Left’s Claim Critical Race Theory Not Taught in Schools Falls Apart

Signs are seen on a bench during a rally against "critical race theory" (CRT) being taught
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty
Dr. Susan Berry

Republican wins in the top government posts in Virginia this month came about largely because GOP candidates listened to parents who were fighting in their local school districts against leftist educrats who attempted to deny they were teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT).

This week, CNN New Day host Brianna Keilar argued fiercely with Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), claiming CRT is not being taught in Virginia schools when Scott pointed to Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s ability to listen to outraged parents and to talk about the real issues affecting their families.

“Glenn Youngkin won his race because he talked about issues and I think that’s what’s going to happen,” Scott said about what he thinks Republicans will continue to do as the 2022 midterms approach.

“We’re going to see just like in Virginia Terry McAuliffe wanted to say there’s nothing about Critical Race Theory,” Scott continued. “We know it’s true. Parents know their kids are being indoctrinated with Critical Race Theory in Virginia and Democrats wanted to deny it. And so parents showed up because they don’t like being lied to.”

“Just to be clear, it’s not in the curriculum in Virginia,” Keilar jumped in to object.

But Scott was ready with the facts from the Virginia Department of Education website page titled “What We Are Reading” that lists books written by CRT proponents, including How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, and Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, by Edward Taylor, David Gillborn, and Gloria Ladson-Billings.

Minnesota Democrat Rep. Dean Phillips also claimed CRT is not being taught in schools in an interview with CNN about the Republican wins in Virginia.

“I’m saddened by the fact that we aren’t able to generate a narrative that is more truthful about what’s going on, because critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools,” Phillips said. “And it’s time that we start articulating that a little better.”

As Fox News noted, however, Phillips’ own campaign website discusses “understanding systemic racism”:

In order to realize racial justice, it’s critically important that we first understand our nation’s long history of racial discrimination, targeted disenfranchisement, and de facto laws that originated during times of slavery and the Jim Crow era—and that still exist in many of our institutions today.

Phillips cites “resources’ to help promote “real systemic change,” such as “1619,” a podcast by the New York Times, Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America, by Jennifer Harvey, and How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi.

In Phillips’ own state, black-led anti-CRT movement TakeCharge has denounced the “underlying premise of Critical Race Theory,” as the organization has vowed “to educate the public” about the theory’s origins and its “harmful effects on students.”

The narrative that CRT is “not in the curriculum” or simply teaching “anti-racism” has apparently failed.

An Indiana STEM educator and administrator addressed parents in a video last week in which he asserted when school officials say they are not teaching CRT, “we’re lying.”

“When we tell you that schools aren’t teaching Critical Race Theory that it’s nowhere in our standards, that’s misdirection,” Tony Kinnett declared.

“We don’t have the quotes and theories as state standards per se,” he explained, addressing claims such as those by Keilar that CRT is “not in the curriculum.”

“We do have Critical Race Theory in how we teach,” Kinnett asserted nevertheless, adding:

We tell our teachers to treat students differently based on color. We tell our students that every problem is a result. of “white men,” and that everything Western civilization built is racist. Capitalism is a tool of white supremacy. Those are straight out of Kimberly Crenshaw’s main points, verbatim, in Critical Race Theory, the Writings That Formed the Movement.

“We call it anti-racism,” Kinnett said. “So, you feel bad if you disagree with our segregationist pedagogy. It’s taking advantage of kids’ vulnerability, and parents’ inactivity to preen over social snake-oil schemes designed to create division.”

Even the Washington Post published an op-ed Tuesday by American Enterprise Institute’s Marc Thiessen titled “Democrats Are Lying About Critical Race Theory.”

“It has become a refrain on the left and its media echo-chamber following Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race: Critical race theory is not being taught in schools,” Thiessen wrote. “This is demonstrably false.”

Thiessen observed how the leftist media handled Youngkin’s victory:

PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor recently accused Republicans of winning by “lying about critical race theory.” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) declared “there is not a school in Virginia that teaches critical race theory.” Those who say otherwise, we are told, are “dishonest,” hyping a “fake CRT threat,” promoting an “imaginary” issue to “manipulate low information people,” engaging in “race-baiting lies” and blowing a “racist dog whistle.”

In fact, the top officials of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden at the end of September they were requesting federal law assistance due to “many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula.”

“This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class,” the NSBA officials asserted, continuing the narrative of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and numerous superintendents of schools throughout the country who have denied CRT is being taught in their school districts, despite partnering with companies that train teachers in the tenets of CRT so that they are equipped to indoctrinate their students.

In September, the United States Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution during its annual convention in which its members pledged to support the teaching of CRT in K-12 schools.

“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the nation’s mayors support the implementation of CRT in the public education curriculum to help engage our youth in programming that reflects an accurate, complete account of BIPOC history,” the mayors stated.

In July, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, also moved to openly promote the teaching of CRT in K-12 schools, and to oppose any bans on instruction in both the Marxist ideology and the widely discredited New York Times’ “1619 Project.”

The union agreed to “research the organizations attacking educators,” doing what it referred to as “anti-racist work,” as well as to “use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals, and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked.”

NEA dismissed the outrage of grassroots parents, claiming the main critics of CRT are “well-funded” conservative groups.

“The attacks on anti-racist teachers are increasing, coordinated by well-funded organizations such as the Heritage Foundation,” the union said. “We need to be better prepared to respond to these attacks so that our members can continue this important work.”

NEA’s adoption of the resolutions will commit President Becky Pringle “to make public statements across all lines of media that support racial honesty in education including but not limited to critical race theory.”

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