The words “‘equity,’ ‘anti-racist,’ or ‘culturally responsive’” are familiar to every student’s ears. But as kids brought their school home due to COVID-19 virtual learning, parents realized the positive rhetoric didn’t match the nefarious definitions. Parents are now taking a stand against Critical Race Theory in schools.
A quick definition of Critical Race Theory is in order here to help us see how it has infiltrated American schools and why parents are beginning to wake up to the dangers of its teaching.
What Is Critical Race Theory?
Christopher Rufo clearly defines it as “an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism”.
Critical Race Theory breaks everyone and every institution down into identities (white, black, bisexual, trans, etc.) and pits them against each other. Anyone who has an upper hand of any sort is considered an oppressor.
Translating this into real life, Rufo gives us an example from the Treasury Department, which held a training session in 2020 “telling staff members that ‘virtually all white people contribute to racism’ and that they must convert ‘everyone in the federal government’ to the ideology of ‘antiracism’.”
Capitalism is explicitly racist, under Critical Race Theory, and continual reparations and the recognition of inherent racism in every human interaction is the cure.
However, the cure is never fully complete, so racism is a never-ending cycle with never-ending victimhood or oppression for everyone involved (whether oppressor or pressed).
Make sense?
RELATED: What Is Critical Race Theory? Three Ways CRT Manifests Itself in American Culture
Parents Stand Up to Fight Critical Race Theory
If that didn’t make sense to you, then congratulations! You’re actually sane and probably love capitalism and western principles. Parents all across America are coming to the same conclusion and are mortified to discover their children are being fed this indoctrination everyday in school by teachers and textbooks.
The Epoch Times reported that one group of parents called Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT) assembled in Loudon County, Virginia. PACT gained media coverage when parents came forward with stories of CRT teaching in their local schools.
One parent reported anonymously to The Epoch Times, “‘Basically, they’re categorizing children by race to determine the quality of education each will have, which is absolutely unacceptable.”
Another mother whose son attends Harvard-Westlake reported, “‘They are making my son feel like a racist because of the pigmentation of his skin.’”
PACT started a GoFundMe page, but it was shut down. The Epoch Times reports that they opened a new one on GiveSendGo and successfully raised $13,000.
The Parents Face the Wrath of the Woke Mob
Bary Weiss with City Journal reported on parents who were afraid to speak out publicly (i.e. publish their names) because their reputation would be slandered and their children expelled from elite schools. The children’s chances of enrolling in an Ivy-league college would be ruined.
Weiss writes, “‘The school can ask you to leave for any reason,’ said one mother at Brentwood, another Los Angeles prep school. ‘Then you’ll be blacklisted from all the private schools and you’ll be known as a racist, which is worse than being called a murderer.’”
The Students Face Severe Backlash
Weiss also sheds light on the fear that students feel if they speak out publicly.
An anonymous student in New York City told Weiss, “‘If you publish my name, it would ruin my life. People would attack me for even questioning this ideology. I don’t even want people knowing I’m a capitalist.”
The fear of peer pressure and social mobs is tangible for students.
How to Fight Critical Race Theory
Despite multiple anonymous fighters, parents and students are beginning to stand up.
The Washington Times reported that Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, said, “‘Our country is in a crisis today because of ideologues pumping divisive, polarizing ideas into our classrooms, teaching them to our children. […] Educators have a moral duty to teach our kids how to read, write and think – not dictate what they must think. […] As parents, we must stand together to defend education, challenge radicalization and inspire our children with positive values.”
As leagues of parents begin to take a stand, it’s important to understand that, as Christopher Rufo (founder of Battlefield) says, the premise of Critical Race Theory is true. America did have slavery at one point, and America does have some very dark blots of oppression and sin in its history.
But the conclusion of Critical Race Theory, as Rufo points out, is faulty.
America has recovered from racism. Racism still exists in some ways, but it is not systemic, and the majority of Americans are not racist. We should not throw out capitalism and the American system and western civilization just because we had horrible things in our past. America has overcome much racism and is continuing to do so. Critical Race Theory and an unnecessary focus on past wrongs is only clouding what could be a clear view of moving forward in a positive way.
By focusing on positive aspects of where America is and constructively building on that progress, we can make great strides in combatting Critical Race Theory.
We need to reject the 1619 Project (a Critical Race Theory-based curricula nationwide) and other dangerous curricula to move toward accurate history, as Rufo suggests.
We must embrace original definitions of words and reject the woke definitions and twisting of words like “social justice” and “equity” and “racism”. Know what the original terms mean, and when you are accused of being “racist” for speaking out against Critical Race Theory, you will be able to combat that accusation.
Take courage, and be brave. It is not an easy thing to fight a prevailing ideology. But as parents rise up to the defense of their kids, the movement will continue to grow, and perhaps Critical Race Theory can be removed from the American system.
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