We address the soft bigotry of low expectations so that we may ignore the hard racism of inequity. — John Kuhn

What do Ben Shapiro, Whitney Tilson, The Heartland Institute, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, The Hoover Institution, Wendy Kopp, The Manhattan Institute, and Democrats for Education Reform all have in common? They all shamelessly use the meaningless and hackneyed phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations."

Elmo isn't Gramsci for kids and the mythical soft bigotry of low expectations looks at the far right's bizarre assertions that Sesame Street is indoctrinating children in some sort of insidious left wing plot and that Children's Television Workshop's providing additional educational resources for children that "did not have reading literature in the house" is somehow tantamount to bigotry.

In the end, we know that access to books in the home is a major indicator of academic achievement and impoverished families have very limited access to books. That is where we should focus our efforts.

Published 2011-08-11 on The Daily Censored, please read it there and share widely.

Great article Skeels.

What about the hard bigotry of the fucking world? The hard bigotry of the computer industry seems to be funding this charter school push. And ask any woman or African American whose been in that biz. Plenty of bigotry.

Or the hard bigotry of the educational system?

Or the hard bigotry of the Ivy Leagues?

Or the hard bigotry of the elite chattering classes, who like to make fun of poor people at their bar nights?

That phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" straight up ignores the racist teachers who talk shit about their kids or other teachers' kids.

It attributes bigotry to "soft" people with allegedly low expectations - and lets the "hard" people who allegedly "push" kids to success.

What a load of crap. It's usually the tough talkers who have low expectations, or no expectations. They want to kick the "bad" kids out of school. They don't fight school policies that encourage "low expectations" like social promotion.

That's the hard bigotry of NO expectations.

PS - I loved Sesame Street. It helped me learn English, and learn to read. And we had books in the house, including an encyclopedia.