“Multiculturalism is billed as a way to make Americans more sensitive to … diverse cultural backgrounds … [but] it’s more a distortion of facts… [I]n some schools, kids are being taught that the ideas of the Constitution were really borrowed from the Iroquois Indians, and that Africans discovered America by crossing the Atlantic on rafts hundreds of years before Columbus and made all sorts of other scientific discoveries and inventions that were later stolen from them.” — me, The Way Things Ought to Be, 1992

“[I]n the last 25 years, a relatively small, angry group of anti-American radicals have bullied their way into power positions in academia… [T]he indoctrination taking place … is disingenuously disguised as ‘multiculturalism’ … [but] a more accurate description would be ‘politically motivated historical and cultural distortion’… Let me translate multiculture-speak for you… Indians are good. White Europeans are bad. Blacks are good. Asians, we’re not too sure about.” — me, See, I Told You So, 1993

“I know exactly what the multicultural curriculum is, and I know who these people are… They’re angry. They’re failures. They haven’t made it in this country, and they’ve got bitterness about it, and they’re taking it out on their students.” — me, eib, 5/10/05

I have kept my eye on this for a long time, folks. I remember the day over 30 years ago when I first heard the term “multiculturalism” and immediately saw what it represented. I warned everybody at that moment that multiculturalism — soothingly portrayed as a way to appreciate overlooked contributions of “marginalized” groups — was really a trashing of the West by America-haters. Of course this prediction was spot on.

Spearheaded by a bunch of angry outcasts, the multicultural movement has left its most lasting legacy in our public schools by convincing multiple generations of American young people that America is a fraud and a lie, built on a foundation of theft, brutality, and evil white supremacy.

Take the late Howard Zinn, whose error-laden 1980 textbook, A People’s History of the United States, is required reading in most public schools. You wonder why statues of Christopher Columbus are being beheaded and toppled? Look no further.

Columbus used to be accurately celebrated as the brave explorer who discovered America, one of the most consequential achievements in human history. Here’s my summary of Zinn’s twisted vision:

This land was once a pristine paradise, populated by indigenous peoples in loincloths who frolicked with buffalo and spotted owls. They were at one with nature, and there was no pollution. No Indians urinated in the pristine waters. They practiced social distancing. There was no destruction. There was no homophobia. There was no racism. There was no sexism. There were no wars. There wasn’t any murder. There was no sickness. There was no death. There was no Trump. There was love and respect for animals. Animals and the indigenous peoples were all at peace. They braided each other’s hair. And then, all of a sudden, this kumbaya-filled land was ruined! The evil white Europeans arrived, headed by that racist homophobe Christopher Columbus, and he brought with him all the horrors found only in the Western world: bigotry, syphilis, war, famine, gluten, and environmental Armageddon.

That’s not much of an exaggeration, folks. These people are deeply disturbed. A current multicultural lesson plan for middle school students developed by the Diversity Council asks: “Why Do We (Still) Celebrate Columbus Day?” and explains the objective: “In this lesson, students will address misconceptions they likely have about Christopher Columbus and the colonization of what is now the United States.” Once kids are subjected to the indoctrination session, “Students will be able to explain the false history that is often taught about Christopher Columbus and why he is celebrated in the United States [and] identify reasons Native youth want to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day.” By the end, after learning that “things Columbus did were very violent” and memorizing vocabulary terms like “colonize,” “brutal,” “conquest,” “discriminate,” and “indigenous,” students will be able to “acknowledge … the trauma colonization caused indigenous communities.” Voilà, these skulls full of mush grow up longing to desecrate Columbus.

“The Color Line,” a current Zinn Education Project “teaching activity” by far-left activist Bill Bigelow, is a “lesson about the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race. This helps students understand the origins of racism in the United States and who benefits.” Without evidence, Bigelow outrageously smears our Founders: “The social elites of early America sought to manufacture racial divisions. Men of property and privilege were in the minority; they needed mechanisms to divide people who, in concert, might threaten the status quo.”

And probably already in the public school curriculum near you is the Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times “1619 Project,” which totally erases history, replacing it with the ridiculous lie that America’s actual Founding was 1619, when the first slave ship arrived. Because America must be defined by slavery alone.

This stupid syllabus is based on the piece by Nikole Hannah-Jones, who after months of criticism by historians across the political spectrum, as reported by The Federalist, had to correct a fundamental error. Ms. Hannah-Jones, you see, had claimed that maintaining slavery was the colonists’ primary motivation for revolting against England, which is nonsense. She finally admitted she should have said that only “some” colonists were motivated by slavery. But gross mistakes on that scale are no great surprise when this is the first line of her essay: “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written.”

Total bull. No, this nation was not built on slavery. Slavery was not a founding ideal that led to America’s national success. We waged a civil war to get rid of slavery! According to the Project 1619 “version” of American history, slavery was the basis for everything else in our past. But there are no versions of American history. There is only one: the truth. And the 1619 Project ain’t it.

Sadly, here’s the fruit of the multicultural rot in our school systems: love of country is waning, according to the April 2020 Youth Poll conducted by Harvard’s Kennedy School Institute of Politics [iop]. In 2002, 89 percent of 18-to-24-year-old college undergraduates considered themselves “patriotic,” with 33 percent self-identifying as “very patriotic.” But now, only 63 percent of college students consider themselves “patriotic,” and only 16 percent “very patriotic.” While 45 percent of Republican undergrads consider themselves to be “very patriotic,” a mere 11 percent of Democrats do. That’s just pathetic. And we’re reaping the anti-America zeitgeist on our streets.

We have to face the facts here: we’ve lost education. We have allowed the far left to monopolize teaching our young people, from day care all the way to the academy, to academe. The left owns education, and leftist educators are the proud progenitors of a growing number of easily manipulated low-information voters.

Worse, the left owns the current movement of radicalized young people in blue cities, looting, rioting, and destroying historic monuments. It’s the logical result of their sitting in what have essentially been socialist reeducation camps throughout their entire school years. They have had the leftist version of this country — a pack of disgusting lies — spoon-fed to them to the point that they hate America. They’re embarrassed to be living in it.

Here’s the garbage they’ve been indoctrinated to believe: “This country was founded by rich racist white guys who set it up for themselves. White supremacists made all the rules to benefit white supremacists, so they alone would be able to hold onto all the stuff. They set up the system so anybody who’s not white has no chance.”

As I’ve seen what multiculturalism is, I can intellectually understand why people can be made to hate America. I can also understand why some people can be made to believe, “You’re not really part of this country. You were never an American. The people who founded this country never really wanted you to be an American. The Pilgrims were actually just a bunch of invaders.” That lying, hateful message has gone out to too many minorities. All because we allowed the hard left to have unfettered access to American kids for two generations.

A genuine rescue of this country’s culture will require recapturing education. And with so many Democrat-run cities and states and teachers’ unions playing games with school closings, this is a perfect time for parents to seriously consider making a change, whether it be homeschooling, school vouchers, private schools. What an opportunity to seek curricula not based on this multicultural poison.

In my generation, not very long ago, the vast majority of us knew that we were blessed, that America was unique, a shining city on a hill, a beacon showing the rest of the world that people can govern themselves in freedom. We saw ourselves as one people, one nation under God. Yes, we had many ethnic and racial groups, but those who immigrated here wanted more than anything to become an American.

We celebrated that this is simply the greatest, most wonderful country that’s ever been. We were thankful for the miraculous way this country was founded, based on individual liberty and guaranteed rights. We knew that nothing in history compares; that America is unparalleled and unequaled in the sweep of time. And we’re still here to pass that torch.

The far left has tried to destroy the idea of America for decades. Now they think they have finally found the foothold they’ve long been seeking — through our young people. They believe they can taste victory: they sense we are on the verge of losing the distinct American culture that multiculturalism has always wanted to supplant. They’re about to learn whether they’re right, or as I believe, dead wrong. The verdict is at hand. Do not doubt me.

Photo ©2020 Getty Images Joseph Prezioso/Contributor