A nine-year-old boy in Phoenix earned a three-day suspension from the Abraham Lincoln Traditional School for committing a “hate crime,” reports the Arizona Republic.  The boy reportedly used the phrase “brown people” while arguing with another student.  He was then questioned by a detention-room officer—the mother of the offended “brown person”—who demanded to know “why he didn’t want to cooperate with brown people.”  After incriminating himself by answering the leading question, the boy was forced to stand in front of the class and confess his sin.  The Arizona Republic reports, with a straight face, that this is his “second offense using the phrase.”

The real subject of the story, however, is not the virulent racism of this nine-year-old but the school’s principal, Virginia Voinovich.  In the parent-teacher conference that followed the incident, she admitted to having told the student that “in your heart you may have that feeling, and that is OK if that is your personal belief.”  She also told the boy’s mother, Sherry Neve, that parents give up disciplinary rights when they send their children to school, and if she didn’t approve, she could remove her son.  Neve promptly obliged, and she is outraged at the school’s treatment of the incident.  (The boy denies ever having uttered the obscene phrase.)  She claims Voinovich was influencing her son in a way she didn’t approve.  The Associated Press reports that Voinovich has since resigned.

As reported, the Big Story was not the boy’s alleged verbal abuse, nor the line of leading questions that may have garnered a false confession.  No, it was Principal Voinovich’s remark, captured on tape by Mrs. Neve, that caused a public panic to ensue.  The media is horrified that a school administrator would tell a child that it is “OK” to think “racist” thoughts, as long as you don’t act on them.  Some thoughts are acceptable; some aren’t.  And it is Principal Voinovich’s job, and her school’s job, and the job of all public schools in America to encourage the correct thoughts and punish the incorrect ones.

The Thought Police who have taken over our media, universities, and public institutions would claim they have no definition of “correct” and “incorrect” but seek toleration of all peoples and beliefs.  Well, let us pretend for a moment that the boy had said that he finds it difficult to cooperate with “Christian people” and, assuming the case even raised the principal’s eyebrow, that Voinovich had told him that it’s OK to hate Christianity in his heart, so long as he does not act on that belief.  Would the Associated Press have picked up the story?  Would Voinovich have felt compelled to resign?

The media tolerates whatever works for the propagation of its leftist agenda—no matter how “intolerant” that behavior might otherwise be termed.  The younger we catch those little racists, the better off we all are.  And, thanks to infantcare and Head Start, we can catch them quite young.  We have 18 to 22 solid years to indoctrinate other people’s children in “acceptable” beliefs and opinions, and we must, if necessary, humiliate the nine-year-olds who step out of line.

Has it occurred to anyone that, if the poor kid wasn’t a racist before, he surely will be now?  Oh no, the powers-that-be continually preach.  Everybody finds the phrase “brown people” offensive.  In fact, everybody loves all races.  Everybody thinks there is some truth to all religions (except Christianity, of course).  Everybody believes Islam is a religion of peace.  Get on the bandwagon, stupid.

The Thought Police haven’t yet won the war, however.  During a course I recently took entitled “Global Terrorism,” many of my fellow students made it clear that they do not, in fact, believe Islam is a religion of peace.  They weren’t too fond of the hordes of illegal aliens pouring across our southern border, either.  And a good number thought that allowing profiling at O’Hare would be downright sensible.

I don’t attend a conservative school.  Northern Illinois University is a public institution 65 miles from Chicago, the city that makes Illinois run blue in every election.  The student body is about 25,000 strong, with a large percentage hailing from the city and the suburbs.  And yet, contrary to what might be expected, we are not a homogenized leftist mass.

And if the reaction to the Brown People Crisis from independent news organizations and blogs—websites that are anything but advocates for racism or white supremacy—is any indication, America is not as uniformly politically correct as the politically correct would have us believe.

Despite the left’s attempts at indoctrination, people simply aren’t made to care about other races and other nationalities more than their own.  It is human nature to love those closest to you, to identify most with those of your own race or nationality.  And in spite of all the antifamily, anti-American rhetoric in the media and academia today, human nature hasn’t changed.  What has changed is our acceptance of it.  The left has told us that Americans should weep as much for Pakistanis and Iranians as they do for their own people; marriage is a mere political arrangement; and children are a life choice, not a divine command.  Far too many of us have swallowed it; many of us haven’t, however, even if we at times lack the courage to face public contempt for expressing an errant thought out loud.