DeVos Will Recommend the Removal of Civil Rights Protections for Students of Color

DeVos Will Recommend the Removal of Civil Rights Protections for Students of Color

Betsy Devos has not yet made this recommendation, yet, that the linked article discusses. And that is probably because of the massive blowback that came after trying to remove protections and programs to support special needs students. They're going to let this die down before they come back to racial protections as a target.

Now some of you still want to think they are not that blatant. Some of you want to think that the 1964 Civil Rights Act is "settled law". And indeed, Trump and his religious bigot cronies have no intention of striking down the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Instead, they plan to create a system of exemptions from its application, based on religious belief.


Some of you say they can't possibly mean that. And I am telling you that yes, they mean exactly that. Down below, I am going to add a video from 2015, before the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (popularly known as HERO) was rescinded. The religious right was using bogeyman fear tactics against transgender people as the excuse for overturning that law that also protected people of color, veterans, women, religious belief, etc.

They won that fight in November 2015 with a campaign of lies and millions of dollars in videos made that claimed trans women (never trans men) were sexual predators. When they won, I predicted they would take that campaign nationwide and they did. But the video I am going to link for you comes from May 2015. In that video, a white woman pastor tries to dance around a question by a Jewish city council member that her interpretation of "religious freedom" meant that, if a Christian has an objection to Jewish people because of a "sincerely held religious belief", they have a "right" to refuse service to that person.

After badgering the pastor for almost a minute and a half, the pastor finally admits that, yes, religious freedom means the "right" to refuse service (discriminate against) ANY person if their "sincerely held religious belief" is impacted.

I remind all of you that the "curse of Ham" was the Christian Church's religious excuse for slavery and subjugation of people of color as "lesser" for four centuries in this country. It was the curse of Ham that led to the SBC being formed in 1845 breaking away from the General Baptist Convention because the Baptists wouldn't support slavery or white supremacy. It was the curse of Ham that was the religious belief that gave us the Civil War. Further, I remind you that for centuries in Europe, the idea that Jews were "Christ killers" was the religious basis for ghettoizing Jews and discriminating against Jews.

Betsy Devos and the Trump administration know exactly what they are doing. They appointed Gorsuch and Kavanaugh because those two hold the same religious exemption beliefs that Clarence Thomas holds.

If the SCOTUS rules in favor of "sincerely held religious beliefs" being a basis for discriminating against anyone, then eventually that loophole will be expanded to include anyone who is not white, straight, and evangelical Christian. Just like the lady in this video I'll link below says.

This is what we are fighting against in the US today. If you are not committed to this fight, then you are on the side of Trump and Devos. You are an apologist for Trump and Devos and Stephen Miller, who is a mouthpiece for Richard Spencer. And if you are an apologist with these neo-Nazis, then you are a collaborator. The history of collaborators with fascists is illuminating reading. I suggest it to anyone interested.

This is the video from 2015. This is a carefully thought out campaign, years in the making, aimed at getting any one exemption from the 1964 Civil Rights Act which can then be used to expand to any exemptions they want. Because once you grant that civil rights can be abrogated for "religious belief" once, there is no way to stop that from being used to abrogate any civil rights for anyone.

Houston Pastor Argues for Discrimination Against Gays, Jews

And trans women are the convenient bogeyman being used to create this.

Even black pastors have signed on to this, thinking the 1964 Civil Rights Act is "safe". No, it's not. And that's the entire intent. If you are black and your church preaches against trans people, especially trans women, you are braiding the rope that will be used to hang yourselves after they hang trans people.

Remember, the "religious right" was formed from the right wing Christian fundamentalist pastors who opposed interracial marriage. When they lost that fight, they tried for 7 years to find loopholes, and failed.

Then they created the "pro-life" movement, reversing a century of evangelical support for women's rights to abortion, in order to politicize evangelical voters and turn them into a right wing voting bloc.

When they succeeded, they began electing more and more far right candidates, now culminating in Trump, which is why they do not care that he is the embodiment of every one of the Seven Deadly Sins. He's going to help them "win" against abortion, against civil rights, against trans people, against gay people, against people of color, against Muslims, and make America a "white" nation again. None of this is an accident. None of it. It's a decades long campaign that is now close to reaching fruition.

Either fight or go down with the ship.