The WOKE Generation!

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In regards to the word queer, I remember covering 'An inspector calls' at school. One of my lines included calling another character's actions queer. This led to a couple of laughs and the odd remark of 'Haha, like you' and 'you're one to talk' to which I rolled my eyes. I wasn't out at the time but there were rumours. Of course, in this context it meant strange. We were all familiar with this usage.

Similarly, it's used that way in 'A Nightmare before Christmas' which was released in 1993. However, it's sometimes edited out when shown on TV. Not always though.

Over time it's become a word that's used positively and as a casual descriptor. I've seen characters on teen shows call themselves queer. Not that long ago I read a children's book (aimed at teenagers but not quite YA) where a character refers to herself as 'a big old queer mess'. Another character is called 'a bisexual disaster' by his boyfriend which I was not expecting. I'm used to hearing these terms in the community, but I wasn't expecting it going in to the book.

I have a friend who is straight and he uses the word queer in a neutral fashion. For example, we were talking about relationships (or rather, lack thereof) and he told me that I should go talk to more queer people and find a girlfriend. (Gee thanks, I hadn't thought of that /heavy sarcasm)

In the UK, the term 'bent' is used in a derogatory way to mean gay man. The term is taken negatively and I've often seen it lead to fights. Whereas crooked typically means unjust, unfair, not to be trusted, rigged and so on.

Sometimes the issue is other groups speaking over a group on their behalf, thinking they know what they want when they don't. Or a vocal minority of the group speaks as though they speak for most.

An activist group in California has paid nearly 100 public high schoolers $1,400 each to learn how to fight for racial and social justice, The Free Press has learned.

Contracts between Long Beach Unified School District and Californians for Justice from 2019 to 2023, exclusively obtained by The Free Press show the school district used taxpayer funds to pay the group nearly $2 million to facilitate equity and leadership development training for students and teachers. In addition to the student stipends, the contracts also allocated a total of $20,200 to 13 parents for participating in the group’s programs.

Starting from December 2019 until now, the Long Beach Unified School District south of Los Angeles has paid at least 78 students a total of nearly $100,000 for participating in a club run by the organization, also known as CFJ. The most recent contract runs until June 2024.

CFJ boasts on its site to have “trained hundreds of youth of color in Long Beach to be community leaders and organizers.” In Long Beach, the group successfully advocated for implementing “restorative justice practices” across the district’s 84 schools, according to its site.

The money incentivizes students to participate in CFJ’s programs—which are led by CFJ staff, not the district. In a recent video posted to the group’s Instagram account, one student, who was asked “Why Should Students Join CFJ?” responded “You get paid good.” It’s unclear which students are eligible for the stipends, but the organization’s website states its “leadership development” programs operate “with a focus on low income youth, youth of color, LGBTQ youth, foster youth, and immigrant youth.”

A spokesperson for Long Beach Unified School District said the district refers to these stipends as “internships,” which ensure “equitable participation in CFJ programs, embracing diverse perspectives in education.”

But four teachers interviewed by The Free Press see the payments to students and their families as a “horrible propaganda strategy.” One told me, “I am shocked and horrified at such a fact.”

In 2021, for example, CFJ implemented three “student-led professional development” training sessions in the district’s high schools—which cost the district $25,000, according to the contracts. During these trainings, students were encouraged to school their own teachers on topics like implicit bias, “student voice,” and antiblack racism. These sessions also replaced traditional training for teachers that often focused on topics like lesson designs and professional development, teachers told me. The district signed CFJ on to host 15 of these trainings during the 2023–2024 school year, contracts showed.

A 2024 article about the group in the Stanford Social Innovation Review argues that CFJ “has helped teachers in rewiring the way they connect with students—particularly students of color. This means, for example, breaking down old stereotypes where teachers are perceived as the ones with authority and knowledge to establishing a new viewpoint that teachers are allies and catalysts of the students’ own strengths and knowledge.”

One teacher, who asked not to be named out of fear of losing her job, told me these forums have transformed into a space for kids to simply air their grievances about school. She remembers one student saying that “they would come to class on time if we built relationships with them.”
The teacher said: “It’s helpful to hear their voice and know what they think would help them learn better, but I feel like you can do that with a focus group. Plus, they’re obviously reading scripts that have words that they don’t know how to say.

“The way that they are handing scripts to students, even the words coming out of the students’ mouths,” the teacher added, “it just feels like indoctrination and not information.”

Jay Goldfischer, a high school history teacher in the district, agrees.

“One of the reasons that they were hired is to help our students find their voice and be able to express it,” Goldfischer said. “But in reality, CFJ is not helping students find their own voices. It’s giving them a scripted voice that’s not their own.

“They’re teaching them parroting,” he added, “which is the exact opposite of how you empower children.”

Founded in 1996 in San José by two California activists, CFJ started out as a policy advocacy organization, but pivoted into working with schools in the mid-2000s. The registered nonprofit has nearly $16 million in total assets, according to their most recent tax filing.

CFJ promotes itself as “a statewide youth-powered organization fighting for racial justice” that runs after-school programming in four of California’s largest school districts, including Fresno, Oakland, and San José in addition to Long Beach. From June 2020 to June 2023, the Fresno Unified School District paid a total of $150,000 to CFJ for leadership programs, according to public documents requested by The Free Press. No financial agreements between CFJ and the Oakland and San José school districts could be found.

A CFJ spokesman told The Free Press in a February 14 email, “Our agenda is not hidden and is simple: we want the Long Beach Unified School District to be a place where every student is represented honestly in classrooms and curricula, and where they are safe to be in critical dialogue supportive of democratic participation across differences.” The spokesperson did not respond to our question asking how students were compensated for participating in their programs.

Goldfischer, who is Jewish, said CFJ is not an inclusive group—pointing to its response to the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7.

After Goldfischer, his colleagues, and some parents complained to the school board in meetings and emails about the antisemitic messaging in CFJ’s posts, seven students and one community activist spoke out in support of the group at a December 6 school board meeting. In their defense of the group, six of the eight speakers used almost the exact same language, stating that CFJ has “been targeted by racist and xenophobic harassment for our support for Palestinian human rights.” One high school senior gave the exact same statement defending CFJ during the December 6 board meeting that the group’s spokesman gave to The Free Press on February 14.
A few weeks later, when one teacher in the district emailed her concerns to Diana Craighead, the president of Long Beach school board, Craighead emailed back: “I, too, am concerned with the antisemitic nature of their opinions”.

“However,” Craighead continued, “I felt that the benefit of their support for our students outweighed my concerns.”

When asked for comment from The Free Press, Craighead responded via email, “I would like to state that I do not condone violence of any sort and that I am not antisemitic.
“The stance on Palestine was a student-led initiative and reflected the values of the organization to uplift and activate student voice,” she added. “This has proven to be a learning experience as well as a valuable lesson in diplomacy for our students.”

But to many, her statement showed how deeply CFJ—and its ideologies—are embedded in the district.

Republicans on Tuesday expressed anger about a 16-year-old high school student suspended for using the term "illegal alien."

According to the Carolina Journal, Christian McGhee was suspended from Central Davidson High School in Lexington, North Carolina, for three days last week after he allegedly said the term during an English class assignment.

The newspaper reported that the boy's mother, Leah McGhee, said a teacher had given an assignment that used the word "alien," and Christian responded by asking if the teacher meant "like space aliens or illegal aliens without green cards?"

The conservative X account Libs of TikTok posted on Tuesday about the teen's suspension, saying his academic record could be "damaged." The post had garnered 1 million views as of 4 p.m. ET Tuesday.

The Carolina Journal said it had obtained an email describing the incident that was sent to local officials. The email said another "young man in class took offense" to Christian's remark and wanted to fight.

"Ultimately, his words were deemed by administrative staff to be offensive and disrespectful to classmates who are Hispanic," the Carolina Journal wrote.

"Because of his question, our son was disciplined and given THREE days OUT of school suspension for 'racism,'" Leah McGhee said in the email, per the Carolina Journal. "He is devastated and concerned that the racism label on his school record will harm his future goal of receiving a track scholarship. We are concerned that he will fall behind in his classes due to being absent for three consecutive days."

On Tuesday, Leah McGhee appeared on The Pete Kaliner Show which airs on the radio station WBT, and discussed the matter in more detail. She said the family had once lived in England, and Christian mentioned how people from that country also need green cards to reside in the U.S.

McGhee said she and her husband met with the school's assistant principal and told him "illegal alien" is a term their son can look up in the dictionary.

"It is a term used as federal code, and it is a term that is heard frequently on many news broadcasts," she said. "I feel that if this was handled properly in the classroom, it could have easily been used as a teachable moment for everyone."

The Carolina Journal reported that Republican state Senator Steve Jarvis contacted the school district's superintendent for information on the incident. He told the newspaper he asked school officials to seek a fair outcome but declined to state a position without knowing more about what happened.

"I do not see [how] that would be an offensive statement, just in getting clarification," Jarvis said to the Journal. "But there again, I don't know. I don't know the situation of this particular incident."

Libs of TikTok's post has received a large number of responses, including from X owner Elon Musk, who called the suspension "absurd," and from conservative personality Ian Miles Cheong.

"Insane. How does one get suspended for using the term illegal alien?" Cheong wrote.

Other Republican and conservative-leaning users of X have also posted about the teenager's suspension, with @leslibless writing that the disciplinary action against the teen is "CRAZY!"