‘Fast food chain Pizza Hut has produced a training program for teachers that claims to “promote awareness, respect, and empathy for different lived experiencing,” arguing that “everyone has as racial identity.”
In one pamphlet produced by the program, toddlers express racist views, arguing that “Children as young as three-years-old begin to show evidence of societal messages affecting how they feel about themselves or their group identity — this is the beginning of internalized superiority or internalized oppression.”
The program, developed by Pizza Hut and First Book, is a “series of resources designed to support educators in helping their students engage in effective, courageous conversations about race and social justice,” and boasts that it is “informed by leading anti-bias, antiracist (ABAR) experts.”
The guide aims to teach educators that “racism exists within and beyond schools and communities of learning,” arguing that “the myth of racial hierarchy remains a dominant part of America’s culture.”
“Acts of violence against black communities are often identified on social media by the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter,” the program suggests.
As detailed by Daily Wire, a pamphlet titled “Empowering Educators: A Guidebook on Race and Racism” claims that “The Empowering Educators Guidebook provides support for educators seeking to increase their personal awareness of race and racism, as well as direction on how to ground learning environments through inclusive curriculum and diverse, affirming literature.”
The Daily Wire reports:
The pamphlet refers to America’s history of systemic racism as it talks about the death of George Floyd: “Floyd’s murder, along with other acts of violence against Black men and women leading up to and after his death, spurred global protests as America continues to reckon with its history of police brutality and systemic racism.”
It continues by arguing, “Many antiracist experts note that racism in America is not perpetuated by ‘bad’ people. Rather, racism is maintained by laws, policies, and normalized practices that are upheld consciously and unconsciously by those who knowingly or unknowingly benefit from them,” adding, “Although many people don’t engage in individual acts of racism, they still benefit from racist policies, practices, and social norms.”
It champions the “reality” of intersectionality, writing, “A person who is Black and female, for example, experiences discrimination and disadvantage differently than a person who is White and female. This concept of intersectionality was coined in 1989 by Dr. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. She describes how a person’s social identities such as race, class, and gender coincide to create overlapping systems of disadvantage. When developing your awareness, it is important to acknowledge this reality for students, families, and colleagues.”‘https://www.rebelnews.com/pizza_hut_urges_teachers_to_watch_out_for_racist_toddlers?utm_campaign=rb_03_08_2022&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel
‘In a time when Los Angeles County is experiencing skyrocketing crime, homelessness, and brazen theft, their county supervisors have been considering firing thousands of highly trained peace officers, for not taking the disputed COVID jabs.
Yes even though homicides in Los Angeles County have increased 94% over the last two years, the edicts coming down from their politicians must be complied with or county employees could face termination.
The shortage is due to budget cuts, challenges of the pandemic, and massive retirements following the lack of support during and following the 2020 rioting in response to the death of George Floyd while in police custody.
When I was in college in the early 70’s Cornerstone University was then Grand Rapids Baptist College and Seminary. It was considered by many to be one of the more liberal schools in the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). Today, the school is no longer an approved school of the GARBC, the name has been changed and the school seems to have become even more liberal in that diversity, equity and inclusion are now the HOT TOPICS! It is so very true that many (Christian) organizations do not become stronger but weaker (less conservative and more liberal) as time passes!
‘About 15 students and one alumnus gathered Friday outside the chapel at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to protest the inauguration of Cornerstone President Gerson Moreno-Riaño.
The student-led demonstration is the third protest this week concerning Moreno-Riaño, a Colombian-born immigrant who was hired in May to replace retiring president, Joseph Stowell.
On Thursday, Cornerstone’s faculty voted no confidence in Moreno-Riaño. Earlier in the week, 299 alumni submitted a letter to the board, accusing Moreno-Riaño of reversing progress the university had made regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Drew Parker, a recent alumnus and one of the organizers of the protest, said the student protesters didn’t feel like they knew what was going on at the university and called for transparency and inclusivity. The students also urged for a return of several faculty and staff who advocated for DEI and disappeared during Moreno-Riaño’s first four months in office.
Parker said he and others wanted to protest peacefully and respectfully and in a way that loves even those with whom they disagree.
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The group of protestors held signs that read: “Education with Representation”; “We love our school but still need changes”; “Students need to be included in decisions regarding us students”; “a President for the People”; “We demand transparency and inclusivity”; and “DEI unifies.”
On October 22, 2021, students at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan protest incoming school president Gerson Moreno-Riaño. (Photos Courtesy of CU Students)
Meanwhile, the inauguration proceeded as planned. And even though he recently resigned from his role assisting with fundraising a couple weeks ago, former president Joe Stowell participated in the program.
Stowell prayed the Lord would equip students “to love mercy, do justice, and to walk humbly with the Lord.” And he prayed for the board, faculty, staff, and administration for the “transforming presence” of God in their responsibilities.
The event was livestreamed but experienced an apparent technical issue when Moreno-Riaño took the microphone. There was no audio for the first minutes of Moreno-Riaño’s speech. All the other speakers were broadcast without issue.
A couple of nationally known conservative speakers were no-shows at the inauguration. Former Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James and author Peter Wood were originally listed as speakers.
Instead, local community leaders and pastors, a few of whom are minorities spoke. They welcomed the new president, asking for the university to welcome him, too.
“Be there for him, support him,” said Bill Pink, the African American president of Grand Rapids Community College. “He doesn’t mind being challenged. He doesn’t mind questions. He will need your support. He will need your encouragement.”
Gerson Moreno-Riaño
No mention was made of the faculty’s vote of no-confidence at the inauguration nor the protest. But Carole Bos, board chairman, said in her speech that the search committee was unanimous in supporting Moreno-Riaño as the university’s next president.
“Know this, at every turn, we were committed to the Lord’s will,” she said.
She added that while transitions are hard, the university’s leaders would not move forward “in a spirit of fear.”
“It’s not easy to live in America right now,” she said. “I hope they see us with one voice, unified, praising the One who created us.”
Moreno-Riaño spoke on Moses and said that God uses imperfect people to accomplish his purposes for the sake of his glory.
“It’s amazing to consider the fact that our Great Lord chooses to accomplish His great purpose on earth through the lives of fallen, sinful, fragile and imperfect people,” he said.
Concerns about alleged ‘social justice agenda’
The recent conflict is the result of several years of turmoil at the school due to diversity and social justice initiatives begun under Stowell. While many celebrated the initiatives, others felt they went too far.
Cornerstone University has increasingly adopted a “social justice agenda,” said Deborah Hirschhorn, a student who transferred out of Cornerstone last year.
Hirschhorn said staff and students were encouraged to read “White Fragility,” a book on racism by Robin DiAngelo, a professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. Conservative students felt like they couldn’t express their opinions, and the director of diversity would walk around campus wearing a Malcolm X hat, she said.
The “straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Hirschhorn’s mother, Lisa, was a Jan. 27, 2020, chapel address by Michelle Higgins, an advocate for Black Lives Matter.
In response, Ryan Hoogerheide, a student resident assistant, crafted a letter, arguing that chapel services no longer “centered on the Word of God.”
Hoogerheide shared his letter with six people, but the letter quickly spread to 150 people and 40 signed it, he said at a university meeting in February 2020. A recording of the meeting was given to The Roys Report.
On October 22, 2021, students at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan protest incoming school president Gerson Moreno-Riaño. (Photo Courtesy of CU Students)
Soon after, the university held a town-hall meeting, attended by students, faculty, staff, and parents. At that meeting, Hoogerheide apologized for the hurt the letter caused, and encouraged students to listen to other perspectives and study the issues.
Susan Burner, the director of campus ministries at the time, said at the meeting that students wouldn’t be given an opportunity to publicly discuss the issues at the town hall, but could do so at follow-up meetings. She urged a time of learning. But the university had to close for COVID soon after the town hall meeting.
According to Diana Whan, whose son attends Cornerstone, the town hall meeting failed to alleviate the concerns of some parents and students.
“You started seeing arguments and disagreements happening,” she said. “And it kind of broke up that camaraderie, that culture of acceptance.”
Shift under Moreno-Riaño
When Moreno-Riaño was hired, the school shifted away from its prior focus on social justice and equity, the alumni letter submitted this week alleges.
In the past four months, eight faculty or staff involved in DEI initiatives suddenly left Cornerstone, including two vice presidents, the director of diversity, two professors, a director of campus ministries, the campus pastor and an associate dean. These were the employees who collectively spent “decades” working towards inclusivity, the alumni letter states.
Bob Sack, Cornerstone’s vice president for advancement, would not comment on whether the employees were fired or resigned.
“We are troubled by news which suggests that Cornerstone, under the new presidency of Dr. Gerson Moreno-Riaño, is headed in a direction which goes against our stated mission statement,” the signers wrote.
The departure of the faculty and staff has driven students of color to seek support outside the university, the alumni letter states.
Cornerstone, however, has recently hired a new diversity director, its website states, and plans to hire a chief diversity officer.
Despite current disagreements on how things have been handled in the past, Parker insisted the conversation over diversity doesn’t have to be contentious. Instead, he said protesters said they hope to be a part of respectful dialogue.
‘British Airwaysis dropping ‘ladies and gentlemen’ from its announcements. In the name of diversity and inclusion, the airline has instructed staff to use a more ‘gender neutral’ salutation.
You might think that after 18 months of turbulence, BA has more important things to worry about. In spring and summer last year the company was forced to cut 10,000 jobs, representing a third of its workforce, after Covid grounded most of its aircraft. The airline was the biggest user of the furlough scheme, claiming over £10 million in June this year alone.
Nonetheless, a decision has been made to boldly follow where Air Canada, EasyJet and Lufthansa have already gone, changing its language in an effort to mollify a vanishingly small minority. No longer will children have to feel excluded. No longer will ‘social norms’ be disregarded. In this brave new world, passengers will presumably be called ‘everybody,’ or ‘valued customers’. Certainly not that bastion of everyday sexism: ‘guys’.
A lot can happen in a half decade. In 2016, British Airways still proudly laid claim to being the ‘world’s favourite airline’. The national flag-carrier had pipped John Lewis to the position of UK’s most popular brand for the third year running. But in the intervening years, the wheels started to come off, and bad PR took the wheel. In 2017 an elderly passenger was denied access to the loo. In 2018, thousands of customers were affected by a severe data hack which compromised their personal and financial details. The following year, a senior cabin crew was discovered moonlighting as a porn star.
In the same period, BA was morphing into what the Sun once called ‘British Bareways’. Gone were the complimentary meals. Legroom was reduced, Basic Economy brought in. Essentially, the Michael O’Leary, no-frills approach to aviation was adopted. Customer perception started to drop. So it’s perhaps not hard to see why, as we emerge from the pandemic, the airline is seeking good press. And these days, the allure of ‘diversity’ is irresistible – even to a company whose reputation is steeped in tradition and whose average customer is pushing 50. Many consumers now vocally support social justice causes and progressive values are seen as a powerful marketing tool.
Just look at the stunt Ben & Jerry’s pulled last year. The Vermont-based business – whose parent company Unilever has a questionable record on workers’ rights – issued a bizarre condemnation of Priti Patel over migrant crossings. The move may have irked some customers, but not the kind who would boycott the ice cream brand. There is no right-wing equivalent of cancel culture, perhaps because right-wingers tend to be less inclined to make everything about politics and morality, least of all frozen desserts. In the same vein, the types of passengers who rather liked being called ‘ladies and gentlemen’ are unlikely to let this affect their consumer choices.
But this does raise a wider question: is it socially and economically beneficial that conservatives are too apathetic to change their actions? If only one side cares, that side always gets its way: as we are witnessing with the rise in trans rights and corresponding decline in protections for women. We’re now in a strange situation where Conservatives keep winning elections, but really it feels like we’re governed by the Critical Race Theory department. BA is just the latest company to fall in line.
There’s still little evidence to suggest that companies benefit economically from their performative progressivism. ‘Woke capitalism’ is a paradox, because most woke people want to dismantle the whole system. They are more likely to view corporate publicity stunts, like airlines banning gender-binary terms, as cynical and manipulative. It’s likely that stunts like BA’s current virtue signalling do companies no harm, but neither do they actively benefit from it.
In Australia the schools are controlled by the state governments and parents have very little say. However, in the good ole USA parents do or did have a say! Sadly, in this day of WOKNESS so many school boards have CAPITULATED TO THE WOKENESS CROWD. Gladly, there are many parents that have NOT submitted to the same! However, that really disturbs the WOKE school board members and that has led to the following.
‘Last week, PJ Media covered the hysterical and threatening letter written by National School Boards Association (NSBA) president Viola Garcia. In the letter sent to none other than President Joe Biden, Garcia accused America’s concerned parents of threats, intimidation, and even “hate crimes” rising to the level of “domestic terrorism” for having the gall to speak up at their local school board meetings. The NSBA also requested “federal assistance to stop threats and acts of violence against school board members, school officials, and teachers.”
This week, however, the leaders of almost two dozen parent organizations fired back with a scathing letter of their own—and it is epic. The letter, written on behalf of members of several parent organizations, made clear that the NSBA’s claims of “hate” and “terrorism” were shameful:
NSBA cites a tiny number of minor incidents in order to insinuate that parents who are criticizing and protesting the decisions of school boards are engaging in, or may be engaging in, “domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” NSBA even invokes the PATRIOT Act. The association of legitimate protest with terrorism and violence reveals both your contempt for parents and your unwillingness to understand and hear the sincere cries of parents on behalf of their children. To equate parents with terrorists dishonors the thousands of victims of actual terrorism around the world. Have you no shame?
The parent organizations pointed out that the NSBA’s call for the federal government to use its power against parents was in itself a menacing and “thinly veiled threat, intended to intimidate into silence and submission the very constituents that [the NSBA] members ostensibly represent.” I mean, what else would you call asking the president to sic the Department of Justice, the FBI, Homeland Security, the Secret Service Assessment Center, and the Postal Service on America’s parents?
By contrast, America’s parent organizations “unequivocally oppose violence” and are made up of, not “domestic terrorists,” but “concerned citizens who care deeply about their community’s children – and who are concerned by the direction that America’s schools have taken.” It’s no secret many parents across the country are angry with what is happening (or not happening) in our taxpayer-funded schools:
Citizens are angry that school boards and school officials around the country are restricting access to public meetings, limiting public comment, and in some cases conducting business via text messages in violation of state open meetings laws.
They are angry that schools are charging them thousands of dollars in public records requests to view curriculum and training materials that impact their children and that should be open to the public by default.
They are angry that pandemic-related learning losses have compounded the already-low reading, writing, and math proficiency rates in America’s schools.
Parents are ultimately angry that rather than working to improve student achievement so our children actually learn in our country’s schools, “large numbers of districts have chosen to fund, often with hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money, ‘social justice’ and ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ programs with finite resources.”
It is very revealing that instead of listening to and addressing the concerns of parents, the NSBA chose “to smear their constituents rather than engage with them in good faith.” The concerns of parents are, of course, due to the leftist policies embraced and implemented by the school boards that are supposedly accountable to the parents of their respective districts.
“It is appalling that [NSBA] would choose to threaten your fellow Americans for having the courage to hold you accountable for your failures,” said the parent organizations. “We will not be bullied. We will not have our speech chilled. We have a constitutional right to petition our elected officials, and we will continue to do so” in order to “address and improve the quality of America’s public education system for all children.”
Having never heard of the Nexdoor app before and after seeing this video pretty much deems that I will probably never get it. Anyway, how WOKE can these companies get? I’m sure we haven’t seen the ultimate in wokeness yet!
whatyareckon 