Although he is proud to be black, a libertarian school choice activist Chris StewartBlack History Month will not be celebrated in February.
He is instead pushing “Uncomfortable history month,” which he refers to as an embrace of the past with all its paradoxes, hypocrisies and triumphs. His Substack Free willHe tells of Mary Turner (21-year-old, pregnant woman) who, in protest of the lynching her husband, was executed in Georgia in 1918. Vandals destroyed a Turner statue that was built in 2010.
Turner’s tale is the kind of horrific incident that nearly every person would be afraid to tell.90 state and local education legislations are proposed—Stewart calls them “gag orders”—that would ban schools from teaching the grisly particulars of American history, including state-sanctioned and state-tolerated violence against racial, sexual, and other minorities. He is the former St. Paul, Minnesota School Board member and currently heads school-choice. brightbeamHas a radical vision to educational reform that sees public funding follow K-12 students while parents can freely select between secular, religious, or public institutions that will teach drastically different curricula.
Stewart’s libertarian philosophy is the direct inspiration for this vision. The “cardinal rule” states that no one can infringe on individual rights. He is concerned that the huge advantages that were given to reformers after the COVID-19 lockdowns in K-12 are being wasted on culture battles. They have less to do with fundamentally changing schools and more with helping Republicans to get elected.
A wide-ranging conversation is had about how libertarians failed to win over Hispanics, blacks, and other minorities. We also discuss our support for reforming criminal justice and criticizing state power. Stewart talks about his struggles with the progressive left and how he transitioned from Ralph Nader, Jesse Ventura, to libertarianism. Stewart also discusses why he believes that laws criminalizing speech is always wrong. The origins of and the aims behind Stewart’s book. Eight Black HandsHis weekly podcast, featuring liberal, conservative, progressive and libertarian black men discussing public education and private accountability.
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