*By Julie Barrett, Founder, Conservative Ladies of Washington
On November 30th, a 15-year-old sophomore opened fire at his high school, killing 4 students and wounding 7 more. In the aftermath of this tragedy, in my local community we had at least 6 schools (that I’m aware of) receive some sort of threat of violence via social media or otherwise. These threats resulted in one school closure and a couple of schools went on “safe inside” mode. A 14-year-old Everett boy was arrested after he was found to be using TikTok and Instagram to make these threats to local schools. While these threats by the 14-year-old were said to be a “joke”, it should give us all pause to consider what’s going on in our country that’s contributing to this rise in crime, not just in schools but at large in our communities.
It’s safe to say that there are several reasons – from failed, radical left policies, to rioting and looting by groups like Antifa. That’s not really what I want to address today. As a mother of two teenage “white, cisgender males”, I have several concerns for our young men and the events of the past week have me reflecting on those.
As I was watching Fox & Friends yesterday morning, host Rachel Campos-Duffy was interviewing a psychologist about the mental health aspect of these shootings and the psychologist referred to the idea that “toxic masculinity” was playing a role in this increase in instability and violence among our teenage males. I was grateful to see Rachel put the stop to the “toxic masculinity” argument. This psychologist’s comments, however, are part of the problem.
Our boys and young men are growing up in a society that is teaching them that their very nature is “toxic.” Being masculine is a negative thing. Since the beginning of time, boys have played in the dirt, played cops & robbers, war, made “play” weapons out of anything available. This is not toxic, for most males, this is just in their nature. God created us this way – the men have that fighter/protector instinct by nature. It is not toxic by nature. It is toxic because our society has made it so.
On top of toxic masculinity, we have “white man bad.” In our schools our children are being taught as young as kindergarten that white children, especially white males, are oppressors who are causing harm to others in society. If you look at the Wheel of Power & Privilege, you will see that the white males are class who is targeted as the prime oppressors.
This has our boys and young men feeling guilty for something they have absolutely no control over – the color of their skin and the family/class to which they were born. Our society tells them they are toxic, they are oppressors and what are they supposed to do to fix it? Become part of the LGBTQ community? …because at least that way they are acceptable because this moves them to the “oppressed” category. Or what if they don’t want to change their sexual identity? Are they just supposed to live with their horrible selves?
Our children have spent almost 2 years now living in “Covid Society” – locked down, isolated, masked up and being fed fear at every turn. It is no wonder that we have a huge spike in mental illness among our youth, especially our young, white males. But no one cares. I don’t see the schools trying to figure out how to reach these students and help them. Why would they – they’re the awful oppressors. And so, is it any wonder when we see the rise in crime, the rise in violence and the incredible rise in drug use, drug overdose and youth suicides?
It should come as no surprise. And I blame our schools, I blame our government and I even blame our medical and mental health institutions. Enough is enough. The problem was created by the radical left and it’s time for them to fix it. But they won’t.
Parents: protect your sons. Give them every opportunity to be around adult male role models and mentors who teach them what it is to be a man – regardless of skin color or social class. Take your sons to church. Let them hear the word of God. Our sons need to know they were created in the image of God, unique, on purpose and for a purpose. There is nothing wrong with the way they were born.
What our country needs right now is men who are willing to be MEN. Men who are willing to stand up and be fathers, protectors, and leaders. To have this, we must make our boys and young men a top priority. And we must stop the white male guilt trip.
