An art teacher asks Dennis Prager how to reveal conservative views to colleagues without losing his job. Prager compares the risk to historical Marranos hiding beliefs, advises assessing whether he can tolerate social ostracism, and suggests finding hidden allies first before speaking out.
listed as a teacher there and, you know, put under the microscope.
Well, you shouldn't even use blacklisted. That alone would render you fired, just the term itself, right? Blacklisted is a negative and it has the word black in it.
But, uh, you would, you would, you would be ostracized socially, clearly.
Are you ostracized socially now, or do they have no clue as to how you think?
They have absolutely no clue. I mean, I keep my head down.
So you are truly what I call a Marrano. You're like the Jews in medieval Spain who acted Catholic and practiced Judaism at home. You are this modern Marrano.
Well, if it helps, I'm an art teacher, so it's even rarer than that.
That's right. In your profession? So it's— are you married?
I am.
Does your wife share your values?
Mm-hmm, and she's a teacher too. What percentage of teachers do you think are in your position?
You know, it's hard to say because I really do think there's a lot of groupthink. On this side of the river where I live, I do think that there's a lot of people who just kind of keep their heads down, or, you know, it's just not something that they talk about at work. I mean, today alone there were 2 or 3 people who had mentioned Trump. Oh, it's Trump and Trump. It's like, I don't feel safe to have any conversation there that's actually meaningful. And if I just, you know, don't nod my head and agree, I do feel like I'll be personally ostracized.
Well, you have to, and I'm not telling you what to do. It's not right for me to, because I don't have the same situation as you. I'm hated by many people. I don't have a threat to my work.
Uh, the, the, at a, at a given point, you, you just have to figure out what you can do without being fired and then ask, can I handle the ostracization and, and hate?
Because you will find allies that you didn't know you had. I just want you to know that they do exist. I have friends in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the last orchestra in the country you would imagine it would be okay to state that you're a conservative, and they have been bold about it. Their colleagues don't like their views, but they're doing okay. So it's something you have to weigh. I will just say this. I can handle being hated. I'm not sure I could handle being fired because I want you to have an income.
So if I were him, if I were he, to be actually correct grammatically, I would speak out in as non-emotional, non-adjectival, fact-based way as possible, and then see what happens.
But I'm not telling him to do that. I'm only saying what I think I would do But I certainly would not want to get fired. I have to support a family.
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