Letters: State College becoming unrecognizable; CRT is another ‘Big Lie’

State College becoming unrecognizable

My current rage was set off by the news of Mad Mex’s demise and inevitable closure of the Days Inn, but this has been happening nonstop for a while now. Countless places are closing, getting priced out of rent, or the worst offender: entire blocks being wiped out for another luxury apartment complex. Luckily Doggie’s was able to save the spirit of the Rathskeller (and I love the improvements like the garden area) but that is the lone exception in this era of change. I understand not every business lasts forever, like some of my short-lived favorites Tony’s Big Easy (now Sheetz) and Bell’s Pizza, but too many outside corporations and soulless development firms are buying out the whole town. There has been a shortage of bars in town for years; Sports Café long ago became Noodles and Company. You want to come back to your college town and visit your favorite bars, but even recent grads wouldn’t recognize the place. The Saloon hasn’t been open all year and losing that will be the final straw of completely ripping my heart out. Restaurants are disappearing too; closures of Baby’s, Bar Bleu, and The Deli’s silent fade from existence were preceded by The Diner, Mario and Luigi’s, Hi-way on Westerly Parkway, and Canyon Pizza’s awkward displacement and move down the street. State College this year was named ESPN’s Best College Football Town in America, but it’s becoming a shell of its former self.

CRT is another ‘Big Lie’

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent massive protests that included massive numbers of outraged whites, Republicans attempted to douse the white outrage and return many suburban white mothers to the party’s fold by introducing another Big Lie: “Critical Race Theory,” (CRT).

Although CRT largely addresses systemic racism, for which there is massive historical evidence — simply recall how the Tulsa police reacted when whites destroyed Black Wall Street; they rounded up Blacks and let whites roam free! — it is generally taught to graduate students and not to elementary or high school students. Yet, Republicans are telling white suburban mothers that the teaching of CRT in schools threatens to lay racial guilt on their precious snowflakes. It is but the latest attempt to dupe uneducated whites through an appeal to their latent racism.

Simply remember how Republican strategist Lee Atwater explained it in 1981: “You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘N-----, n-----, n-----.’ By 1968 you can’t say ‘n-----’ — that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, Blacks get hurt worse than whites ... ‘We want to cut this,’ is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N-----, n-----.”

Now, Republicans seek to “abstract”: education.