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US President Trump issued an Executive Order on 22 September entitled “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping“. The order has not received any attention in the media–not surprising given the other news that we are processing. The misrepresentations in the order are breathtaking and, in many respects, terrifying. For example:

“Today, however, many people are pushing a different vision of America that is grounded in hierarchies based on collective social and political identities rather than in the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual. This ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.

“This destructive ideology is grounded in misrepresentations of our country’s history and its role in the world. Although presented as new and revolutionary, they resurrect the discredited notions of the nineteenth century’s apologists for slavery who, like President Lincoln’s rival Stephen A. Douglas, maintained that our government “was made on the white basis” “by white men, for the benefit of white men.” Our Founding documents rejected these racialized views of America, which were soundly defeated on the blood-stained battlefields of the Civil War. Yet they are now being repackaged and sold as cutting-edge insights. They are designed to divide us and to prevent us from uniting as one people in pursuit of one common destiny for our great country.”

I do not know how to process this tangle of straw men, flawed historical record, or the complete lack of awareness of the depth of debate about these issues among people who care deeply about the possible meanings of what living in a liberal society could imply.

I would recommend that we should read this document carefully to understand where the current Administration means to take us.