Barry Nussbaum: Hello, and welcome to ATP’s, Really Dumb Things, They Said. I’m Barry Nussbaum.

California Middle school students were told to read and analyze an op-ed piece published in the HuffPost titled “Why I’m a Racist,” sparking backlash from Parents. The students at Oak Middle School in Orange County were asked to analyze various points that the author, Huffington Post contributing writer Jeff Cook, made in his piece.

This op-ed in question begins with, “I am a white American male. I’m married to a beautiful, blond-haired, green-eyed woman, and I have two amazing, blond-haired, blue-eyed boys. I was a blond-haired, blue-eyed child who grew up in suburban New Jersey in a solid family with a mother, a father, a brother, and two dogs.”

Cook later ads in the essay that he was not racist and bigoted, in a hateful way, but he’s, “uncomfortable with, ignorant of and distant from racial inequalities that exist in the United States.”

He also writes, “he is okay with admitting he’s a racist, and in doing so, it doesn’t make him evil.” I hope you hear the premise from which this entire middle school assignment was based. The writer is white. Therefore, he’s a racist, and he’s okay in admitting it. Now, the white 12-year-old kids are forced to examine how racist they are because, well, they’re white, too.

Come on, parents, get involved. Find out what dumb stuff your kids are being taught before you lose control of this racist narrative.