We've got to react to what is a remarkable piece by a high school student essentially slamming his school board for focusing on race and race-based education rather than an education that should be based on Merit rather than the color of our skin Now I Find some interesting points in this and an interesting comparison to for example, the idea and I Want you to think about this as we go through the video to the idea of who's allowed to run for president in the United States Think about this for a moment. Skin color based discrimination is bad and illegal of course, but who could run for president is in some way similar now. I Don't want to get a lot of angry folks I Know that's a little triggering. so I'm gonna walk back a little bit on that and say look, I'm not suggesting talking about who can run for president has anything to do with the hell that other races have gone through, including redlining and real estate and building About the real estate or the lack of financial education that's provided in poor, more heavily minority-based districts it is.

There is so much work that needs to be done in America But it's very interesting because when you listen to this person's argument I Want you to think about their argument in context of if somebody is, uh, born in another country, they don't choose where they're born, just like they don't choose their race. yet that is still a legal way that the constitution legally today says oh no, no, we can still discriminate based on where you're born and now this particular individual's argument is very interesting and I'd like to play it and we'll add some commentary here. And yeah, and the reason I bring up the race idea is just for example. Not that I actually expect Elon Musk would ever run for president? Uh, but somebody like Elon Musk Of course a lot of Democrats would not like that.

Uh, Republicans might like that. Seems to be mostly a rational person who likes to get things done. Uh, you know it can't run for president because he was born in South Africa But anyway, let's listen to this video here because it's phenomenal. I Might pause for some commentary, but I think it's a really interesting piece and it's worth talking about on my channel.

I'm a big fan of us being able to have an open dialogue and talk about even hard things. so that's what we'll do here. Let's go ahead and jump into this. My name is Brett Oh darn it.

I've got to change the audio. Source Why does this happen to me? Stand by just one second. There we go. We just missed that.

Brad Taylor and I Just finished my freshman year at Rhs. I've been a part of District 196 schools now for 10 years and I'm going to give you a glimpse today of what's actually going on inside these schools. Despite the board's attempt to deny it, District 196 schools are quickly becoming a place where promoting activism is actually more important than promoting education. I'll take you I'll take you back to my first day at Rhs this fall.

the principal came out and gave us a heartfelt speech about equality and standing together. Um, he began to list countless races such as Latino Asian expressing how much they matter and how important they are, but never once did he mention a race or identity that reflects me or half the kids that were in the class now members of the board. I Know you haven't been to school in a while and I know most of the people I Know none of you or most of you don't have any kids left in the school district, but you must admit how uncomfortable it will be to be characterized just by your skin color on the first day of school and be thought that you were wrong just because of your skin color. So I'll never forget to look One of my friends gave me from across the room as we were sitting there listening to this blatant bias being expressed in the so-called Equity statement by the leader of our school.

To be clear: I Don't need you to tell me that I matter, but hearing the condolences given to other races and leaving Just One Race out it. Inevitably, you'll start to feel like you've done something wrong and in our principal's attempt to unify us, he instead created unwarranted boundaries and barriers between his students, pitting us against each other based on characteristics that we can't control. In another separate instance, I was told that writing All Lives Matter on the Whiteboard was political and could be seen as offensive. When I questioned the teacher after class, she told me that she didn't have an answer and she just had to erase it and it was quickly erased.

There are political signs all over Rhs specific about specific races that matter, specific sexual orientations that matter, and specific perspectives that matter. But when I question the Rhs administration about how these signs were political, they told me that they were supporting human rights. So when I questioned why the Equity Statement couldn't represent all students, they told me that to even ask that question was outlandish and offensive. And they when I asked why that was, they told me quote: Whites have a pretty good situation right now.

Unquote. So is that not racism. Disregarding my question merely because of the color of my skin. To be honest, after during a year of the people in charge telling me that I'm a racist and I'm privileged and pointing out our irreversible differences I've never noticed race more and it's becoming the first thing I notice when I meet someone which has never before been the case, Rhs Administration confidently told me that Rhs students and staff are happy with their Equity statement, but from my experience in talking with other students, this is not the case.

I Know many kids who disagree with their teachers, but they're too scared to stand up because they're worried that their grades will be docked in their learning experience will be affected. My honors Government teacher I'm not going to say his name, but he's mentioned that Democrats care more about all people while Republicans only care about themselves And he's also inferred to us that socialism is better than democracy. He even had a statue he had a statue of a socialist leader in his classroom. Um, I have been I've been told by a lot of kids that they just stay silent and adjust their schoolwork to reflect an acceptable opinion to secure a good grade.

I've been approached by multiple teachers who have told me in private that they just want to say that they agree with me and they support me standing up, but they can't say it in front of the class for fear of being disciplined by the administration in some way or losing their jobs. There is clearly only one way to think in this district and that is that they are teaching their kids to shut up if they don't agree Now Members of the Board: I Want you to take a good look at yourselves in the mirror tonight and ask, are you really standing up for the equality of all people or are you just pushing a damaging political ideology? Um, on our students. A fellow co-worker at my job who by the way is of color, discreetly told me that the schools seem to be pushing a very leftist agenda in class. This proves that not everyone is happy with your school and not everyone who isn't happy is white.

Now due to all these instances I've mentioned and many more that I can't fit in this five-minute speech. I've decided to leave this district and continue school on a private Christian School online Thank you and and there will be sacrifices and I will not get to walk in the graduation ceremony or attend milestones at Rhs. But I will be able to learn an environment that is not intent on punishing me daily for my skin color and political views. Now, regardless how you take my speech, whether you just shrug it off as Malarkey or Fox News Talking points: I Encourage you to think about it because someday I'm going to be a leader.

I may be the president, a governor, or just a professional golfer. but I will never stop believing that everybody has value no matter their skin color or personal beliefs. And it's a shame that you're not going to be able to say that I was an alumni of Rhs in District 196. Thank you boy! I'd hate to be on that board I Also would probably never be on any board because I think boards suck I'm sorry like if you're on a board I I Couldn't stand it.

Maybe it's just not my personality. but anyway, yeah, look. I mean these are important things to think about, right? you? You can't pick your skin color. You can't change that right to you.

You can't empathize with somebody of a different skin color. You could try to sympathize, but that's the best you can do. You know, if you're black and I'm white I can't empathize with you. The best I could do is sympathize.

That's it. That's that's. definitely definitionally the best thing you can do. Uh, you also can't pick where you're born.

You know, if you're born in America and you weren't born with an accent uh, which I had an accent until about first grade For example, because I was born in Germany I can't change that. And and how did that potentially affect someone as a child? I Don't know. I'm not trying to at all make a comparison. that an accent is like a skin color.

I'm just saying you have no control over that, right? You have no control over your skin color. You can't pick where you're born to some degree, You can't even pick your health right? Obviously, to some degree you can, you could exercise and try to give yourself the best odds on health. Uh, and eat healthy foods. But but to some degrees you with your health is genetically what it is, right? So what you can do is very different from what you can't do In my opinion, here's what you can do.

You can work to have a phenomenal work ethic. You can encourage a strong work ethic, you could encourage and actually perform honestly and provide transparency in what you're doing or do what you say you're going to do right. Your word is as good as gold. You can do the right thing, even when nobody's looking.

and make sure that even if you can get away with doing something where you make more money, you choose to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. That's Eudaimonia. living the good life, the Aristilian mean doing the right thing. You could also get educated rather than being jaded at the world that we live in.

Whether it's your opinion of the corrupt Media or the corrupt monetary system or corrupt politicians, or even as far as thinking everyone on YouTube is a scam. Whatever you can I have the jaded point of view of life and ah, well, the cards I was dealt suck and everybody else is a scam. Or you could try to improve. See one of the biggest differences unfortunately between success and uh, crime and poverty is education.

But that's difficult because unfortunately people more often Black and Hispanic who live in poorer areas where there's a phenomenon known as the concentration of poverty the poor and area gets. The more people move there because it's cheaper, but the cheaper it gets, more people move there the worse services are schools. Police fire everything right? Crimes higher. It's harder to actually succeed, right? So so you have this massive situation problem where unfortunately, yeah, there are races that are more likely to be in poorer areas and have worse outcomes.

That's very true and it's sad it shouldn't be that way. And that's where we need. a government that can actually focus on providing Financial education and more education, not less education. The fact that you've got a city in California A Culver City High School Removing honors classes is the complete opposite of what should be done.

We should have more education and more opportunities, not less. Just because maybe individuals who are Hispanic or black at that Culver City High School are less likely to enroll in AP classes, doesn't mean you should get rid of the stepping stone to AP honors classes. You should try to elevate everyone and give everyone equal opportunity. But yeah, you're never going to be able to guarantee equal results now.

Somebody in the comments wrote: look, The individual in this speech here says, look, you know you you Uh, you're like seeing race more now than you've ever seen it before. And maybe that's the point is to identify that. Yes, there are other races who have been dealt worse hands than white people. Some people call that that white privilege, right? Maybe it is.

I Mean to some degree, everybody has some level of privilege, in some direction. Maybe we haven't found our own privilege yet, but by sticking to what we're bad at, we're really not trying to find what we're good at and we're really just hurting ourselves, right? And I Don't think it's it really beneficial to anyone to really feel guilty about some of the odd opportunities they had. I mean I Don't think somebody who plays poker in his dealt pocket aces should feel somehow guilty about being dealt at. They should make the best moves they can with the hand they have.

Maybe you were Delta two and a three, but then the board shows you essentially a straight and and uh, and you crush the person with pocket aces, right? So ultimately, I'm a big believer in not feeling guilt or trying to cast aside someone's success as an element of privilege, but rather doing the best we can with the lot we're given and being aware that as individuals as part of society, we should be encouraging our government to do everything we can so that they can provide more support to the people who need it the most. which in the context of this example, yes, might be more support for uh, Black and Hispanic But is that now necessary to make everyone in our society focus on guilt and pulling others down to sort of equalize the playing field? No, absolutely not. I Don't think that's the answer at all. I Think the answer is more investment into poorer areas, schooling, and opportunities for individuals regardless of what their race is.

Ultimately, we should, in my opinion, go back to the idea of being colorblind, and if there are individuals who are scoring lower scores, no matter what the color of their skin is, they should be, they should have opportunities to be able to elevate their level of Education Maybe they maybe every student, Let's just say, has a budget of fifty dollars per day for their education, right? Let's just make that up. Every student has a budget of fifty dollars per day. I I Don't think it's necessary to say okay, well let's take ten dollars from the white person and give it to a black person and say Here's the black person. They're going to get a 60 education budget per day and that white person gets a 40 budget per day.

I Don't think that is the right thing to do I Actually think the best thing to do is say if everybody has a budget of fifty dollars per day and now you have somebody who's scoring maybe in the bottom 30 or 40 percentile, Maybe the government says you know what these individuals scoring in the lower percentiles, we're going to spend 75 or a hundred dollars per day on them, but we're not going to take away from other people's opportunities for Success Because some people are scoring lower on tests. That's not the way to solve the inequalities that do exist via race today. and this is why I Started with sort of the presidential example of there's really no difference in your choice of your skin color and where you were born. The cards you were dealt with are what you were dealt with, and somebody shouldn't feel guilty because they were dealt with some cards that might be somewhat better than someone else's You shouldn't feel guilty because you can see this video or hear it, whereas there's somebody else who's blind or deaf.

That's unfortunate and they have to find their way. And and of course, they deserve more support, right? And that's sort of. The idea is that hey, look if everybody's getting fifty dollars, hey, maybe the person who's blind or deaf. Hey, you know what? Here's a hearing aid.

Here's a government provided cataract surgery or whatever. I'm a big fan of that. but let's not put blinders on the people who do have good Vision right? You don't need to wear the drunk goggles so to speak to make yourself equal to the others. That doesn't make sense.

We should be focused on elevating Society at all levels. That's really important. And I Think this individual, the student who gave the speech, is really making the argument that maybe rather than so visibly trying to bring everyone down to the same level, our schools should be focused on elevating everyone to their Highest Potential And that could be done by making sure everyone feels like they have the opportunity in America to become the best version of themselves. They can look your dealt pocket aces.

Hey man, here's how we're gonna play the game. Okay, we're gonna go apply for that Harvard or Yale admission or whatever right and your dealt pocket. You know, a two and a seven and you can't even get a straight set up. All right, let's let's where where can we get you to the best level, right? Let's all right, let's focus on maybe we can get into that Community College Then we're gonna go.

We're gonna get straight. A's there. Here's how we're going to help you get straight. A's there.

This is what I did by the way. I went to Community College and got straight A's for two years. what did I do Then I transferred to UCLA with a scholarship that helped me pay for my expenses after UCLA I could have could got into the workforce for a couple years and uh and and taken uh, you know I could have gone to potentially Harvard Law or Harvard Business right and apply at that level with the card, the the cards that I had or the situation that I was in right and so at whatever level somebody is at. hey look, some people are going to be ahead of others, but they should have the opportunity to achieve their greatest potential at that time.

I Don't think it's necessary to say okay, well, you're not. You're not there yet because of an Health ailment or because of your elementary school education that set up poor Foundation blocks. Let's try to create an equal result for everyone. Let's bring the person who wants to apply to Harvard down to the Community College level and the person at the community college level.

you know, maybe up to to a four year or vice versa. Everybody's going to use that. For example, you know you're not going to the Community College you go to UCLA right away. You're not going to Harvard You're going to UCLA too.

Like that's that's not how it should work. That's my belief. I Think everybody with the cards they're dealt should be uh, should be given the best opportunities that they have in front of them And then they should be able to choose how do they want to live in the world. You could take the jaded approach and say I can never get ahead or you can take the approach of honesty Integrity More education and work ethic like I said.

I I think I In some ways, try to sympathize with these situations. Growing up in a family that basically went bankrupt and was living paycheck to paycheck as German immigrants uh, you know, with an accent in school and not being able to I mean basically being in remedial English classes through like third or fourth grade. uh in and then deciding Okay, well I could look at my my lot and say oh you know we're poor and and I have an accent and I can't read as well as others and I'm I'm having to get tutoring just to stay. You know, to try to get ahead, but my parents can't really afford that.

so we're getting tutors that can't really write like that, taking that and then working myself up to where I am. Now that that's in my opinion, a choice. Of course it involves. There's a lot of luck involved in that as well.

I mean if you're in the right place at the right time, that's freaking awesome. You know it was a lot easier to start a YouTube channel in 2008 when I did or in 2017 when I got really serious about it than it is today, right? So some of that is luck. So by no means am I trying to say there's no luck in our world. but I'm a big fan of of believing that everyone Uh has has uh has the opportunity to improve uh, their situation regardless of what cards they were dealt.

and I don't think it's necessary to bring down others who have a better hand uh, than uh to to sort of equalize the result with those who have a worse hand. That's my take. So hopefully, uh, hopefully you, you, uh, have, um, some similar thoughts, but if you don't I'd love to hear your commentary as to what why, where we might differ and even if we differ, don't worry I Still think we can have a beer together because I we all know I won't say no to that.