The following article was posted on this blog in July 2022 by my son Harold Jordan. I consider it a brilliant article , perspicacious and thought provoking, so I decided to repost. I urge you to read or reread. Comments are appreciated.
And I ask each of my sons and grandsons to submit more articles.
In August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in front of the Lincoln Memorial, challenged our nation to fully bestow its blessings of liberty and opportunity on people of every color and creed, and to overcome the practices of segregation and discrimination which were still abundant.
Dr. King exhorted us to live up to the ideals stated in our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator” with the “unalienable rights” of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Perhaps his most powerful and moving statement to a crowd of hundreds of thousands was “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!”
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s learning about Dr. King’s dream and adopting it as my own. I was blessed to live in the town of Columbia, MD, founded by a Christian developer who was committed to the ideals of racial equality and equal opportunity, and who made sure that the new town offered decent, affordable housing and job opportunities to those who would not otherwise be able to enjoy the community.
While discrimination and prejudice hasn’t disappeared (and never will until Christ’s second coming), our nation made great strides over the next 50 years reducing racial inequality and providing greater opportunity for blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States with much of his support coming from white voters. The final glass ceiling for racial equality had been shattered.
About the same time that President Obama became president, a new ideology called “Critical Theory” or “Critical Race Theory” (CRT) was rapidly gaining ground in universities among former proponents of Marxist and pseudo-Marxist views. Unlike Dr. King’s dream where race would no longer be a primary trait affecting our opportunities and success, CRT emphasizes the importance of race above all else. While Marxism, with its secular view that society is forever engaged in a class struggle between land and factory owners and the exploited workers, never gained much traction in this country, Critical Race Theory spread quickly throughout academia and overflowed into other spheres of our society. CRT replaces the owners and workers in traditional Marxist views with the privileged people (whites) and the exploited (non-whites). Furthermore, CRT holds that no matter how enlightened or race conscious one may be, a white person is always privileged and a non-white always exploited. Sadly, the new theory has moved rapidly from the ivory tower of former Marxist academics into secondary schools and even primary school curricula.
The pervasiveness and hate-filled power of this new theory was discovered almost accidentally by parents who were monitoring their children’s online classroom content during the COVID pandemic. A memorable recent example focused national attention on the parents in Northern Virginia who confronted school boards over CRT instruction, contributing to the upset election victory by Governor Youngkin over the heavily favored Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. While many schools have denied teaching CRT by its formal name, the concepts and racial implications have clearly permeated the entire curriculum in many schools and regions of the country.
Where does this leave us? I believe we are in a battle for the minds and souls of our children. We either fight for Dr. King’s Christian view of the dignity and worth of all people of all races, and a desire to be viewed according to the “content of our character”; or we allow an atheistic Marxist based philosophy teaching us that white people are the evil oppressors in a unending race war with everyone else — which has already devolved into race hatred, rioting, and anarchy in the streets of some American cities.
I choose Dr. King’s beautiful dream over the nightmare of CRT. Let us all awaken to CRT’s threat before it becomes our pervasive reality.
A great article, Harold.
Wake up, America! The enemy is at the gates!
Jordans-Journey 
The following is from my son Stuart. He responded via e-mail, but I am inserting his comments here. They are very well stated.
An excellent article indeed! Well done, Hal!
It also reminds me of a quote often attributed to several different well-known journalists, although I am not at all certain of its true origins.
“Being a member of a racial minority doesn’t automatically make someone noble, or a victim.”
In less than three decades from now, those of us who are considered non-mixed race European-Americans (otherwise known as “Whites”) will no longer constitute a majority of the population in the United States of America. This does not trouble me in the slightest. ** As long as we remain a melting pot and E-Pluribus Unum still apples, our identity and strength is not to be found in our racial identity, but in its diversity. We can be proud of the fact that the USA is made up of people from all over the world. Many nationalities, cultures, and – yes – even religions have gone into making us what we are today. In fact, the American experiment, still ongoing, is partly about proving to the world that despite all of these differences, we can all still get along and even work together while moving forward under what unites us. Nordic countries can’t claim this. Neither can most Asian countries. Middle-eastern countries certainly can’t.
Most of our immigrants were not initially treated well. Some even arrived forcibly and in chains. Yet, out of all of this, a nation was built that is still being forged. We will always be striving from an imperfect past toward a more perfect future. King’s dream was certainly a vision of that.
** For those it does trouble, fear not. Non-hispanic whites will still constitute the majority minority in the United States of America for many decades to come, no matter the birth- and immigration rates. Anyway, does it really make a difference? Give everyone the benefit of doubt when it comes to their race and/or national origin. Assume noble intent on the part of all individuals until they give you reason not to. Most of all, do not impugn an entire group of people based on their looks and based on the negative actions of a few individuals.
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