Preet Bharara, a former federal prosecutor, has written a new children’s book, Justice Is … , which claims to be a “guide for young truth seekers.”
It extols historical figures who “stood for justice,” including Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Malala Yousafzai, Nelson Mandela, Harvey Milk, Mohandas Gandhi, John Lewis and — oddly — Richard Nixon.
The book does America an injustice, writes Ira Stoll on Education Next. “It offers the same grim view of a structurally racist America that can be found in critical race theory.”
Despite proclaiming that “justice needs to hear every side of the story,” the book is one-sided, writes Stoll.
Black Lives Matters protesters are seen as “peaceful justice advocates,” the police as “as an all-white force about to beat up Civil Rights leader John Lewis.” There’s no suggest that “police, including officers and chiefs of color, arrest violent criminals or protect people and property.”
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A two-page spread with the words “Sometimes people worry that there is no Justice in the world” features “The Holocaust,” “The Trail of Tears,” “Slavery” and “Tenement Slums.” One of those things is not like the other three. Yes, some landlords are and were abusive or negligent. But as a general matter, providing temporary low-cost housing to poor, rent-paying immigrants in a voluntary, mutually agreed-upon commercial relationship is not the same thing as genocide or as race-based involuntary servitude. Outlawing single-room-occupancy buildings or other “tenement slums” can have the unintended consequence of rendering affordable housing scarce-to-nonexistent, spawning the urban homeless encampments that even Democratic progressive mayors have been bulldozing.
Stoll isn’t sure why Nixon is praised for resigning to avoid impeachment. Because Trump didn’t resign? To appear nonpartisan?
The book is likely to appear in school libraries and reading lists, he predicts.
Stoll suggests a book about an immigrant from India who became “a celebrity federal prosecutor,” while his American-born brother, Vinit, built Diapers.com and sold “it to Amazon for $545 million.”
Preet Bharara, a former federal prosecutor, has written a new children’s book, Justice Is … , which claims to be a “guide for young truth seekers.”