Monica Harris is the Executive Director of FAIR For All, a Harvard Law graduate, former Hollywood executive, and author of The Illusion of Division.

Monica explains how her experience as a gay Black woman in Hollywood and then in "flyover country"shattered many elite narratives about America. She describes why she believes much of our current polarization is manufactured by media and political interests, and how identity-based frameworks like liberated ethnic studies and DEI are deepening division rather than healing it.

We dig into the following:

• Why "Liberated Ethnic Studies" is dividing students, not uniting them
• How modern DEI programs drifted far from genuine civil rights principles
• Why identity-based teaching harms kids socially and emotionally
• The catastrophic decline in civic education—and why it matters now more than ever
• How the American Experience curriculum offers a unifying alternative
• What parents MUST know about what's being taught in classrooms today
• This conversation is a must-listen for parents, educators, and anyone concerned about polarization, education, and the future of democracy.

Resources & Links

• FAIR For All: https://fairforall.org
• Monica's Substack: The Illusion of Division
• Monica's book, "The Ilusion of Division"
• If you want to know about this topic, listen to our podcast with Brandy Shufutinsky: The Marxist Roots of Coursework in K-12 and our College Campuses.

Quotes

• "We have so much more in common than what separates us, but division is being manufactured."
• "Kids don't need to see each other as oppressors and oppressed—they need tools for civil discourse."
• "The bones of America are exceptional"
• "At FAIR, we're asking: what comes after polarization? Everyone can diagnose the problem; we're focused on solutions."
• "The entire liberated ethnic studies model flies in the face of reality on the ground. It pits students against each other at the exact moment in life when they most need to see each other as allies."

⏱ Episode Timestamps

• 00:00 -Welcome & Monica's California-to-Harvard-to-Hollywood story
• 05:00 -Leaving Hollywood for Montana: the real story behind the culture shock
• 07:50 - Why Monica wrote The Illusion of Division
• 09:20 — What FAIR For All does across education, arts, medicine & law
• 13:00 — Inside the American Experience curriculum
• 15:00 — The problems with Liberated Ethnic Studies
• 19:00 — Why America's system needs repair, not replacement
• 20:30 — How social media fuels division and fear
• 24:00 — "This isn't capitalism"—the economic reality young people face
• 26:00 — The collapse of civics education & why it matters
• 32:00 — How FAIR's curriculum teaches civil discourse & unifying history
• 35:00 — Why parents are the key to changing school districts
• 38:00 — What's happening in California, Oregon & other states
• 42:00 — When students should take the course: age, grade level & design
• 44:30 — The pilot program: access, cost & rollout plans
• 47:00 — How ethnic studies frames Jews, Asians & successful minorities as "privileged"
• 50:00 — Why human beings will always choose freedom over authoritarianism
• 51:00 — Closing thoughts & how to learn more