I’m glad no one told Jessica Bridges before she vowed not to ever teach Spanish that Spain is a European country and its residents are considered white.
Bridges, identified by Fox News as a Ph.D candidate at Oklahoma State University and a teaching assistant, told an online conference of educators that she canceled herself. She taught students en español once upon a time, and that apparently meant she was furthering white supremacy. Don’t ever expect her to go back.
That’s the takeaway from a clip that’s been circulating from what’s reported to be the Southern Connecticut State University’s 2021 Virtual Women’s and Gender Studies Conference in April. Bridges, speaking with other participants in the program, talks about how “racism originates with and is perpetuated by white people.”
“Dismantling white supremacy in society looks like dismantling [it] in my heart first,” she said. “It means I’m not going to teach Spanish.”
Today, Oklahoma State University educator’s statements at a virtual conference of educators:
-“White people aren’t right”
-“Racism originates with and is perpetuated by white people”
-“Mourning her white morality”This is what Critical Race Theory looks like in the classroom. pic.twitter.com/hH4u2f5idR
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) May 29, 2021
“I would tell them to stand in their own power. White isn’t right,” she continued.
“We’re deconstructing our emotions around acknowledging our whiteness and white privilege through the lens of grief and the process of grief. We talked about mourning our white morality.”
And yes, Bridges said she’s “holding myself accountable to this journey. Part of my accountability is to continue to struggle and grapple with my internalized white supremacy.”
And that meant not going back to teaching a white, European language. Does that make sense?
According to the Fox report, academic officials were a little dodgy about identifiying Bridges as the speaker in the video.
A spokesman from Southern Connecticut State University would “this was a faculty member from another institution giving her personal views during a virtual conference hosted by Southern” and directed questions to Oklahoma State, according to Fox.
Oklahoma State spokeswoman Shannon Rigsby, according to Fox, said Bridges is not currently teaching classes and is not scheduled to teach in the fall. She last taught a class in fall of 2019, Rigsby said.
“Oklahoma State University encourages all students to pursue the career of their choice regardless of race, gender or ethnicity,” Rigsby said. “The opinions expressed by this student are her own and do not reflect the views of the university.”
The Fox report was based on a LinkedIn profile that now “isn’t public or doesn’t exist.” (Considering news about the video has gone national, it’s not hard to guess why the profile is no longer active.)
However, according to Fox, Bridges was slated to receive a doctorate in Social Foundations of Education in 2021. In 2013, the profile said, she received a master’s in Spanish Language, Literature and Culture from the University of Northern Iowa, according to Fox.
For 10 years, from 2004 to 2014, the profile says she taught Spanish at Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, according to Fox.
Aside from the arrant stupidity of a white woman saying she couldn’t teach a language that originated in a country whose residents could best be described as “white,” notice the verbiage used by Bridges during her self-censure.
Does it sound natural? Does this sound like something that just fluidly comes from the depths of her soul? No.
It sounds a bit like an educator’s conference in a Soviet bloc country circa 1975, with those assembled taking turns talking about how they needed to grapple with their internalized anti-collectivist impulses and be accountable for their class privilege.
Instead, she’s spouting critical race theory talking points as if her future depends on it. For all I know, it very well may.
This is a free country in 2021, and yet these stilted bromides escape her mouth as if they were being forced out by someone who may not necessarily believe this but understands the requirements of academia at present. Whatever the case may be, Bridges looks as if she should have a label affixed to her forehead: “Contents under pressure.”
And if the information Fox presented is correct, the people of Louisville, Kentucky, have been spared a Spanish teacher nobody should want.
It’s not because she’s white, however.
Aside from the fallacy of injecting race into what should be an entirely intellectual question, anyone incapable of seeing the fatal flaw in her argument against a white person teaching a language that was largely invented by white Europeans is of questionable caliber to lead a classroom.
No matter what her race, it’s difficult to see her being fit to teach your children anything.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
