Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

Here's divisive culture war crank & the Government's Social Mobility Tsar, Katharine Birbalsingh, with Jordan Peterson, who was visiting her school, & who has said 'Feminists support the rights of Muslims' because of their "unconscious wish for brutal male domination."😬

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1447837174179811333

Katharine Birbalsingh has repeatedly said “If a child says teacher is being racist, back the teacher. Whatever the child says, back the teacher. If you don’t, you are letting the child down & allowing them to play you for a fool.”

Let's have a look at a few case studies...

Primary school teacher Philip Turner was sacked for making racist comments in class. But Birbalsingh says, “If a child says teacher is being racist, back the teacher. If you don’t, you are letting the child down & allowing them to play you for a fool.”

somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-…

Philip Pedley, a teacher at a private school, who did not “want to teach blackies & chinkies in my classroom”, was banned from teaching after repeatedly using racist language about students, telling one pupil he was “pretty good for a foreigner”.

theguardian.com/education/2018…

An agency teacher was asked to leave a school in Radlett after making an anti-Semitic remark in front of a class, nearly half of whom were Jewish, threatening to "ship them off to the gas chambers" if they did not finish their work quickly.

hertsad.co.uk/news/education…

The teacher who called police on a Black schoolgirl, who was then strip-searched while she was on her period, has been sacked after the teacher phoned police as she believed the 15-year-old girl, might be carrying drugs. No drugs were found.

mylondon.news/news/south-lon…

Teacher Michael Aldersley was given a professional reprimand after he told a computer class of 14-year-olds: "Everyone in the nig-nog corner, come here, you might learn something." Three pupils & their parents complained to the school.

theguardian.com/uk/2002/dec/04…

Supply teacher James Hersey was sacked for teaching a boy of 16 a racist rhyme to help him with his revision: “Black boys rape our young girls, but virgins go without” to help the boy memorise the colour code for wiring ­electronic resistors.

mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/s…

Bullying headteacher Anupe Hanch, who racially abused staff & demeaned pupils for over seven years has been banned from the classroom for life. She told off a special needs pupil asking if he wanted to be thought of as a paedophile or pervert.

express.co.uk/news/uk/584140…

A school suspended an employee after questioning a black pupil as to why she can’t use the N-word.

‘Hang on, am I not allowed to use the word n*****?’

Two voices are heard replying ‘no’ before the support staff worker presses them, asking: ‘Why not?’

metro.co.uk/2021/07/08/sch…

A supply teacher was suspended following allegations of racism while working at a Haringey secondary school, referred to one year 7 pupil as “chinky” & telling pupils: “Black people these days don’t get the right education.”

thetottenhamindependent.co.uk/news/3800375.t…

Most teachers are hard-working professionals doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances, But there is evidence that British schools may be institutionally racist, with exclusion rates five times higher for black Caribbean pupils in parts of England.
theguardian.com/education/2021…

Policies rooted in white culture are used to punish BAME children for their cultural values & norms. But Birbalsingh has built a career out of using divisive, provocative culture war rhetoric, eg by reframing real & serious concerns as "grievance culture".
theguardian.com/education/2021…

Birbalsingh says: “Whatever the child says, back the teacher”, but ask yourself how this would sound in relation to claims of sexual abuse. Imho, her dangerous views are not only problematic her school's legal safeguarding duties, they also risk silencing victims of sexual abuse.

Birbalsingh claims she has 600 visitors to the school every year. Aside from the fact that's around 15 EVERY WEEK (do they do any teaching?), she hasn't posted, as far as I'm aware, photos of the other 599. She thrives on outrage & continually provokes it, then plays the victim.

Of course, fellow culture war cranks like Calvin Robinson inevitably shriek how awful 'the Left' are for expressing perfectly valid concerns, & so the whole culture war edifice rumbles on, as it has done for years.

And as for Peterson's suitability...

https://twitter.com/SaeenDiddyCombs/status/955889027957297152?s=20&t=jrvRV6TzhmOdj2sHaE5M9w

And as for Calvin Robinson, despite his grotesque ideology & relentlessly toxic & divisive culture war rhetoric, he's now passing himself off as a Deacon on Fox News, when he's just blagged a dog collar from a tiny reactionary conservative CofE offshoot.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1564997855949078530?t=flDAEvib5sw5vQEZnOsqAg&s=19

Tucker Carlson: "Are you really an Anglican Deacon?"
(He isn't)

Robinson: "(nervous laugh) just about! The Church of England didn't want me, but I'm still an Anglican - just outside of the Church of England! There's a long, er, there's a big battle against 'wokeness' going on!"

In another interview with Carlson last week, Robinson: "Queen Elizabeth II was The Defender of The Faith. Now Prince Charles - or King Charles III rather - has been on record before saying he will be 'the defender of the faithS' & I hope that was a slip of the tongue, because..."

"Britain & England is a Christian country first & foremost & that is where we get our moral compass from, that's where we get our guidance from, that's where we get our values from, & that's where we get our family structure from".

#Gilead here we come!

Far too many people in Britain think the crazy polarising Christofascist rhetoric in the US, which has already resulted in overturning #RoeVsWade could never happen here, but this would be a mistake, as the rhetoric is being pushed by British right-wing voices too.

When Viktor Orban, Tucker Carlson, Douglas Murray or Nigel Farage say "Judeo-Christian values must be defended", or are "under attack from western liberals", they're mobilising discourse & rhetoric strategically deployed by all fascists throughout history.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1556918330480631808?s=20&t=6bodDg7FCsarqKGRIROq1Q

Here's "Father" Calvin Robinson ranting about the World Economic Forum, saying "Build Back Better is a WEF slogan" linked to "The Great Reset", which is the name of an initiative launched by the WEF in June 2020 calling for “fairer outcomes” & a rethinking of global investment.

"The Great Reset" is also a conspiracy theory that claims a global elite is using the coronavirus pandemic to dismantle capitalism!

What "Father" Robinson neglected to say is that the "Build Back Better" slogan became popular after Bill Clinton used it in 2005 at the UN.

Like I say, the "build back better" slogan was popularised in 2005, & was revived again in 2015 at the opening speech of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. It's not a signifier as some sinister plan by the global elite as "Father" Robinson heavily implies.

Japan's PM Shinzo Abe: "'Build Back Better' sounds like a new concept, but this is common sense to the Japanese people, coming from our historical experiences in recovering from disaster & preparing for the future, & it has become an important part of the culture of Japan."

"The principle of 'Build Back Better' is generally understood to use the disaster as a trigger to create more resilient nations & societies than before. This was through the implementation of well-balanced disaster risk reduction measures..." It's THIS that the WEF picked up on.

BBB has its roots in the improvement of land use, spatial planning, & post-disaster construction standards. The concept has expanded to represent a broader opportunity by building greater resilience in recovery by systematically addressing the root causes of vulnerability.

The term/slogan Build Back Better was actually first coined in Indonesia by the World Bank and BRR following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami in early stocktaking reports briefing the UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton.

Thereafter, the term caught global attention in 2006 during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami relief effort, where the UN Special Envoy Report offered key propositions & was was used again in 2009 by Clinton while referring to Haiti after the political upheaval & storms of 2008.

It was reiterated by the UN's Ki-Moon in 2010 with reference to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Of course, it has been critiqued eg in the context of attempts by states, multilateral agencies & NGOs to use disasters for projects of neoliberal enclosure & disaster capitalism.

But it has also been seized upon & twisted into a conspiracy theory mobilised opportunistically, especially by 'Libertarian' supporters of ultra-free-market ideology, framed as a conspiracy by the 'liberal elite' to 'overthrow capitalism'.

The *conspiracy theory* claims the global liberal elite is attempting to abolish private property while using #COVID19 to enslave humanity with vaccines (vaccination has been deemed necessary in SOME jobs for decades). It is amplified by Tucker Carlson.🤪

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…