There’s nothing wrong, in principle, with Black History Month. After all, in America we have a gazillion other months dedicated to causes: National Bird-Feeding Month (February), Lyme Disease Awareness Month (May), LGBTQ Pride Month (June), National Pizza Month (October), and so on. It’s nice to cheer on these groups and causes and raise the public’s awareness of them.
But Black History Month has been transformed from a nice observance into a political cudgel to hammer the public with virtue-signaling. It’s a relentless commercial for agitprop from the racialist left, an easy way for ambitious pols to establish woke cred.
Take Mia Bonta, for example. She’s the California State Assembly member from District 18 (Oakland) and also the wife of California’s Attorney General, Rob Bonta. Being from Oakland, Bonta couldn’t have been elected dogcatcher without union money, which purchases the support of far-left progressives, the same people who voted for Sheng Thao, Pamela Price and Carroll Fife. Bonta had to embarrassingly bend her knee at the altar of Black activists. This required (1) insisting that Black people are the victims of “systemic racism” and (2) elevating race to the forefront of her political agenda, in front of all other issues that affect her constituents, including crime, economic vitality and the quality of life in Oakland.
Bonta just sent out a blast email in which she carries the left’s heaviest water. First, she defends DEI. “I am committed to continuing supporting uplifting DEI efforts in the California Legislature and beyond.” This, despite the reality that DEI has been repudiated across America, at least in its more monstrous forms, such as affirmative action, racial quotas, and government preferences for people of color.
Her email also “celebrated” the California Black Chamber of Commerce. Let me ask what would be the public reaction if, say, some MAGA assembly member from the Central Valley “celebrated” the White Chamber of Commerce (if such a unicorn existed, which it doesn’t). He would immediately be branded a racist, a nazi or worse, and correctly so. This should not be how we do things in America, where all men are created equal, and we should at least try to have a color-blind country.
In her email Bonta also touted two bills she’s introduced into the Legislature. AB 1230 gives a get-out-of-jail free card to students who are expelled from school for outrageous acts of violence or malfeasance. Bonta’s bill would “require a plan of rehabilitation (for the student)” that would be so expensive, so difficult to implement, that it would essentially make it impossible for a school district to get rid of the most disruptive elements in their classrooms.
Its companion bill, AB 1376, is her way of exonerating anyone between the ages of 12 and 17 (in other words, most pupils) who, in the words of the current law it purports to replace, “violates any federal, state, or local law or ordinance, who persistently or habitually refuses to obey the reasonable and proper orders…”. Such individuals are traditionally made wards of the court—i.e, placed under probation—with such probation to be extended until “the reformation and rehabilitation of the ward [is] enhanced,” which could be a long time because of the person’s resistance to reform. Bonta’s bill “would limit to 6 months the period of time a ward may remain on probation.” It also “would remove the authority of the court to order the minor to pay [a] $250 fine or participate in an uncompensated work program in lieu of restitution” for damages caused.
Anyone who teaches in the Oakland School District will tell you (if they’re honest, which isn’t often the case) that normal classroom instruction is impossible due to intrusive, impulsive, disrespectful and intimidating behavior by out-of-control students. Bonta’s bill is just another way of letting these people off the hook, based on the sham excuse that their sociopathic behavior is due to racism and not personal choice and therefore must be overlooked. Schools have always had the ability to expel students who make life miserable for the vast majority of young people who actually want to learn. But Mia Bonta says, No; we can no longer get rid of disruptive and dangerous elements in our classrooms because it’s racist to expel thugs.
I’m not suggesting that Black History Month is without foundation. Certainly young people should learn in school the achievements of Black people throughout our history. But we should learn also the great and wonderful things accomplished by our Indigenous people, by Jews, by gay people, by women, by disabled Americans, by atheists—the list goes on and on; and anyway, there’s just something profoundly un-American about slicing and dicing our people into identity groups and pitting us against each other.
I always wonder what people like Bonta and Pamela Price think they’re accomplishing when they make it easier for wrongdoers to shred our moral order. Do they actually think this helps anyone, or are they simply kowtowing to the demands of the unions that fund them? I think the answer is evident: they’re kowtowing to the unions. A contribution to their next campaign is more important to them than public safety, educating children, uplifting our communities, saving lives, fostering unity, or improving the quality of life in Oakland.
Steve Heimoff