By Steve Byas

The name of Karl Marx is rightly associated with communism. After all, he wrote The Communist Manifesto for the League of the Just (later re-named the Communist Party) in 1848. Most think of Marxism as an economic doctrine, which it certainly is, a doctrine which favors a dictatorship to implement its viewpoint on such things as the abolition of private property.

But Marxism is not just about economics, as important as that is. It is for the total restructuring of society, just like their intellectual ancestors who tried that in the French Revolution. A key foundation of the communist movement, by whatever name it calls itself, is what they call the struggle between groups. They refer to the masses, not individuals. A person is viewed as a member of an identity group – a race, a sex, a culture, a religion, what have you – and assert that one group is oppressing another group.

It is not that they care about the individuals in the alleged oppressed group, but it is rather about the cause – the communist cause. These groups are but pawns in the efforts of the Left to achieve their goals. We could go through the different groups thus used, but let us concentrate on “race,” a term made popular by 19th century Darwinian evolutionists.

If a black person is a liberal, he or she may very well be defended by using the “racism” charge. This was very common when Barack Obama was president – criticism of his policies or actions was often defended by charging the person opposing him was just a “racist.” But black conservatives cannot expect the same defense from the Left. Not at all. If anything, they (and conservative females, for example) can expect even greater hostility from the Left. Justice Clarence Thomas is a prime example of this.

In short, when the Left babbles on about “diversity,” they do not mean political diversity. Their idea of diversity is a liberal white person, a liberal black person, a liberal woman, or whatever, just so long as the person is a liberal. They dismiss a black conservative as not truly black, or as Joe Biden put it, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.” I remember a liberal in Oklahoman saying that Congressman J.C. Watts was not really black, because he was a Republican.

This view – that we should all be judged not by our character, but rather by the color of our skin, or our sex, or our religion – permeates society, even in “conservative” Oklahoma. At the University of Oklahoma, there is not one single Republican in the 33-member department of history. Now, that doesn’t seem very diverse.

Across town in Norman, we have the Norman Public Schools. Superintendent Nick Migliorino recently spoke to the Norman Chamber of Commerce on the “State of the Schools,” in the city. Was he concerned about academic performance? School safety? Well, if he mentioned such things, the local paper did not mention it.

No, his focus was on the district’s growing ethnic diversity within its student body, noting that 55.5 percent of the district’s students are Caucasian, 16.3 percent are Hispanic, 13.9 percent are multiracial, 6.7 percent are Black, 4.4 percent are Native American and 3.2 percent are Asian. He lamented that 91 percent of the district’s certified staff was Caucasian, saying, “That has to change.”

To accomplish this change, the district has hired an executive director of diversity, equity and inclusion. Hiring in the future will concentrate on faculty who “look” like the students. “We believe that our faculty should represent our students — our students should be able to go to school and see people who look like them.”

While I am sure that the superintendent of Norman Public Schools would not say it so bluntly, it appears that the district is adopting a policy that Caucasians need not apply, or if they do, they need to go to the back of the bus when it comes to getting hired. After all, a teaching candidate should be hired on his or her looks. In Norman, one might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you sure can a teacher.

I am not saying Mr Migliorino is a Marxist, but this is the type of thinking that advances the Marxist cause. As former Oklahoman John Eidsmoe wrote in a recent issue of The New American, “social justice” is when there is a “massive shift of power from oppressors to the oppressed.” (Note: The Communist Party was originally called the League of the Just).

Again, the idea of “diversity” only goes “skin deep,” because skin color is all that matters. A prospective teacher in the district is to be judged not the candidate’s knowledge of subject matter, or teaching ability, but by the color of his or her skin.

If blacks and women are among the “oppressed,” then who are the “oppressors?” Evangelical Christians are the villains in the Social Justice Warrior morality play. In a recent column, Dana Milbank said, “White evengelicals were fired up like no other group by Trump’s encouragment of white supremacy.”

This libel is particularly noxious. I was raised in an evangelical church, and have been in evangelical churches all of my life. I have never once heard a preacher or Sunday School teacher express encouragement of ‘white supremacy.’ In fact, I have listened to black preachers expound from the pulpit of more than one of those churches. Interestingly, a larger percentage of African-Americans are evangelicals than white Americans.

But religion, especially the type of Christianity that takes the Bible seriously, is the enemy of cultural Marxists. Marx himself called it a drug that keeps the masses from rising up in revolt. If the church buildings can be kept closed, so much the better, in their perspective.

The Marxists play on grievances, real [and there are, and have been, real grievances] and imagined. But just remember this – they are not looking to solve these grievances, but to use them to gain power, just like Adolf Hitler used the fear of communism to become a National Socialist dictator in Germany.

Steve Byas is Editor of the Oklahoma Constitution newspaper, and may be contacted at byassteve@yahoo.com