North Carolina Officials Fuming over School District Paying CRT Promoter Ibram X. Kendi $25,000 Speaking Fee

Ibram X. Kendi visits Build to discuss the book Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You at Bui
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is calling out the state’s second-largest school district for paying Critical Race Theory proponent Ibram X. Kendi $25,000 for speaking at a “summer leadership summit.”

Kendi, author of the book How to Be An Antiracist and collaborator on two other books on the subject for middle and high schoolers, is behind the push to include his controversial ideology of white people being inherently racist into school curriculums.

School choice advocate and adjunct fellow at the Cato Institute, Corey DeAngelis, posted the news on Twitter and the invoice for Kendi’s speaking fee can be found online.

The Carolina Journal reported on the revelation, which builds on a nationwide trend of schools embracing Critical Race Theory and parents pushing back against it:

“This is clear and direct evidence that Critical Race Theory is being pushed in North Carolina,” Robinson said in a statement released Wednesday from the state Senate. “The fact that a public school district would pay someone who chooses to teach others that ‘the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination’ is unimaginable.

“This kind of thinking does not help us move forward from the days of Jim Crow, in fact, it is leading us back to them,” Robinson added. “This makes it clear that the left is working to bring back a racial divide and not unity. It is time that we all take a stand as Americans against Critical Race Theory.”

Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, joined Robinson in highlighting Kendi’s presentation for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Berger’s office described Kendi as “perhaps the world’s most prominent critical race theorist.”

“Kendi advocates for racial discrimination,” according to a press release from Berger’s office. “He wrote, ‘The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.’”

“He advocates an overthrow (death by ‘unnatural causes’) of the economic system that has generated more wealth and progress than any in the history of the world,” the release said. “[Kendi] wrote, ‘Capitalism is essentially racist; racism is essentially capitalist. … [T]hey shall one day die together from unnatural causes.’”

“This is not some footnote to a school curriculum’s consideration of America’s racial past,” the press release said. “This is the state’s second-largest school district embracing a discriminatory ideology by paying $25,000 to learn from the ideology’s most prominent adherent.”

The release notes that CMS encourages students to read Kendi’s book “Stamped: Racism, Anti Racism, and You.”

“This is not a public school system encouraging students to read a diversity of perspectives,” a state senate press release said. “It is a public school system embracing and endorsing the concepts contained in Kendi’s book.”

“To say I’m troubled by this insidious, discriminatory doctrine’s creep into North Carolina public schools is an understatement,” Berger said. “Children must not be taught that it is appropriate to engage in ‘present discrimination,’ and public schools must be held to account for advancing this dangerous line of thinking.”

The Journal reported it is not clear if any action will be taken in the wake of the development.

Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com.

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