’s use of Atomic weapons?

The following is a story that I have written about in a previous issue of ALIVE magazine and that is the story of President Nixon (No. 37) and Jackie Gleason of the Honeymooners fame. Following a round of golf with Jackie in Florida, Nixon shows up at Gleason’s house, later that night. “Come on Jackie, I have something to show you,” says the President. There is no escort nor secret service, Nixon is driving. The long drive takes them to Homestead Air Force Base, some 35 miles southwest of Miami. After entering the base, Nixon drives to a heavily guarded building that contains a Flying Saucers and dead Alien bodies on ice. Jackie is so shocked by what he was shown that he doesn’t tell his wife for several days. Much later, Beverly Gleason does get the story and publishes it to Jackie’s dismay. As a result of the story, there came a clampdown on how much information regarding UFOs, even presidents would be allowed access to.

Before he would become US President number 39, Jimmy Carter had a UFO experience of his own, in October 1969, in Leary, Georgia. Along with a whole crowd, Jimmy Carter observes a strange, colorful orb in the sky. Four years later, he would file a formal report with the ‘International UFO Bureau’. If elected, he promised to release all UFO files. However, as gets into office, the powers behind the curtains clamp down and Jimmy’s promise would never be kept.

Future President Ronald Reagan (No. 40) on September 1974, as Governor of California, while on his way, via jet, to an event in Bakersfield, California, spots a UFO through the window of the jet. The UFO appears to be following his jet, while flying over Merced. The UFO apparently followed Reagan’s jet for some time, then suddenly departed at great speed. Reagan firmly believed in UFOs and Extraterrestrials which might have led him to make the rather poignant speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 1987.

Here is a brief excerpt of that speech: “… when you stop to think that we’re all God’s children, wherever we may live in the world, I couldn’t help but say to him, just think how easy his task and mine might be in these meetings that we held if suddenly there was a threat to this world from some other species from another planet outside in the universe.

We’d forget all the little local differences that we have between our countries, and we would find out once and for all that we really are all human beings here on this earth together”

Is this perhaps why President Reagan proposed his ‘Star Wars Initiative’ not to combat earthly missiles, but to guard against some extraterrestrial threat?

And how about President Trump establishing the United States Space Force. Was that because he, like all the other presidents actually know a lot more about UFOs and Extraterrestrials, than they are telling us?

If you would like to know more about ALIENS AND THE PRESIDENTS, Check out Ancient Aliens, Season 15, Episode 12, with that title.

More to come In part III of this series, in the next issue of ALIVE magazine.

Fights erupt at school board meetings, employees walk out of struggle sessions, military commanders are relieved of their command, police chiefs are fired by city councils, and politicians demonize each other—no longer over substantive issues, but over what ethnic and racial groups they each belong (or do not belong) to. The latest controversy swirling around Facebook, the Twitterverse, cable news channels, and everywhere else you may look, would, at first glance, appear to be a new idea being introduced into everything from public and private education to the corporate world, to sports and entertainment, to the military branches, and throughout the culture at large.

So what is this new idea which is causing so much rancor and division throughout the land? What is the latest example of The Left tearing down, destroying, and dividing – their specialty – rather than elevating, building, and uniting?

The answer? Critical Race Theory, commonly referred to as CRT.

CRT basically teaches that European people (or “white” Americans) and their descendants in the United States, their academic systems, systems of jurisprudence, standards, beliefs, and of course, traditions and customs, are all racist inventions designed to give an advantage to white Americans. White Americans thus have white privilege, and in order for there to be “true” justice and equality in American society, that privilege needs to be stripped away, equality needs to be replaced by equity, and all white Americans need to atone for the sins of their fathers, their father’s fathers, and of course, their own crime—primarily the crime of being born with the immutable characteristic of white skin.

Since white Americans have been the power structure in the United States since Day One (which can be either 1619 or 1776, depending on what school of thought you follow) and continue to maintain the power structure in every aspect of society, from media to entertainment to sports to medicine to law to engineering to the armed forces, it is impossible for races other than those who are white to be racist.

Essentially it is impossible for a billionaire like Oprah Winfrey to be racist because she is a racial minority, whereas a white coal miner from western Pennsylvania can easily be a racist. Oprah Winfrey is oppressed by the system and the coal miner is not. In fact, the coal miner is privileged. And the coal miner is also a white supremacist, whether he knows it and acknowledges it, or not. This is the essence of CRT.

What are the origins of CRT?

CRT did not spring up overnight. And it is not by any means a “new” idea. Its an old idea spruced up with racial window dressing but it has been around for a long time.  Prior to CRT there was Political Correctness,  a polite term for Cultural Marxism. Cultural Marxism came from Critical Race Theory without the “Race,” just Critical Theory. And where did Critical Theory spring from? Critical Theory goes all the way back to the 1930s and 1940s and emerged from a school of thought commonly known as The Frankfurt School.

The Frankfurt School was influenced by Marxism—which any American schooled in history ought to be aware of—but The Frankfurt School’s brand of Marxism tossed out any appeal to the proletariat and worked instead on capturing the culture by first eliminating cultural norms, customs, and tradition. The Frankfurt School has been described by William S. Lind as a school “of Marxist intellectuals who created cultural Marxism, now most commonly known as ‘wokeness’.”

Where did The Frankfurt School emerge? It began when a group of Marxist scholars, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and others, figured out that the working class was never going to accept the ideology of Marxism so long as they could rely on and have the support of their country’s traditional institutions, their religion, and their family. If The Frankfurt School could destroy a nation’s cultural norms, its religious faith, and wreck the family, then Critical Theory would no longer be a theory but a fact.

Some of this was borrowed from Antonio Gramsci, one of the first Marxists who understood traditional culture was a greater impediment to Marxism than capitalism and free markets. Some of it was also borrowed from Mao Tse Tung, who during China’s Cultural Revolution, successfully annihilated China’s “Four Olds” (Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Customs). And so Critical Theory was born. As William S. Lind writes, “Critical Theory quickly became one of the most important tools in their quest to destroy traditional society, Western culture, and the Christian religion. The term ‘Critical Theory’ is something of a play on words: the theory is to criticize, to damage, and eventually destroy all traditional institutions by unremitting criticism.”

After decades of Critical Theory it was inevitable a racial demagogue would come along and alter Critical Theory for his own use. That demagogue happened to be Ibram X. Kendi. Christopher F. Rufo has labeled Ibram X. Kendi as Critical Race Theory’s “Chief Marketing Officer.”[1] How did Kendi achieve such notoriety so soon? As Christopher F. Rufo explains, “after the death of George Floyd in 2020, Kendi’s book, How to Be an Antiracist, began selling an astonishing number of copies — including institutional sales to public schools, government agencies, and professional organizations, all seeking to understand the ongoing racial unrest.

During the conflict, Kendi appeared constantly on television, delivered speeches to elite institutions, and positioned himself as the guru of America’s racial reckoning.”[2] Kendi was able to dress up the old Marxist bunco game into a new con by exploiting the emergence of groups such as the Not F ____g Around Coalition (NFAC) and Black Lives Matter (BLM), and then by channeling their meteoric rise into burnishing his own academic credentials and marketing skills into a sure fire profit making scheme, all while decrying the pernicious influence of capitalism on society and its ruinous effects on black Americans especially.

Kendi has successfully leveraged his persona as a revolutionary militant to get the outraged, the ignorant, and the guilty to pour money into his lectures, appearances, and books. Christopher F. Rufo also writes, “While Kendi, born Ibram Henry Rogers, presents himself as a radical subversive, he is really an ideologist of elite opinion, subsidized heavily by America’s corporations and public institutions. Kendi’s work has been used and recommended by Fortune 100 companies, the federal bureaucracy, and the United States military—the very foundations of the power structure he claims to oppose.”[3]

Yesterday’s radical extremist is today’s mainstream thinker. Ideas once considered beyond the pale, on the fringe, or absurd not long ago, now find themselves to be mandatory and compulsory policies, all before the majority of Americans are even aware a permanent change has just occurred.

A man “identifies” as a woman and is now entitled to use a woman’s public restroom. Those who object to this are now bigots. Those who are incapable of identifying themselves as belonging to the restrictive binary “choice” between male and female eliminate pronouns in the public language – as the restrictive noun “sex” as an identifier is replaced by the more fluid “gender.”[4] So, as Christopher F. Rufo writes, Ibram X. Kendi, “like many activists before him, will likely be absorbed into the fabric of elite institutions,  where supposedly radical ideas are cosseted into conventional wisdom.”[5]

Yet it is also becoming clear the American public, Americans of all races in fact, are growing weary of this confidence artist and his fellow traveler’s bunco schemes and are opposing his ideas. No genuine American raised with the foundational American premises of freedom and equality can abide with official and legal discrimination based on race, regardless of the race being discriminated against.

The term “equity” has been bandied about often over the last year, and while most Americans considered equity something they were building up in their home as they paid off their mortgage, the Cultural Marxists who came up with Critical Theory and now Critical Race Theory, have an entirely different definition of “equity” than what most Americans are accustomed to. Whereas equality meant the freedom for all to have the same opportunities based on their ability, equity means ensuring the same outcome based on race.

So, all are free to try out for a baseball team; everyone is given that opportunity. Based on their ability, those with the best athletic skills actually get to play professionally. That’s equality. Equity says those who may not possess all the requisite attributes required get hired anyway based on race and other immutable factors. This flies in the face of the type of legitimate justice Americans are accustomed to. No matter how the advocates of CRT push to replace equality with equity, most Americans continue to support The American Way: a system of individual freedom, equality under the law, and a colorblind public policy.

This is why it is so distressing that our current military leaders are pushing equity rather than equality. We see this with the current Air Force Chief of Staff demanding a quota of pilots based on race, we see this with the current Chief of Naval Operations recommending Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How To Be An Antiracist,to all sailors – officers and enlisted – of the United States Navy. We see this with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff defending CRT being taught in our military academies, and we see this with the current Secretary of Defense saying on the one hand the American armed forces do not teach, profess, or embrace CRT, while at the same time acknowledging it is being taught![6]

When a commander of United States Space Command spoke out on the similarity between CRT and Cultural Marxism he was summarily relieved of his command. This is a dangerous precedent as the military prides itself on operating as one integrated internally cohesive entity, but the division CRT naturally brings invites only disruption and distraction—two elements no effective military can afford.[7]

Even in deep-blue California and Washington State, voters have recently rejected affirmative action at the ballot box, notwithstanding heavy support for those measures from multinational corporations and the Democratic establishment.

To understand the mind-set of the Cultural Marxism of the 2020s, we need to clarify several key concepts:

Woke: Becoming aware of injustice and oppression, whether real or perceived, and becoming motivated to act to end these evils.

Raising Consciousness: Educating/indoctrinating people about racism and injustice, especially making them aware of “white privilege.”

White Privilege: The inherent advantages of being white: greater accumulated wealth, prestige, credibility. Many concepts that we think necessary for success today (punctuality, work ethic, logical consistency) are supposedly the product of white privilege. To prove a white person is a racist, a Cultural Marxist need only ask this simple question: “Are you a racist?” If a person’s answer is no, that’s all the proof needed to determine that the person is so imbued with white privilege he doesn’t even recognize his racism.

Subjectivity: Truth is subjective, not objective. Cultural Marxists arrive at truth by feeling and identifying, not by logic and evidence. In “woke” thinking, logic itself is often belittled as a Western white male construct.

Critical Theory: This is the heart of Cultural Marxism: reinterpreting all areas of study in terms of oppressors and oppressed and gaming the system to favor the oppressed. Critical Legal Studies, a movement in law schools, seeks ways of reshaping the legal system to produce outcomes to favor oppressed groups and disfavor oppressors. Critical Race Theory tries to demonstrate that the legal/political/economic system is racist and must be changed. Critical Feminism sees the system as sexist; Queer Theory applies the same reasoning to sexual orientation and identity, and more.

Identity Group: Classifying people, not as individuals, but as groups identified by race, sex, orientation, identification, wealth, health, religion, citizenship, and more. Curiously, often one’s identity group is determined by who you identify with, not who you actually are. Former Democratic presidential candidate Robert Francis O’Rourke is neither poor nor Hispanic, but by taking on the name “Beto” he tried to cast his identity with poor Hispanics, with some success. Recently on national news a young white woman was filmed yelling at black police officers, “You’re traitors to your race!” (One wonders what the officers were thinking. And does the young woman really want the black officers to resign and make the police force all white? The movement to defund the police is utterly irrational, as minorities are the primary victims of crime. And if the thought of police officers acting as social workers is scary, the thought of social workers acting as police officers is even scarier.)

According to woke thinking, some of these identity groups are oppressors, and some are oppressed. Whites oppress blacks and Hispanics; Jews and Asians may be either oppressed or oppressors, depending upon what wokesters want to call them at any particular time. Wealthy people (defined as anyone who isn’t destitute) oppress the poor. Males oppress females. Citizens oppress non-citizens. Healthy people oppress those who are disabled. Christians oppress, well, just about everybody. Fostering conflict between identity groups is a primary tactic of Cultural Marxists.

Zero-Sum Game: In simplistic woke thinking, economics is a zero-sum game in which no new wealth is generated or destroyed. Therefore, every time you gain a dollar, that’s one dollar less for someone else. If you’ve become rich, you’ve done so either by making another person very poor or making a lot of people a little poor. Businesses do not employ people and give them opportunities; they exploit people. (So according to these people, America really has the same amount of wealth as when the Pilgrims moved here — no more was created — and it keeps getting divided further and further.)

Social Justice: Justice, in the view of Cultural Marxists, is not justice in the sense of rendering a verdict that is in accord with the evidence and the law, but is attained when there is a massive shift of power from oppressors to the oppressed. According to woke thinking, oppression (whatever that is) is the ultimate sin, and fighting oppression is the ultimate virtue. Those committed to social justice often call themselves social-justice warriors, or SJWs.

Intersectionality: This term brings it all together. Obviously, no one belongs to just one identity group. Because of your race, sex, economic status, nationality, etc., you belong to many identity groups, some of which may be oppressors and some of which may be oppressed. One may be a wealthy gay white female Buddhist, belonging to two oppressor groups and three oppressed groups (gay, female, Buddhist).

And that person’s moral authority to speak out on issues of oppression depends on the intersectionality of your identity groups, because only the oppressed can know what oppression feels like. A poor gay black disabled undocumented immigrant (read: illegal alien) pagan female has great moral authority to speak about oppression. A wealthy straight white healthy American Christian male has none at all. Even though you and your wife may think alike and consider yourselves soul mates, females automatically have more moral authority than males do, because they belong to at least one oppressed identity group.

In woke minds, only members of oppressor identity groups can commit oppression. Only oppressor races can be guilty of racism. Only the oppressive sex can be guilty of sexism.

Hating white people, or using racist epithets against Caucasians, or looting white businesses, is not, then, racism, because an oppressed race cannot be guilty of racism. So there are lots of actions that some sub-groups can get away with that other groups can’t. Serving as a poll watcher in a predominantly black precinct, I observed a black man say loudly to those around him, “I’m not for the Democrats, I’m not for the Republicans; I’m for whatever is good for the black man.” No one seemed to think anything was wrong with this. But if a white voter had made the exact same speech but had said “white man,” instead of “black man,” he would have been denounced as a racist or worse.

Snide put-downs of women are in very bad taste and can bring charges of sexual harassment. But the same comments about men are considered clever and can even bring applause, because an oppressed sex cannot be guilty of sexism.

Venomous attacks upon Christianity are ignored, while the same types of attacks upon non-Christians are condemned as bigotry. Why? Because according to wokesters, Christians are an oppressor group, even though there have been more Christian martyrs in the past century than in all other centuries of Christian history combined.

Likewise, if oppressed people (whether due to race, or economic status, or just because they identify with the oppressed) loot, vandalize, and burn business establishments, they’ve done nothing wrong. After all, they’re oppressed, and they’re just taking back what is rightfully theirs. That’s social justice!

As long as groups are deemed “oppressed,” they are given a pass for disagreeable behaviors. That is why Muslims and LGBTQ people seem to tolerate one another, even though their beliefs and practices are anathema to one another. They (at least in America) both perceive themselves as oppressed identity groups. It’s likely that when they no longer perceive themselves as victims of a common enemy, one will attack the other.

The “inevitable” future anticipated by the elites is a hellish combination of an absurd ideology, cultural Marxism (currently disguised as “wokeness”) with Brave New World. As Lance Morrow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal,

The struggle to which Americans, of whatever race, should be paying attention is the one that has to do with freedom. It has to do with privacy, mind control, individual liberties—with totalitarian systems of surveillance and manipulation perfecting themselves in an alliance of big tech, big government, global corporations and artificial intelligence. Wokeness … fronts for the real problem of the 21st century: a sinister autocracy just around the corner.

How to Fight Critical Race Theory (christopherrufo.com)

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[1] Ibram X. Kendi, Master Marketer | City Journal (city-journal.org)

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Dem. Senator Bans ‘He/She’ Pronouns During Legislative Hearings – California Globe

[5] Ibram X. Kendi, Master Marketer | City Journal (city-journal.org)

[6] Amid The Pentagon’s CRT Campaign, Lloyd Austin Says ‘It’s Really Important’ The Military Is ‘Apolitical’ | The Daily Caller

[7] Critical Race Theory in the Military | The Heritage Foundation