CV NEWS FEED // Even as it has become clear that teaching Critical Race Theory to American children in public schools is a mainstream priority of the political Left, many leading promoters of the controversial teaching method continued to deny their own advocacy this week.
“Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary schools or middle schools or high schools,” claimed American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. “It’s a method of examination taught in law school and in college that helps analyze whether systemic racism exists and in particular whether it has an effect on law and public policy,” she said.
Weingarten’s own teachers union recently tweeted about its secretary-treasurer’s appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, where Evelyn DeJesus argued that “teaching critical race theory allows educators to ‘give our students the opportunity to understand the full breadth and depth of the American society.’”
The rise of CRT in public schools has caused thousands of parents to speak out and testify against it at public school board hearings across the nation.
White parents have expressed concern that their children are being taught to feel ashamed of their skin because of the notion of collective racial guilt for evils like early American slavery.
Non-white parents have also complained against CRT, arguing that their children are being damaged by the message that their country is systemically working against them, and that they are widely hated by whites due to their race.
Weingarten seems to reject these criticisms, characterizing the concerns of parents as dishonest attacks against teachers who merely want to teach their children the truth.
“…[C]ulture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism, or discrimination as CRT to try to make it toxic,” said the teachers union head. “They are bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history.”
As CatholicVote reported earlier this week, many other high profile commentators have similarly “dismissed concerns about CRT by suggesting that its most controversial tenets are not in fact being taught in schools:”
A Guardian column claimed that “rightwing media fueled the critical race theory panic” and called concerned parents’ criticisms of CRT “hyperbolic.” Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe called the controversy surrounding CRT “totally made up” and a “rightwing conspiracy theory.” …
In the midst of these claims, however, the National Education Association (NEA) — America’s largest teachers union — voted at its annual assembly meeting to promote CRT in every state.
Days later, the NEA scrubbed the agenda item outlining that plan from its website, further fueling claims that powerful CRT advocates are hiding their own push for CRT in classrooms.
In the NEA’s original text on the topic, it mentioned partnering with the left-wing Zinn Education Project to promote CRT.
Zinn launched a petition this week signed by thousands of public school teachers who vowed to violate any State laws banning CRT from the classroom, arguing that
the major institutions and systems of our country are deeply infected with anti-Blackness and its intersection with other forms of oppression. To not acknowledge this and help students understand the roots of U.S. racism is to deceive them.
Quoting an article published at EdWeek this week, journalist Andrew Sullivan suggested that it is no longer possible to deny that CRT is being taught in schools and that teachers unions are promoting it:
