Snowflake Nation

For years conservatives mocked the concept of “trigger warnings” or “safe spaces” in academic settings, triumphantly declaring that education was meant to introduce new and potentially challenging ideas.

Volumes of column inches were devoted to pushing back against the idea that students don’t have a right to be comfortable for every minute of the school day. But over the last several months, conservatives have been storming school board meetings to protest the alleged teaching of critical race theory.

The official definition of critical race theory is as a graduate level concept that systemic racism has been essentially baked into American institutions. This isn’t how most of the far right have interpreted the idea, instead expanding its definition to include the teaching of any historical fact that may make white people uncomfortable about their past.

Conservative protestors have flooded school board meetings all over the country to protest against this made up curriculum. Right wing state legislatures have stepped into introduce bills banning large swath of race-based history lessons. One school administrator in Texas even called the teaching of the holocaust “controversial.”

There are two important parts of this ongoing moral panic. The first is that critical race theory is not being taught to elementary and high school students.

Throughout last year, American parents got a unique chance to take a peak into the the school curriculum being taught to their children through online learning. Nobody was talking about the teaching of critical race theory in 2020, despite the fact that kids were attending their classes alongside the rest of their families in the middle of the pandemic.

This, as with many culture war issues of late, is just made up bullshit to manipulate voters into voting for a political party that doesn’t have any real policy ideas.

The second thing is that it’s the latest example of simply breathtaking conservative hypocrisy. Suddenly the people who, for literally years, took pleasure in mocking liberals as snowflakes or cracking jokes about safe spaces are now suddenly dissembling all over Fox News and at local school board meetings about the feelings of white children.

But guess what? White people over history were pretty bad! Deal with it! You shouldn’t need a safe space from your own history.

Awhile back, I realized that a distant ancestor of mine owned slaves and was also a member of congress in a congress that preserved the right to own slaves during his term. It was a difficult find, and I had to process my own feelings about it and how it would impact my decision-making in every day life.

That’s how people, even kids, should be taught to deal with difficult or guilt-ridden information. No need to be a snowflake about it.