The Boy and Girl Scouts of America were inspired by a Britisher named Robert Baden-Powell. America’s Industrial Revolution did little to educate the youth about how to interact gracefully with others. Furthermore, America’s public school system focused on academia; it didn’t propose that it was a primary source for inspiration that makes life possible or meaningful like the arts, survival skills, or religion. Professional art education wasn’t encouraged until after World War II. It, therefore, seemed that formal education left a gap that, perhaps, scouting might fill.

Americans knew about “third places” long before Starbucks used the term to portray their stores as places people could hang out between home and work.  The Boys’ Club of America was created in 1860 because according to their offical history, the foundresses were concerned about boys roaming the streets.

There’s no mention of race in the organization’s official account of its origins; a look at another account of the organization’s history indicates they found ways to integrate in the early 1900s.

BSA/GSA are clearly not racist organizations. However, to this day, it still seems there isn’t much emphasis on teaching brown kids about the value of their uniqueness. That isn’t a crime, and complaining about it is NOT the goal of this blog post. The point I’m trying to make is mentioned in the sentence at the bottom.

Oakland, CA ladies decided that the Girl Scouts just weren’t adequate for their brown daughters; so they made their own scout-like organization called “Radical Monarchs” (Yes, it’s open to whites also). This organization is about empowering and bolstering the self-esteem of ALL girls while making sure that brown girls understand their unique contribution as well as the threats against them that still exist in American society.

PBS’ trailer on the Monarchs:

Here is more information about this documentary, and this is information from the source. The PBS documentary comes from POV, which is one of the most valuable and insightful contributors to PBS imo.

Now, all this would be fine and dandy if FOX NEWS stayed out of it, but somebody in that organization must have thought their viewers would feel threatened by these little girls (Seems they’re always looking for molehills that they think may turn into threatening mountains); so, they decided to weigh in, and it ain’t pretty. Why would one person’s strength, vitality, or wealth be considered a threat or a problem to anybody else? Before you answer that, I recommend you head to Sapient’s Resoures page in order to learn about Tulsa 1921.

Imagine a dude walking into McDonalds proclaims “I deserve to eat well!” Would it make sense for anybody to respond with, “You must think I don’t deserve that too!” That would be a non-sequitur. If you check out this video from America’s “most racist town”, Harrison, Arkansas, you’ll hear emphatic verbal reactions to “Black Lives Matter” as if the expression has anything to do with them.

Here in America, it’s rather obvious that racist whites have a problem with brown kids finding a way to edify themselves without their help. Check out Fox News’ presentation on the Monarchs:

Seems to me they’re using all the dog whistles for this one. Just look at the u-tube still image above. “Fierce sisterhood” is code for “angry black women”, which is a way of suggesting that angry is all they will ever be. On the line below is the word, “indoctrinating”, which is a clear attempt to suggest that nothing legitimate is happening here. In my opinion, manipulative and disingenuous reactions like this signify clearly to all of us, we who do not derive our energy from such thoughts, that everybody, whites included, need to continue to nurture and edify ourselves WHILE remaining aware of AND ignoring those who would feel threatened by it.