Race

A water drop and ripples

The Smithians do what Marxists promise, including on race.

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2023 |

For several reasons (voluntary and not-so-voluntary), I’ve been digging into Marxism a bit more over the past year.  I mean both ol’ Marx himself and his followers, up to modern practitioners.  One point that has come home very strongly is that the ideal that Marxists sell is actually the end toward which a system built…

Racial conflict fist as a green light

Politics This Week with John DePetro: When Activism and Complaints Become Community

By Justin Katz | December 5, 2022 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz wonder about the consequences when activism swamps everything.

Racial conflict fist as a green light

Elorza’s reparations head fake is telling.

By Justin Katz | August 24, 2022 |

Although families and individuals who can show a direct link to harm by a specific government entity should, of course, have recourse, the idea that a city, state, or country should broadly atone for the sins of the people who used to live there is wrong-headed even in concept — more so in a churning,…

A Providence neighborhood through a Statehouse window

Maybe there’s something to “systemic racism” in Rhode Island.

By Justin Katz | June 21, 2022 |

Shift your focus just a little bit from the standard narrative, and you can only shake your head at the conspicuous omission in Amy Russo’s Providence Journal article reporting that “racial disparities in homeownership are more severe than the national average” in Rhode Island: The report, released Thursday and authored by Brown School of Public Health…

Woonsocket and Cumberland map

Divisiveness and falsehood taint even feel-good student stories.

By Justin Katz | June 15, 2022 |

Stories like this, by Kavontae Smalls in the Atlanta Black Star, should be a more prominent part of local news, giving us all an opportunity to acknowledge and admire the achievements of those with whom we share a corner of the world.  Woonsocket sophomore Mariam Kaba has been awarded a $25,000 scholarship and given $1 million to…

Graffiti by railroad tracks

The Charlestown food truck controversy is erasing people.

By Justin Katz | March 22, 2022 |

Issuing his groveling hostage statement for expressing his professional opinion at a public meeting, Charlestown Emergency Management Agency Director Kevin Gallup may have saved himself from cancelation, but in doing so, he gave more of our shared ground of freedom away to the woke wave: “Like everyone, I have blind spots,” Gallup said. “I hope…

Assorted Patriot Front stickers

Simplistic moral panic is more dangerous to RI than white supremacists.

By Justin Katz | March 16, 2022 |

According to Jack Perry’s uncritical recitation of the Anti-Defamation League of New England’s warning about an increase in “white supremacist propaganda,” Rhode Island is seeing a dangerous increase.  By their own standards, though, the ADL and the Providence Journal are contributing to the threat.  Consider the last line of the article: “By using propaganda to spread…

A model house and key

Statistics come up short for charges of racism in housing.

By Justin Katz | March 11, 2022 |

A lack of housing is a problem, and racism is simply wrong, so we have powerful emotional incentive to join the two matters into the story we tell about our society.  In a more-specific way, advocates and researchers have even more-powerful economic incentive to do so.  In that space, as with “equity audits” in schools,…

Richard August, Jim McGwin, and Megan Reilly on State of the State

State of the State: Racism and “The Aaron Thomas Affair”

By Richard August | March 6, 2022 |

Host Richard August and guests Jim McGwin and Megan Reilly focus on two topics of concern involving the North Kingstown School Department.

A white student looks away

Is the Met School abusing students with anti-racism indoctrination?

By Justin Katz | February 28, 2022 |

South Kingstown parent advocate Nicole Solas has been, let’s say, having words with Met School special education teacher Emily Bowden.  The back-and-forth is mainly social media snark shooting, so we shouldn’t assume that Bowden’s bombast is evidence of the school’s operation, but she does facilitate an important point that isn’t often made in these arguments.…