“Kristina Ishmael [she/her],” a Biden deputy director to the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, made her Twitter account private after Fox News caught her claiming that democracy, “fatphobia,” and, well, pretty much everything else is “white supremacy.” Considering that Ishmael said she was tuning out white people, while she/herself is white, should we follow her example and exclude her from public expression?
Fox News reported that said she also tweeted, “Learning to be comfortable in my own skin & weight and really ready to reject the White supremacist ideal body? F*ck yes. Fatphobia is real. The ‘ideal’ weight, shape & look is white supremacy baked into our everyday lives. I’m so over it. We deserve more than diets.” Because apparently only white people have ever criticized fatness?
“[Democracy is] also built on white supremacy, which I see perpetuated in education circles when BIPOC folx are being told they’re too negative by addressing real issues instead of superlatives,” Ishmael tweeted. The Biden official also tweeted an accusation that the “white evangelical church” has “welcomed” both “White supremacy and hate.” Ishmael commented, “Amen.” Which would seem to lower her woke score, since she did not add “awomen.”
Over a quarter of Americans identify as evangelical, Fox News reported.
In 2019, Ishmael pontificated, “I walked away from a conversation because a white male dominated the conversation that was being facilitated by a woman of color. Sometimes walking away is the only thing to do.”
Ishmael also seemed to ponder if white homosexuals ought to be considered marginalized in school curriculum. Which is clearly a consideration of paramount importance for an educator. “In most ‘inclusive’ materials, the most dominant folx are still represented in the marginalized group (e.g. white, cis, gay men). This does not include the nuance of this group,” Ishmael whined. But she’s always focused on the most important aspects of education: “[M]ost of my curriculum was written from a very narrow and white perspective.”
And another time, Ishmael commented, “As a teacher, how many times have you been asked to uphold white supremacy through dominant-culture norms.” Whatever that means. She also asserted that “stakeholder” is “colonizer language to id the white men who staked their claim to land.” Because non-whites never staked claims to land that wasn’t originally theirs?
Ishmael is a “fan” of radical CRT evangelist Ibram X. Kendi. She wrote, “[Shoutout] to [Dr. Kendi] as this group of educators talk about culturally responsive pedagogy and specific references made to segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists. Have learned SO much from Dr. Kendi about this and how it applies to our field.” Ishmael added, “The current status quo of our education systemworks for white students, but no Black or brown students. Many white people will question why it should be changed.”
Fox News cited a 2003 column from Kendi saying, “Europeans are simply a different breed of human… They are socialized to be aggressive people… They are raised to be racist.” Apparently he has studied no work history, or he would know that, unfortunately, people from every continent have always been racist against people from other continents—or even every other country. Even today, Iran is famous as a state sponsor of terrorism, and China is famous for anti-black racism.
But Kendi is racist himself. In June, the Los Angeles Times reported that Kendi was “disturbed” his daughter was fond of a white doll, asking “was the whiteness of the doll attaching her to it?” And in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, the junior version by radical Jason Reynolds of Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, former slaves and civil rights champions Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington are portrayed in a negative light for wanting to be more educated and more civilized—because Kendi and Reynolds seemingly see that as being more “white.” As if white people have a monopoly on education and civilization. The book tells kids that “race and, more critical, racism are everywhere.” It bashes John Adams and Abraham Lincoln but praises Michelle Obama and avowed Communist Angela Davis.
Which might explain why Kendi’s fan Ishmael is a self-hating white woman who sees everything in her life and career as a racial issue.
Story cited here.
