May 2023 Meeting: Dr. Duke Pesta

The May 23 meeting of Wolf River Area Patriots featured Dr. Duke Pesta, director of FreedomProject Academy, host of The Dr. Duke Show podcast, and a tenured professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. More than 50 people attended the meeting, where Dr. Pesta delivered a PowerPoint presentation titled “American Public Schools: From Failure to Fascism.”

 

He opened by saying he’d focus on three topics: Critical Race Theory, social/emotional learning, and radical sexuality.

Critical Race Theory

He introduced Critical Race Theory (CRT) as nothing less than the “racialization, or re-racialization” of our public schools. He said Progressive educators are bringing back segregation, noting “The only systemic racism [in the United States] is coming from the Progressive Left, and the only place it’s taking place is in public education. If your kids are white, they’re oppressors, he said; if they’re not white, they’re victims – and that’s worse, he said. He noted that only 6 percent of students in Milwaukee Public Schools perform at grade level ... “how is that equity?” he asked.

Pesta played a brief video clip of a July 2021 Shelby Steele interview on FoxNews Prime Time. Steele, the author of White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era and many other provocative titles, insists American society is emphatically not systemically racist. And Pesta asked, if the United States is systemically racist, why did more than 2.76 million non-white immigrants cross the U.S. southern border in 2022?

In another video clip Pesta played, a self-described “bi-racial, bilingual, multicultural,” father slammed CRT at a meeting of the the Cabarrus County (North Carolina) School Board. He played a second video of parent Derrick Wilburn, who addressed a Colorado school board meeting at which a vote had been taken to adopt CRT for the district’s schools. After Wilburn’s speech, the board went into executive session, then voted to ban CRT.

The Progressive Left is giving us uneducation, Pesta said, because everything else – achievement, for example – is white supremacy. The purpose of Common Core, he noted, was to bring every student down to the lowest common denominator.

Pesta cited a book titled Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness, which he says can be found in at least 120 school libraries in Wisconsin. The book, he says, aims to “shame white kids to hate themselves as ‘demonic.’” The book’s jacket says, “A white child sees a news report of a white police officer shooting and killing a person with brown skin who had their hands up. ‘We don’t see color,’ the child’s mother says, but the child senses a deeper truth. An afternoon in the library uncovers the reality of white supremacy in America. The child connects to the opportunity and their responsibility to dismantle white supremacy–for the sake of their own liberation out of ignorance and injustice.” [emphasis added]

Social/Emotional Learning

Shifting gears, Pesta defined “social/emotional learning (SEL)” as an effort to “make teachers the parents – to develop children racially and sexually, not teach them.” With social/emotional learning, Pesta said, school is all about empathy, compassion, and fun – not about learning. He cited the United Nations/UNESCO work on SEL; you can read more about that here.

Pesta exposed something called the “Equity Collaborative,” which consults with school boards across the country – including, he said, several in Wisconsin. For $500,000, Pesta said, the Collaborative aims to tell school boards what future schools will look like: “not teaching information, but ‘relationships.’” According to the Collaborative, Pesta said, “the purpose of school is change, and parents are in the way.”

He noted that in March 2023 the International Committee of Jurists and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (a United Nations agency) published a report calling for the decriminalization of pedophilia and sex with minors; “principal 16” in that report stated “sexual conduct involving persons below the domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex may be consensual.” He also noted Washington State recently passed a law, signed by the governor on May 9, “protecting” 12-year-olds who run away from home seeking “gender-affirming” or “reproductive care.” Shelters who receive such runaways would be required to report them not to their parents, but to the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Radical Sexuality

Pesta’s discussion of radical sexuality in schools was truncated: the meeting’s formal adjournment time had been reached, and he expressed some concern that the audience would find the material too “disturbing.” Still, about half the audience remained to hear him explain how “the nuclear family is under attack on every front.”

He explained “the books your kids are reading these days are not classics; all of them have been written in the past several years.” He cited Out of Darkness – the book graphically describes a black man raping his stepdaughter, Hispanic gang rape, and anal sex. The book perpetuates disgusting racial and ethnic stereotypes, he said: “How do you square this with CRT?” Other books he named were Gender Queer and Lawn Boy. The latter was read by a parent at a school board meeting ... and school board members tried to silence the parent, saying (apparently not recognizing the irony) “there are children in the audience!”

Pesta said “the purpose of this kind of sex is demoralizing and dehumanizing.” The point is, “empower kids to do the things they shouldn’t do, and you will lose the parents forever.”

“They won’t let nine-year-olds get tattoos,” Pesta said, “but with sex there are no boundaries.”

The fastest way to break down inhibition in kids, he said, is sex. “If you break down humility, you break down Christianity.” Christianity, he said, “is the kryptonite of Socialism. Christ was the greatest advocate of individuality.

He closed by describing a bill pending in the Wisconsin legislature that would ban “sex dolls for pedophiles.” State Sen. Jesse James and State Reps. Joy Goeben and Ty Bodden are co-sponsors of LRB-2586/1, which, Goeben reports, “will protect Wisconsin’s children by outlawing ultra-realistic sex dolls that are made to resemble children and infants. Unfortunately, they are a reality, and sadly, I have discovered how truly disturbing they are.”

Conclusion

It should be clear from this report that if you have the opportunity to attend a presentation by Dr. Duke Pesta, do it. You can check for his upcoming Wisconsin appearances on the calendar page of the Wisconsin Patriots Toolbox.

Dr. Duke Pesta prepares to address the May meeting of Wolf River Area Patriots.

Dr. Duke Pesta prepares to address the May meeting of Wolf River Area Patriots.

Dr. Duke Pesta's PowerPoint presentation was titled “American Public Schools: From Failure to Fascism.”

Dr. Duke Pesta's PowerPoint presentation was titled “American Public Schools: From Failure to Fascism.”

Dr. Duke Pesta's PowerPoint presentation was titled “American Public Schools: From Failure to Fascism.”

Dr. Duke Pesta quoted economist Thomas Sowell.

The audience at Wolf River Area Patriots May 2023 meeting was large and attentive.

The audience at Wolf River Area Patriots May 2023 meeting was large and attentive.

According to the Oregon Department of Education, math is 'racist' and 'violent.'
A United Nations report encourages decriminalizing pedophilia.
Dr. Duke Pesta offers a list of books that shouldn't be in school libraries.

Dr. Duke Pesta offers a list of books that shouldn't be in school libraries.

Dr. Duke Pesta responds to an audience member's questions after the meeting adjourned.

Dr. Duke Pesta responds to an audience member's questions after the meeting adjourned.


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