Response to comments about WP06880 in Westport Journal

I t is with dismay and disappointment, but perhaps not surprise, that we read comments made by Westport politicians regarding the content of WP06880.com in Westport Journal. From the moment this website came into being, it has simply served as a resource and a platform for the expression of principled objections to a new progressive mindset about race and ethnicity that has suddenly gained traction in certain quarters. This new mindset, associated to a large extent with an academic movement known as Critical Race Theory, turns its back on the core ideas that define not only the Civil Rights Movement but all of Western liberal democracy as it has existed for more than 200 years. There is not one article, one comment, or one point of view presented on our website that can be justifiably characterized as “racist,” or for that matter, “falsehood[s] and disinformation.” We challenge any of these politicians to identify a single instance — a single instance — of racist commentary or factually incorrect information on the website.

The Town of Westport has apparently just issued a statement that the Town is “committed to fostering a civic culture that provides equitable respect, belonging and treatment of all.” In that spirit, rather than point fingers and make angry unfounded accusations at those who would challenge your illiberal, inflexible, intolerant and toxic mindset, why not instead calmly read, listen, and truly process some of the points we are making?

The only “disinformation” or “misinformation” (apparently, in 2021, these are words people use to describe well-reasoned opinions they don’t agree with) has emanated from Town politicians, starting with the absolutely false and unfounded claim that the website originated from “outside” groups. The only “racist perspective” that has been presented is that of the NYU Metro Center, with its relentless assault on “whiteness” on nearly every page of its website.

Can you imagine the Town of Westport working with an organization that repeatedly attacked “blackness” or “brownness?” It is appalling that Westport taxpayers are actually funding, through the investment of time and resources, our schools’ engagement with such an organization. This remains a country where “all men are created equal” (if the origins of that quote elude you, see the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, assuming that document is not also now seen as unacceptably racist by Westport politicians). It is just as wrong and malicious and hateful to attack whiteness as it is to attack any other color or group. We say that not because we are interested in advocating the cause of white people (and you have no reason to believe, and would in fact be wrong to believe, we are monolithically white). We say that because we are defending the principle of equality and the urgency of preventing the demonization of any particular group, even if they are portrayed by some as advantaged in society at any given time.

Today, the NYU Metro Center could be attacking whites. Tomorrow, they could be attacking Asians, or Jews, and yes perhaps one day Blacks. How can Americans in the 21st century be so short-sighted? How can they abandon the very ideas that generations of men and women before us, and our sons and daughters today, have fought and died for, so we may enjoy a free, safe, prosperous and harmonious society?

We are not racists. We are not hateful. We are not fear-mongerers. We are not closed-minded. We are not misinformed. We are not victims of emotion. We are Democrats, Republicans and Independents. We are Americans who believe in the ideals upon which this country was founded. We want our children to appreciate those ideals as well, or at least be protected from this toxic, resentful, illiberal mode of thinking to which too many of our dear friends and neighbors sadly appear to be succumbing.

As much as you show contempt for the concept of equality, you appear to be comparably contemptuous of the concepts of freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. Our anonymity frustrates you. How can you cancel us, and deprive us of free speech, if you don’t know who we are? How can you resolve the cognitive dissonance that resides within you, that nagging sense that your thought process is just plain wrong, without snuffing out those challenging your incoherent world view? Your vicious rhetoric continues to justify our need to protect ourselves, so we may continue to exercise our inalienable right as Americans to engage in self-expression, and perhaps even lead you to a place of reason.

Westporters, you know these accusations, along with the efforts to silence dissent, are completely wrong. You know it is completely antithetical to everything we learned in our youth, from the Founding Fathers to religious school to Martin Luther King, Jr. You have sent our town leaders our articles and letters. You have spoken up for what is right and what is fair.

Westporters, we cannot accept this toxic orthodoxy as the “new normal.” We must stand up for our children and their future. This is not who we are. We are not foot soldiers in the new religion of “anti-racism” and “equity,” even if those cleverly labeled terms sound like things we must support. We are Americans, and we stand for freedom and equality.

There are no Americans who are more equal than others.