The Bias of Anti-Bias Training

Over the past six months we've seen an exponential increase in people calling themselves experts in "anti-bias" and "anti-racism" training. Schools and businesses have rushed to bring in these facilitators not necessarily to fix something that is wrong in the culture of the school or business, but to signal that they are "anti-racist," the buzzy phrase made popular by the work of Ibram X. Kendi (and rejected by a growing number of Black and other intellectuals). As in many cases, it's more important to create a show of solidarity with trendy causes than it is to actually address the very real issues of racism, antisemitism, and bigotry of all kinds.

Two months ago, my son's LA school hosted one of these so-called anti-bias training sessions for parents and the result was disastrous. The big takeaway? Antisemitism always gets a pass. So I wrote a piece about what happened and the ongoing fallout. Read it over at The Forward. It's the first of three pieces that will be published in different venues. Buckle up.