NCCJ & Oakwood School Staff Recruiting Students for NCCJ’s Radical, CRT-Fueled “Anytown” Camp

• Camp Singles Out, Negatively Generalizes and Effectively Shames Kids by Race and Other Demographics, Essentially Promoting Racism
• Promotes CRT and Critical Theory Beliefs of “Systemic Oppression”, Systemic Racism and White and other Demographic “Privilege”
• Teaches Kids They Are “Privileged” and Owe “Responsibilities” for Being White, Male, “Cisgender” and/or Middle Class
• Includes Content That Pressures Kids to Agree with Controversial Teachings on Sexuality and Gender Identity

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Imagine enrolling your teenage daughter in an exciting and ambitious overnight camp, promoted as a camp aimed at combatting prejudice, “learning to bridge divisions that keep us apart” and “building an inclusive community”, with opportunities to engage with other youth of diverse backgrounds.  You then find out that as part of the camp experience, she was lined up by camp activists and practically shamed, and taught that because she is white, she is “privileged” and enjoys unfair advantages over “oppressed” groups at their expense. Activists at the camp taught her this is due to ominous “systems of oppression” throughout our society that also unjustly privilege her for being “cisgender” and middle class, systems that she contributes to and must work to dismantle.  Imagine your daughter also being effectively taught that her religious or science-based beliefs about sexuality or sex and gender identity are wrongful, as “heterosexist”, “cisgenderist” and manifestations of “privilege”.  But wait, isn’t negatively generalizing people based on their race itself an act of racism, you might ask?  Will this combat prejudice, “bridge divisions” and bring people together, or will it actually foster more demographic prejudice, resentment and division?  It sounds more like political and social indoctrination, does it not?

This is not a dystopian hypothetical, but an actual activist camp known as Anytown that is being promoted to students in Oakwood High School.  Anytown is one of multiple programs conducted by an outside activist organization, the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), that has been operating in Oakwood schools due to the active support of Oakwood School District leadership. Emails obtained from the Oakwood School District show NCCJ was brought into the District at the recommendation of Board of Education leader John Wilson, who praised NCCJ from his years of working with the organization and even noted his familiarity with Anytown.  One must wonder if he was aware of Anytown’s (and NCCJ’s) divisive and problematic activities and teachings reported here.  An overview of NCCJ and its various programs is reported in this OCSS article.

Emails show NCCJ has been recruiting students to participate in Anytown by enlisting the help of top District staff, and students participating in NCCJ’s programs such as SPIDEE, its activist student club.  For example, in an email to Oakwood school counselor Joan Bline with a promotional flyer for Anytown, NCCJ staffer Lake Miller writes “[o]ur school and community contacts have been great assets in helping us to recruit for Anytown. We wanted to see if this is something you may be able to help spread the word about to Oakwood students.”  In an email exchange with NCCJ staffer Hannah Brown, SEL Interventionist Bridget Fiore eagerly confirmed distributing the Anytown flyer to all high school classes and asking Principal Waller to publish it in the family newsletter.  Other emails to Principal Waller, Hillary Waugh, and Rachel Keyes, and numerous emails to students in the SPIDEE and Anytown programs, show NCCJ staff encouraging students to recruit their peers for the camp, even by offering each student a free gift for every two they recruit.

While the Anytown camp appears to include some redeeming activities ostensibly aimed at alleviating prejudice and promoting positive interactions among diverse students, a review of available information about the camp, including as offered in the Dayton area, shows it is ingrained with the same harmful and divisive teachings that are consistently interwoven throughout NCCJ’s publications and adult and youth programs as shown by this OCSS article.  These include Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Theory concepts of “systemic” racism or oppression and resulting white or other demographic “privilege” and “oppression,” as well as content that pressures kids to conform to controversial teachings about sexuality and gender identity, likely without regard to any religious, moral, science or public health-based disagreements they may have with those teachings. Please review this article along with the brochures, videos and student testimonials concerning the Anytown camp, and ask yourself if you think this camp should be promoted in our public schools, to your children or to others in our community with these racist, divisive and controversial teachings.   Are these beliefs that you would want your children or others in the community to adopt about themselves, about others, or about our society as a whole?

NCCJ Videos, Instagram Testimonials Show Students Taught They are “Privileged” And Instilled with Shame and Guilt Based On Their Race, Sex, Gender Identity and Income Level

The “Privilege Walk”: “If You Are White, Take A Step Forward!”

Multiple videos featuring the Anytown camp show children are led through a “privilege” exercise where they are lined up side-by-side, and directed to step forward or backward in response to questions as to whether certain positive or negative life circumstances apply to them.  As shown by this video, an NCCJ activist in a shrill voice leads students through the exercise with questions focused on socioeconomic and other life circumstances, asking kids to step forward if their family has a summer home or they were raised in a community that was safe from harm and violence. In one case, white children are explicitly singled out and told “[i]f you are white, take a step forward!”, effectively being told their race is itself a “privilege”: https://youtu.be/S7pSSThosLs.

(Student in Tears) “I felt like the privileged one because I was the white girl, and it’s not fair!”

Another NCCJ video titled “All About Anytown” also depicts the privilege exercise.  Questions once again include those relating to their socioeconomic status, such as whether they attended an elementary school with good materials and facilities, whether they ever went hungry (see here starting at 2:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ur1UWwf_r4 ).  The reactions of the teenage participants make it clear the exercise instills racial shame and guilt, and that it is intended to imply these favorable or unfavorable circumstances are occasioned by their race.  The exercise typically concludes with white kids disproportionately among those standing ahead of the starting line, and African-American and other racial minority kids left standing behind it.  One African-American teen comments that, “[t]hey kinda like, divided us up, according to like, our color.  That’s just what I saw.  It kinda felt a little wierd.” Another youth states he felt like he wanted to cry, and then felt mad and asked “why!?”. Two white girls admit they felt guilty (one at 3:30 and another at 3:58), with the second in tears, exclaiming “I felt like the privileged one because I was the white girl, and it’s not fair!”  Near the end of the video, a student states “We cannot be tolerant of racism”, clearly implying these inequalities are all due to racism. Note it is quite likely this “privilege exercise” is also used in the SPIDEE “student run” club in Oakwood schools, since NCCJ curriculum materials obtained from the Yellow Springs School District reveal NCCJ’s SPIDEE students conducting the “privilege exercise” in their work with 8^th graders in NCCJ’s Changing In The Middle program, and those programs are run by the same NCCJ activists who operate SPIDEE and other NCCJ programs in the Oakwood School District (see here). Further, records obtained from the Oakwood School District do show that “privilege” is among the topics taught in the SPIDEE program there, including in SPIDEE students’ presentations to 6th graders at Harman and Smith schools.

News Report Shows Kids Segregated and Judged By Race, Admitting That Anytown Appears to Shame Them (“Everyone is Checked For The Privileges They Have”)

A local news feature on the Anytown camp titled “The Anti-Racist Camp Republicans Can’t Ban” (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT_Jzzv_tv0), further illustrates the program’s focus on singling out and judging kids as privileged or oppressed based on their race, and its apparent effect of instilling collective racial guilt and shame in the process.

• At the 2:20 point, a camp staffer notes that when he attended Anytown in 1990s the camp “had almost like a little bit of a colorblind approach” and now, “it’s changed there is like, we’re going to take a look at white privilege.  We’re gonna take a look at like, how that plays out through different identities.”
• At the 5:00 mark, the clip notes students are segregated by “shared experience such as race and sexual orientation”.
• At 6:18, a student states that, after their talk, “another thing we could agree on as a group is that white privilege is very dominant in our culture”. 
• At 8:20, one student states that “everyone is checked for the privileges they have and don’t.”
• At 8:46, a student states, “I feel that in some ways that it is in a way trying to inflict in some shame with how these programs are. I don’t think it’s intentional I wouldn’t say that’s all they’re trying to do but with some of the programs here it can appear that way.”

But is the camp not intended to shame kids based on their race and other demographics, as being “privileged” or otherwise?  Remember, these clips above were not undercover “sting” videos by partisans cherry picking damaging excerpts of footage to portray the camp in a negative light; in fact, the first two were clips of the weekend or week-long camp are footage handpicked by NCCJ to show the public what the Anytown camp is about.  This is evident from the second video’s title, “All About Anytown”.  The fact that NCCJ selectively featured these clips of kids expressing shame and guilt for their supposed white privilege indicates that is among the intended effects of this Anytown exercise.

Testimonials of Anytown Participants Also Show Teachings of Racial/Demographic “Privilege” and “Systemic Oppression” – For The Dayton-Area Anytown Camp

A review of recently-published testimonials on NCCJ of Greater Dayton’s Instagram page also show these radical teachings are imposed on kids in the Dayton-area Anytown camps, with kids noting how they were taught they are “privileged” and owed “responsibilities” based on race, sex, income level and even gender identity.

• One testimonial states that Anytown “educates students from across the greater Dayton Area in order for them to come together to collaborate about identity based allyship”.  “Allyship” is a common term used in CRT-based teachings, where the supposedly “privileged” groups learn to submit to these teachings and experience social redemption by becoming “allies”  (hence the term “identity based allyship”).
• The testimonial of Justin Duran, now among the NCCJ staffers working with students in the Oakwood School District according to emails obtained from the District, states that his participation in Anytown in 2007 “sharpened my sense of integrity and passion for social reform.   I really had to check my privilege and learn to grow my understanding of what it means to be a better leader and ally to those around me.”
• Another attendee states “I was able to be helped in understanding the immense privilege I have as a middle-class, white woman…”.  Is being in the middle class a privilege?  Was it taught to be something occasioned by her race or other demographics?  Was she made to feel guilty about it?
• Another attendee, who returned as an Anytown camp counselor, notes that “Throughout the years I told my coming out story in the heterosexism module (of the camp program) to hundreds of delegates….Anytown is also where I learned about privilege and my responsibility as a cis, white, able bodied, middle class, male which I am still learning … today.  It is where I confronted my biases and challenged my beliefs.”  One must ask, what are these “responsibilities” one is judged to have based on their skin color, socioeconomic class they were raised in, or if they accept their biological sex as their gender?  See the discussion below on how NCCJ’s teaching on “heterosexism” can pressure kids to adopt controversial views on sexuality.
• Another attendee recalls, “During Anytown, I had to take a step back and educate myself about systemic oppression….It helped me recognize the privileges I had in support systems a caring household as well as other factors in my life that play into it.”  Is having been raised in supportive household an undeserved “privilege” that should be a source of personal guilt, and is it presumed to be the result of one’s race or other demographics?

Teachings on Sexuality and Gender Identity

Brochures for the Anytown program, such as the flyer in the emails from NCCJ staffers linked above, show it includes teachings about sexuality and gender identity, with the statement that in the camp “delegates tackle tough questions regarding gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation”.  One of the testimonials above also notes the camp includes a “heterosexism module”.  Heterosexism is mentioned and defined in NCCJ’s other materials, such as its recently-deleted “Social Justice Definitions” page, as “[t]he belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and acceptable sexual orientation”. Controversial teachings on gender identity, such as the “privileges” and responsibilities” that “cisgender” people supposedly have per the above testimonial, are mentioned in NCCJ’s other publications, such as its recently deleted “What is Privilege?” page.  The page names a host of supposed demographic privileges (white, Christian, upper-middle class) to include “cisgender privilege”, and it defines “cisgender” as having a “self-perception” and “expression of gender” that aligns with one’s sex “assigned at birth”.

What’s Wrong With These Teachings: Likely Spurs Division, Bigotry and Resentment, Shows Intolerance for Diverse Religious, Moral and Other Beliefs; Undermines Stated DEI Purposes

As discussed more fully in the comprehensive OCSS article on NCCJ and its programs (see here), these teachings only serve to worsen division, bias, racism and other forms of demographic bigotry and resentment.  These teachings on demographic privilege compel kids to view others not for who they are, but for their race or other demographics, and then to negatively generalize or judge them as “privileged” or “oppressed” based on those demographics. In other words, they effectively condition kids to think like racists and bigots.  Clearly, viewing people as privileged (having “unearned” advantages “expense” of “oppressed” demographics as NCCJ defines it in “What Is Privilege?”) based on their demographics would lead kids to view those people or themselves with resentment and shame, particularly if they believe they are in one of the “oppressed” demographics.  Teachings on “heterosexism” and “cisgender privilege” pressure kids to adopt controversial beliefs about sexuality and gender identity that may be contrary to their religious, moral, science or public health-based convictions. These may include their closely-held religious beliefs or sexual morals, views based on well-documented and profound health problems seen with certain types of activity relating to those topics, and basic beliefs rooted in science and human nature regarding the male-female binary and the relationship of gender to biological sex. Moreover, they effectively teach that the beliefs of our society’s most prominent religions on those subjects are wrong and to be rejected as “heterosexist”, “cisgenderist” or manifestations of sexual or gender “privilege”, which runs entirely contrary to NCCJ’s stated purpose of promoting “inclusion” and opposing “bias” on demographics that include religion.

Further, these teachings amount to political, social and sexual indoctrination, by training and even pressuring kids to adopt activist world views derived from CRT, Critical Theory, and on sexuality and transgenderism.  “Systemic” racism and oppression, and its supposed role in causing white and demographic “privilege”, oppression and inequality are core concepts of those theories^[1].  Equally concerning, as shown with Anytown’s “privilege” exercise above, they instill false narratives about causes of inequality, such as that one’s skin color is the driving cause of one’s life circumstances relating to socioeconomic status, without any regard to the well-documented role of important life choices.

Interestingly, the first NCCJ-published video above even concludes with an NCCJ staffer asserting that NCCJ is working to override the influence of religious institutions and parents on these subjects: “We are carefully taught by our parents, our schools, our religious institutions…we are carefully taught about those things and it is NCCJ’s mission to unlearn those.”  (see here at 1:42).

Call to Action

If these activities seem inappropriate for our children in Oakwood Schools, the administration and Board of Education should be contacted with your concerns.

Board President John Wilson, wilson.john@oakwoodschools.org; Board Vice President Laura Middleton, middleton.laura@oakwoodschools.org; Board Members Debbie DiLorenzo, dilorenzo.debbie@oakwoodschools.org; Lauren Kawai, kawai.lauren@oakwoodschools.org; and Deron Schwieterman, schwieterman.deron@oakwoodschools.org

Acting Superintendent Allyson Couch, couch.allyson@oakwoodschools.org, and OHS Principal Paul Waller, waller.paul@oakwoodschools.org.

Let us know if you have thoughts or feedback on this article by sending a note to admin@oakwoodstrongschools.com.

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Footnotes

[1] Beliefs that racism is systemic or structural and is the cause of racial disparities and that whites hold “white privilege,” are all core concepts of CRT. See:

• The American Bar Association publication, “A Lesson on Critical Race Theory”: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/;

• The following article citing prominent CRT theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw on these core CRT concepts: https://abcnews.go.com/US/critical-race-theory-classroom-understanding-debate/story?id=77627465;
• The NAACP Legal Defense Fund website, whose webpage on CRT defines it as follows: “Critical Race Theory, or CRT, is an academic and legal framework that denotes that systemic racism is part of American society – from education and housing to employment and healthcare. Critical Race Theory recognizes that racism is more than the result of individual bias and prejudice. It is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities.”; and

• Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (3rd Edition) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic at: pages 40; 162-171 (regarding “white privilege”, also defined on page 168).

Critical Theory and later Critical Legal Studies, from which CRT was developed, are more general theories that advance – among others – the belief that our society is fraught with forms of systemic oppression that favor privileged demographics to the detriment of oppressed demographics.  These theories evolved from the “Frankfurt School” in Germany beginning in the 1920s by philosophers and social theorists who were heavily influenced by Karl Marx, namely Max Horkheimer, Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci and Herbert Marcuse, among others.  These theories played a key role in advancing Marxist and Leninist ideologies initially in academia, leading to their racial application known as Critical Race Theory.  See here, here and here, for example, for more information on Critical Legal Theory and Critical Theory.