Thinking about race in Orange County

A united right-wing front 

New group clashes with O.C. Board of Education over ethnic studies 

OC Register

As board members critique new ideas on teaching history and culture, Truth in Education critiques the board. 

On the same day that more than 200 residents met for an Orange County Board of Education forum on ethnic studies, a new group gathered to say it will push back against what they termed the board’s “misinformation” and “lies.” 

Members of “Truth in Education” on Tuesday said their group was formed to counter the Orange County school board’s opposition to ethnic studies and critical race theory. They also said they will emphasize the importance of teaching ethnic studies, not just in Orange County but nationwide. 

OC Board of Ed's Lisa Sparks: right wing
Her hubby spoke at IVC Commencement a couple of years ago

“The current system, our system, your children’s system, is outdated. It teaches hate and rewards bigotry,” said Ian Scruton, a student from Saddleback Valley Unified School District who gathered with some 20 fellow “Truth in Education” members outside Eastbluff Elementary School in Newport Beach. 

Meanwhile, in Costa Mesa, the Orange County Board of Education held its own press conference and later hosted a special meeting with invited speakers on the same topics: ethnic studies and the more controversial critical race theory, also known as “CRT”. 

“I don’t think that anybody here today would deny that racism sadly continues to play a role in our society,” board member Lisa Sparks said during the press conference. 

“But where the conflict arises is on whether, in fact, society is designed to perpetuate racism or whether we have continued to make progress towards a more just society, thanks to the work of all ethnicities, color and backgrounds… 

“In many of its iterations, CRT seems to reject the idea that America is a fundamentally free country, born out of lofty aspirations, and concludes instead that our country is fundamentally flawed and designed only to protect white privilege.” 

Ethnic studies is the interdisciplinary study of race and ethnicity, which includes the often-overlooked history and contributions of Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and Asian Americans. 

Mari Barke, OC B of E, Republican

Critical race theory is a decades-old academic concept typically taught at the college level that looks at race as a social construct [isn't it?] and racism as something that is embedded in governmental institutions and policy. 

Some educators, including Los Alamitos Unified Superintendent Andrew Pulver, have said the two teachings are separate and they tout ethnic studies as a means of teaching empathy and helping achieve racial justice and equity. Critics, however, say that schools have melded the two and that the ideas of critical race theory have seeped into K-12 curricula, teaching children that people are divided into groups, with some as victims who are oppressed, and whites as the oppressors, leading to divisiveness and intolerance. 

“It is not unreasonable to affirm that critical race theory is designed to convey hostile, divisive, race-obsessed, poisonous, elitist, non-inclusive ideas,” Sparks said. 

Parents like Henny Abraham of Costa Mesa criticized proposals to introduce a curriculum that she said is divisive….

See also: Orange County to explore tense issues over ethnic studies and race, EdSource

Some old graphics

Peter Green's "Black Magic Woman" (1970), Procol Harum's "Juicy John Pink" (1969), Otis Rush's "All Your Love" (1966) — live

 

Well I opened my eyes this morning
I wasn't at home in bed
There were four angels standing round me
I thought I must be dead
Yeah I opened my eyes this morning
Thought I must be dead
There were four angels standing round me
And the room was painted red

"Voila," she said

     I am among those Luddites who persist in purchasing music, something, for me, necessarily coming in units called “albums” etched onto plastic discs that spin. 

     No clouds for me, nope. 

     To this day, I routinely purchase such discs—and thus I have hundreds of them, mostly on shelves. 

     My CD shelving maxed out years ago, and so lots of these discs are scattered about my place, like empty vodka bottles strewn about Ray Milland’s weekend hideaway. 

     Kathie, being the observant sort, has noted my shelving deficit and its resultant clutter, and so, a while back, she bought me a large and fine CD case. It came in the mail in a big box. 

     “Voila,” she said. 

     But that was many, many months ago. The dang CD case came in parts (in that box) that required some assembly, and so, what with my back going out and then my broken leg, the box of parts just sat there on the floor for all this time, cluttering things up even more. Kathie would visit, note the box, and then, in silence, experience a tiny bout of despair. There were several such visits, such bouts.

     But I have now addressed the situation! 

     Our pal Julio—a neighborhood fix-it man—came by today to open the box and assemble the parts. It took him about an hour. He even moved the case to the right spot and secured it to the wall. He charged me $50. 

     Somehow, none of this bothered Teddy, who sat nearby, intently watching Julio's progress. 

     The whole place now smells like an old sawmill, which is good. Teddy likes it.

     One of these days, I’ll start stickin’ CDs in there. 

     Here are some pics. And some music, too.

* * *

Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that'd been away
Haven't changed, had much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazy
They were askin' if you were around
How you was, where you could be found
Told 'em you were livin' downtown
Drivin' all the old men crazy

We skipped the light fandango

 

We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more

Conquistador there is no time, I must pay my respect
And though I came to jeer at you
I leave now with regret

Across the straits, around the horn,
How far can sailors fly?
A twisted path, our tortured course,
And no one left alive.

Alt-right funder DEAD at 80

You'll recall that the late Tom Fuentes, who served as SOCCCD trustee from 2000-2012, was closely associated with Regnery Publishing. William's uncle, Henry, founded Regnery Publishing. I don't know to what degree, if any, William was associated/involved with that company. But what a family, eh? See "Kill it and Grill It"

William Regnery, who funded right-wing extremism, dies at 80 

AP 

BOCA GRANDE, Fla. (AP) — William H. Regnery II, the heir to a family publishing fortune who was known for his quiet but influential support of extreme right-wing causes in the United States has died at 80. 

He died at his home in Boca Grande, Florida, on July 2…. 

Cassie Miller, a senior research analyst for the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an email Saturday that Regnery’s material contributions helped to build networks of racist activists and a large body of pseudoscientific literature that Regnery hoped would legitimize his calls to build a white ethnostate. 

“Though he usually operated in the background, Regnery was an extremely influential figure in the radical right,” Miller said. 

In 2016, an Associated Press review of tax records found that the National Policy Institute, founded by Regnery, and three other groups at the forefront of the white nationalist movement had registered as charities and raised more than $7.8 million in tax-deductible donations over the previous decade. 

Regnery spent much of his life using his family’s money to build the institutional infrastructure that would support the so-called alt-right — an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and populism — and help to propel figures like Richard Spencer into the spotlight, Miller said. 

“Regnery’s real legacy is not what he built, but the immense harm that he caused,” she said…. 

In a 2017 article, BuzzFeed News said Regnery felt his ideas were redeemed by the candidacy of now former President Donald Trump. 

“I think Trump was a legitimatizer,” Regnery told the publication. White nationalism “went from being conversation you could hold in a bathroom, to the front parlor.”….

 

Roy and his boy, Teddy, on this Bastille Day

Living on the floor, for now
(In this heat, Teddy & I lay below two big ceiling fans, and we're comfortable, if horizontal.)

Fifty years ago

 

We sailed for parts unknown to man,
Where ships come home to die.
No lofty peak, nor fortress bold,
Could match our captain's eye.
Upon the seventh seasick day,
We made our port of call.
A sand so white, and sea so blue,
No mortal place at all.

There is nothing better than animal rescue

Meanwhile, bobcat mom and cub walked by

     Today, we in the canyon were honored with a visitation by the Kathster (our lady of Inland Subaru), who rolled in at about noon, finding me asleep on the floor with right leg akimbo. Teddy (the cat) definitely woke up, immediately focusing, anticipating walkies and worship and whatnot. 

     We eventually sat around under the big oak and discussed physics, abduction (in logic), and a cool German YouTuber named Sabine Hossenfelder. The air was slightly warm and the breeze was perfect. It really was some kinda paradise. 

    Then, with Teddy firmly ensconced on the Flintstonian "Jan-proof" couch, Annie rolled up with what I immediately dubbed "Mexico in a dish," and, accompanied by that fine aroma, we started jawin' about mostly silly stuff—including Annie's tales of hideous childhood evacuations—until, natch, I decided that it was time to tie on the feedbag. 

Two cubs at left

     Annie's Mex dish sure was tasty. 

     Eventually, moving things inside, I made the traditional popcorn-in-a-wok (despite my leg, upon which I still cannot stand) and we watched some warm and fuzzy animal rescue shows. Teddy likes those. 

     Eventually, Kathie, an avid animal rescuer, stood up and announced, "there is nothing better than animal rescue." Teddy and I, slightly intimidated, nodded. 

     For once, we took some pictures, which, I'm guessin', will show up on this page maybe tomorrow.

Are scientists led astray by their prejudice in favor of 

"beauty" (elegance, simplicity) in theory?

Rebel Girl in the Times: "instructive and inspiring"

A reading guide to legendary Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez

By LISA ALVAREZ 

JULY 2, 2021 

Start with the stories, I tell my students. After all, it’s where I started. Like them, I once was a community college student who loved to read. Back then, Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel laureate, was the writer to read. But, perhaps also like my students (and some readers), I was intimidated by the legend, the epic novels and maybe a little skeptical of the most celebrated work. 

I was — and am — more curious about the minor books of Colombia’s García Márquez, especially the early work. The short stories and the novellas and his journalism are both instructive and inspiring. 

As the L.A. Times Book Club reads his son Rodrigo Garcia’s new memoir, “A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes,” it’s a perfect time to savor the writing of the renowned father. 

Here’s where to start reading — or rereading. 

Three exemplary collections 

My slim Penguin paperback copy of “No One Writes to the Colonel” sports a sticker with its original price of $1.75. The collection of stories and title novella has never gone out of print. The same is true of two other collections of short stories paired with brief novellas: “Leaf Storm and Other Stories” and “Innocent Eréndira and Other Stories.” 

These stories offer a primer-like introduction to the sensibility and themes that distinguish García Márquez’s acclaimed work — especially the magic realism that propelled the Latin American Boom, a dynamic literary movement that first detonated in the ‘60s. Often in fewer than a dozen pages, the writer creates the dreamy feat found in his much longer novels: a man who meets the love of his life “six months and eleven days” before his death; the small town dentist with justice on his mind who contemplates the murderous mayor as his patient; the angel who falls to earth and “rewards” his followers with paradoxical miracles; the handsome dead man who washes ashore and transforms a town with his lifeless beauty. As ever, the twinned sense of burgeoning desire, whether for love or for justice or both, combines with the weight of destiny, the inevitability of loss and death. 

These stories are gems of the magical realism genre that use the fantastic or surreal in an otherwise realistic narrative, though it is almost too benign or misleading a term. Indeed, García Márquez rejected the adjective “magical,” assigned by outsiders who perhaps could not recognize or reconcile multiple realities. He was writing, he insisted, the lived reality of Latin America, unimaginable to some. 

Fervent fans of García Márquez also will find much to enjoy in the shorter work, “Leaf Storm,” especially in how the town of Macondo, famous from the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” makes its first appearance years earlier in the novella, along with that disruptive banana company. 

An oft-overlooked novel 

In “The Autumn of the Patriarch,” a lesser-known but wildly ambitious García Márquez novel, a seemingly immortal illiterate tyrant rules his country by fear and deception. It is a fever dream of a novel about political power wielded by a ruler who manipulates media and uses spectacle, including a self-enriching lottery scam, to mesmerize. He sells the sea to foreign interests. He assaults women, taunts and tortures opponents and is worshipped by deranged followers. Generals conspire to have the despot institutionalized only to be fed one of their own at a banquet as a cautionary lesson. 

When the novel was published in the mid-'70s, the composite model for this imperishable tyrant was Spain’s Francisco Franco and the rogues’ gallery of Caribbean and Latin American caudillos, or “strong men.” Read today, the depiction offers irresistible if perverse insight not only into the past but into our own current political situation. 

Nonfiction 

Like many writers, García Márquez began in newspapers. Aficionados and newbies alike should consider “The Scandal of the Century and Other Writings,” a wide-ranging collection illuminating the real-life political concerns and characters that shape his celebrated fiction. He reveals the plight of a lone shipwrecked sailor surviving days at sea, the mystery of a dead woman washed up on an Italian beach, the race against the clock to locate the life-saving antidote for a young child — nothing is as straightforward as it seems, ever. Through sharply rendered detail and carefully paced narrative, García Márquez does what great journalists do: make readers care. Simultaneously, he makes larger points, invariably about power, corruption and injustice along with the mysteries of human nature. 

Those less-celebrated “other writings” include articles about barbers, revolutionaries, water shortages, writers (of course) and, my personal favorite, an elegiac essay on the death of John Lennon with a cameo of Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes typing with one finger, “isolated from the horrors of the universe” while blasting the Beatles. None of this is far from his fiction. It suggests a first-draft effort at reporting before transforming it into a different art form. Read today, each is the stuff of award-winning investigative journalism or a binge-worthy podcast. 

Throughout the decades, Gabriel García Márquez created a multigenre body of work before his death in 2014 at 87. He endures as an every-writer for nearly every reader. Whether through his novels, short stories or journalism, his work remains relevant and urgent in both predictable and surprising ways. 

Celebrated as a magical realist, Gabriel García Márquez was not a magician, though his writing surely casts a spell. Magic is obfuscation, deception, sleight of hand. His work exercises its opposite. A reliable witness, an internationally acclaimed public intellectual, he, like George Orwell, told the truth in wildly imaginative fiction, unflinching essays and brave reportage. His truth is needed more than ever now. 

Lisa Alvarez is a writer, editor and professor who teaches English at Irvine Valley College and is codirector of the Community of Writers in Olympic Valley.

TRUMP news — plus "Detective Coltrane"