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I do defend it. If NHJ had never put her money where her mouth is, where would we be now? She'd still be an influential columnist, calling the system racist, helping funnel ever more taxpayer money down the gullet of failing students, teachers, administrators, and systems. Now at least we have an admission of being wrong, even with dozens of caveats and carveouts. The left never does this. All it took was an act of child sacrifice, and I'd rather it be from them than me.
To your point, though, there was much more to learn here that wasn't. But let's boil this down further than "apartheid".
The inevitable, forever sin of black pundits is tribal racialism at any cost. As she describes her daughter's redemption in the new school, doubtless helped by a wide variety of people, note that only black teachers are offered applause for doing their jobs. The worthlessly incompetent, often just straight up even coming to work, are of some mystery race.
If you ever happen to enter purely black spaces on social media, where they feel relatively safe from view, It's obvious that they know what the problems are and who is causing them, whether it's crappy service at restaurants, insane violence, or idiotic music. But even there, the leftists viciously attack the supposed Uncle Toms. Even after suffocating external criticism so completely, it's impossible for them to tolerate Noticing even from their own people.
NHJ still fundamentally hates white people and "white" institutions. One of the best parts of sending her to PS 307 was how dark the crayon was she used for her self-portrait, a level of skin color fetishization completely alien to any white kid in America:
If I go too much longer I'll get myself tied up in knots. This article is woefully inadequate, and another example of how truly sick the focus on race in America truly is.
And yet, it's a huge victory, and the response (IMO) has to be moderate to encourage more of people admitting that they were even kinda wrong. I couldn't forsee a person this morally repugnant writing anything like this a decade ago. It's amazing what children can do for parents.
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