Bettina L. Love, an antiracist professor at the University of Georgia, calls on educators to abolish “Whiteness” in schools across America. Her organization, the “Abolitionist Teaching Network,” demands teachers “disrupt Whiteness and other forms of oppression,” and offers “antiracist therapy for White educators and support staff.” In July, the U.S. Department of Education removed a link to the ATN website, claiming it was a “mistake.”
As Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, wrote in the National Review:
We Want to Do More Than Survive, the title of Love’s book, alludes to a saying of Maya Angelou: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive.” Who can argue with that? A more accurate title — say, We Need a Socialist Revolution — would have been a tad more contentious. Yet somehow the book manages to move from “thriving” to revolutionary socialism. The connection comes from Love’s life story. . . .
Her book’s subtitle, “Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom,” supplies the name of Love’s “Abolitionist Teaching Network.” So, what does Love hope to abolish? Plenty. The educational survival complex must go, as we’ve seen, but also the prison-industrial complex, and pretty much every other pillar of the existing social order, including capitalism. Most especially up for abolition is “Whiteness.” At base, Bettina Love wants to abolish America itself and replace it with an entirely different system.
Parents and citizens concerned with upholding MLK’s “Dream” should keep a close eye on Love and her radical ATN, as both aim to abolish the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement by rejecting “colorblindness” as well.
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Inside White Fragility 