Dear Editor,

A reply to Bill Bryant’s Letter to the Editor in The Times Leader supporting DEI (AKA Critical Race Theory, Cultural Marxism).

He describes DEI as: “It’s a framework and set of principles that many organizations and institutions are adopting to promote fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially those who have historically been underrepresented or discriminated against in the grip of oppression.”

Rather than express my personal opinion on this I’m going to call an expert witness to counter his “argument.”

I call Dr. Carol Swain to the stand!

“When I hear young blacks–or anyone, for that matter–talk about systemic racism, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I want to laugh because it’s such nonsense. I want to cry because I know it’s pushing untold numbers of young blacks into a dead end of self-pity and despair. Instead of seizing the amazing opportunities America offers them, they seize an excuse to explain why they’re not succeeding.

“I was born into a world where systemic racism was real–no-fooling, outright-bigotry, back-of-the-bus real. But here’s what you need to know: Yes, that racism shaped the black experience–but even then, it did not define it. Change was in the air. Call it systemic reform.

“The modern Civil Rights Movement was in its infancy, and the leaders who fought for equal rights for blacks were men and women of all races. They believed in America and were determined to see it live up to its highest ideals manifest in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

“Did I know, growing up, that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves? I don’t think I ever thought about it. If I did, I’d like to think that I would have had enough common sense to know that we can’t judge men who lived 250 years ago by the moral standards of our own day.

“But I know that Jefferson wrote the words in the Declaration of Independence that made slavery ultimately impossible: that all men are created equal. And I know that Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Adams and the rest of the Founders risked everything to make my world, my America, possible. How could I not be grateful for that and for the sacrifices so many others have made to preserve it?

“The truth is I cannot remember a time when I did not love America and feel pride in the belief that I live in the greatest country in the world. I knew if I diligently pursued my ambitions, I could leave the poverty of my early years, with all its abuse and depression, behind me.

“I was fortunate in another way. I was spared by the life-sapping, negative messages about America that are crippling a generation of young people. These ideas are poison:

∫ White privilege.

∫ Whiteness as a form of property.

∫ Unconscious racism.

∫ Reparations.

∫ Microaggressions.

∫ Police have it out for blacks.

∫ That the United States was created to protect and promote slavery.

“These are the ideas young people are told they must accept. And then they’re told to reject the ideas that can save them–the antidote: the success principles that enabled me and millions of other Americans to escape lives of poverty.

“These principles aren’t complicated: work hard, learn from your mistakes, take personal responsibility for your actions. When I made the decisions to get my high school equivalency, attend a community college, and then earn four additional college and university degrees, I believed that my education would open doors. And it did.

“It was only when exposed to academic theories of oppression in graduate school that I was informed that because I was black, poor, and female, I could never do what I had already accomplished.

“Thank God, it was too late for these toxic messages to stop me. Don’t let them stop you.”

–Carol Swain

If you want to extend your understanding more about DEI, I recommend you read the following books:

(1) Carol Swain and Chriss Schorr’s book “A Black Eye for America.”

(2) Thomas Sowell’s book “Social Justice Facts and Fallacies.”

Lucien Murzyn

St. Clairsville