Quote:If ever a Leftist policy has an unpopular term or connotation attached to it, progressives simply rename it and pretend things are different.

Abortion turns people off? Call it “choice.” Illegal immigrant sounds bad? Call them “undocumented workers.” People don’t like riots? Call them “peaceful protests.” No one supports a death tax? Call it an “estate tax.”

One of the latest examples can be found in education, the business world, and government training programs: Affinity groups.

On its face, there’s nothing seemingly wrong with the term. Affinity groups have been around for centuries, typically involving people who naturally organize into groups based on shared characteristics and interests. Think of the Freemasons or sororities to something more nebulous like your friend group. People have been sorting themselves into groups for as long as humans have existed.

But a certain type of affinity group has risen in the past decade or so, one that isn’t about people coming together, but about separating people based on one specific characteristic: Skin color. This used to be called segregation, but that term rightfully brings up negative feelings, so it has now been rebranded under the guise of affinity groups.

One can tell that the basis for the separation is nefarious when one skin color is singled out for shaming and derision. The Daily Wire has covered numerous examples of this. At the end of the Trump administration, the Department of Education determined that “affinity groups” separated by race were a form of segregation. As The Daily Wire’s Chrissy Clark explained:

Racial “affinity groups” are used in both K-12 and higher education institutions across the nation. They separate students and staff by race in hopes of giving black people a “safe space” to discuss their experiences with racism while providing a separate space for white people to learn about their “white privilege.”

A whistleblower teacher in Chicago filed a complaint about the affinity groups in the Evanston-Skokie School District and the U.S. Department of Education began an investigation, finding that the school district segregated white administrators and administrators of color for certain training programs. The school district had also directed staff to consider a student’s race during disciplinary action.

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found the policies discriminatory.

“These materials would have led students to be treated differently based on their race, depriving them of a class free from racial recrimination and hostility,” OCR enforcement officer Carol Ashley wrote. “Such treatment has no place in federally-funded programs or activities, nor is it protected by the First Amendment.”

The Biden administration, however, suspended the investigation after President Joe Biden issued an executive order purportedly in the name of equity and gender rights. The actual outcome ended up being the implementation of racist trainings which told white people they were to blame for society’s ills while painting everyone else as victims and ensuring biological men could win women’s sports competitions. (“Equity” and “gender rights” are also used to cover the Left’s discrimination.)

Chicago is not the only place in America instituting similar policies, as Clark wrote:

Elon University in North Carolina hosts a weekly “white caucus” meeting for white students to “unpack race and systemic oppression.” The University of Kentucky separates its Resident Assistants into training groups based on race. “One for RAs who identify as Black, Indigenous, Person of Color, and one for RAs who identify as white.”

The list goes on. Michigan State University offered affinity groups for teachers at a conference that forced white people to accept their “white privilege.” Madison West High School in Wisconsin offered segregated Zoom links for parents to discuss police brutality. Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, mandates monthly “anti-racism” trainings that separate people by skin color, telling white people they can’t simply not be racist, they must be actively “anti-racist” by accepting their implicit bias and white privilege.

As I wrote years ago, colleges and universities were toying with the idea of segregated dorms, calling them “safe spaces” for people of color – the idea itself planting harmful racism and bias in the minds of students who might think they simply aren’t safe around white people.

America decided decades ago that segregation was bad, so why do Democrats want to bring it back?

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"Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever"

-George Wallace

Quote:A Virginia public school held an event intended for white people as part of its “antiracist” initiative, WRIC reported Monday.

Thomas Dale High School, which is part of Chesterfield County Public Schools, apparently hosted a virtual “Racial Affinity Group” on May 4 that was meant for white staff to attend, according to WRIC.

“We will offer Racial Affinity Groups at Thomas Dale as part of our journey to create and maintain…. Antiracist school,” a newsletter to staff, shared with WRIC, showed. Parts of the newsletter were cut off in the image.

“This particular group will be for white people as we look at the Structure needed… critically and authentically examine our role and responsibility in this work,” the newsletter continues.

The newsletter also appeared to list several articles for staff to read more about affinity groups. Among the articles listed is one by the NY Post from June 2020 about teachers being “segregated into discussion groups based on skin color, race and ethnicity” as part of an “Anti-racist Community Meeting.”

Sonia Smith, president of the Chesterfield Education Association, told WRIC that the “affinity groups” were not about excluding any race, but the exclusive groups were meant to “encourage and foster open dialogue.”

“It’s important to have conversations about race in safe places,” Smith said, according to WRIC.

The “affinity group” was reportedly created by the school’s principal, Dr. Christopher Jones, but the chair of the Chesterfield School Board says the board was not aware of the group and would not have supported “any in group that excludes any race,” WRIC reported.

Thomas Dale High School did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

The school district told WRIC that it “is steadfast in our commitment to foster an inclusive educational environment where every student, teacher, support professional, parent and community member is treated with dignity and respect. We want to continue to engage our community in meaningful and honest conversations.”

In June 2020, Chesterfield schools announced it was working with the Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education to hold professional development sessions aimed at improving equity at the school, WRIC reported.

One of the sessions is reportedly called “Racial Affinity Groups: Creating Safe Spaces for Dialogue Among Same Race Colleagues.”

Numerous schools — both public and private — across the country have held “antiracism” sessions and trainings for teachers and students, but often refer to the sessions as “professional development” or “diversity training.”

These trainings are often based on the ideas of Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet teaches students to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

Buffalo Public Schools reportedly required kindergarten students to participate in a lesson on “racist police and state-sanctioned violence” which involved showing images of black children who have died.

At R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School, part of the Cupertino Union School District in San Jose, Calif., third-grade students were reportedly told to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities in order to understand “power and privilege.”

Multiple states have sought to ban CRT from being taught at public schools, or have prevented teachers of CRT facilitators from forcing students or school staff to adopt the ideas in CRT.

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