"I want to make a comment about the US-Canada thing, a little bit of a challenge to it"

That's not how you start a discussion, that's how you end one.

"To say here that Canada is not a more just society than the United States?...I invite everyone here to do some research...You look at a system like Ontario, where every student is funded equally... you go to the United States where their funding is based on tax base...I see you shaking your head but..."

That's him rejecting the premise of the speaker, inviting the rest of the seminar to reject the premise of the speaker, raising as the sole concern "tax base" and then disregarding the objections of the speaker."

"What I'm saying is your point is not untrue. What I'm saying is how it's lived out is not as you say"

That's the speaker saying his point is noted, but not relevant to the discussion at hand.

"In the name of that equality, kids are still experiencing systemic inequalities"

That's the speaker saying that she hasn't disregarded his point, but that the end result is exactly what she's talking about - inequality.

"I hear what you're saying, HOWEVER, I think to ignore that fact... we're very here, we have a public education system... it's not the same way as the United States"

That's him refusing to acknowledge that she has answered his objection. Period.

"I think we're doing an incredible disservice to our learners. Incredible disservice to our learners. So I just wanna say that, right?"

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

"Thank you so much"

You mansplaining dick

"What I'm finding interesting in the middle of this COVID disaster... that you in your whiteness can tell me what's really going on for black people? Is that what you're doing? Because I think that's what you're doing. But I'm not sure so I'm going to leave you space to tell me what you're doing right now."

That's her saying are you sure you wanna go down this road whitey because it is not landing how you think it's landing, here's how it's landing, do you have any interest in stepping back from the brink

"I just wanted to talk about the United States. You said listen to the facts and figures"

"We're not here to compare, we hear you, who did these studies, fair to whom, just to whom, a black or indigenous student in (the school district) has the same access to resources, but they don't have the same outcomes, right? They're disproportionately impacted by streaming, (something) discipline, other metrics... I hate to disagree with you in this forum but it's just not... not relevant? What you're bringing up? Unfortunately the experience of black and indigenous students in the TSD, in whatever school you lead, they're just not good enough. And that's just the reality. So if you want to be an apologist for the United States or Canada, this really isn't the forum for that."

The instructor straight-up gave him an opportunity to step back from the brink, he straight up refused, and a supervisor stepped in to shut his ass down. As is appropriate.

_______________________________________

See, there was no misunderstanding there. There was no questioning of assumptions by Blikszto. He kept going "in theory" they kept going "in practice" and he just got madder. Blikszto made no attempt to listen, made no space for being wrong, and made no attempts to do better.

I listened to the audio, it didn't appear that he lost an argument to me.

LOL you listened to a carefully cherry-picked 4 minutes of a white guy refusing to answer "are in your whiteness can tell me what's really going on for black people" and you think he didn't lose the argument? It wasn't even an argument. It was "I want to make a comment about the US-Canada thing, a little bit of a challenge to it" followed by it doesn't fucking matter, dude, do you get that followed by think of the children. Dude was literally attempting to invalidate the whole of the discussion.

And uhhhh

Charles Murray's whole argument is, in a nutshell, some Black people are high achievers but on average, they are inferior as a race, take a look at these IQ tests. Refusing to look at details and instead focusing on "the data" has been a racist dog whistle since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. That's some context that might be worth discussing in this whole dust-up, IF one were to give it the courtesy of discussing it.

Which you seem to insist upon, because a heavily decontextualized right-wing smear campaign has merit in your eyes.

So we've discussed it. But, much like Kiki Ojo-Thompson, I don't know what else to do if you think Blitzko came out looking good in that discussion.

Let's circle back:

Stand up for me. Model the behavior you desire. Illustrate how you would wish for your peers to come to my aid in this situation.

Here's what you said to prompt that discussion:

Disturbing stuff. Maybe this is not endemic of all DEI instruction, but his peers piling on and not standing up for him for fear of also being called a racist is likely not an isolated phenomenon. I feel bad for the guy. This wasn’t cool.

How does this get better in your eyes? What response by the rest of the 200-person Zoom meeting redeems this in your eyes? How does the tragic ending become a happy one?

And I fail to see what's so wrong about what the DEI instructor said. Did she call it "egregious racism?"

He was basically saying "things aren't so bad here," and she's saying "no, they are, please let me give my talk"

that was the whole exchange, nothingburger is a totally fair description imo. Where is the bullying?