Hartford Courant Likens Parents Objecting to Critical Race Theory to ‘KKK’

Parents objecting to their children being taught that America is a racist country are “beginning to sound a lot like the KKK,” the editors at the Hartford Courant wrote Thursday.

The editorial focused on a recent packed school board meeting in Guilford, Connecticut, during which parents and students condemned the teaching of principles associated with Critical Race Theory, a Marxist ideology that embraces the concept that all American institutions are systemically racist, with whites as oppressors and blacks as victims.

The Courant editors wrote:

How long is it going to be before those saying that white children are being taught to hate their race realize they are joining a movement that is beginning to sound a lot like the KKK and other groups that have twisted the promise of America into a self-serving message of hate?

…

A pamphlet for the event, sponsored by a group calling itself “No Left Turn in Education Connecticut,” says that Critical Race Theory is a an “evil, divisive, Marxist anti-American ideology that calls for dismantling and replacing all of our cherished American institutions …”

“This sounds like dog whistle language for racism,” the editors stated, describing the parents advocating for their children at school as having “jumped on a fast-moving bandwagon that paints any mention of diversity or equity as part of a plot to insinuate ‘Critical Race Theory’ into the culture.”

For the leftist media, all roads must eventually lead to Donald Trump.

“It’s the same fear Donald Trump has been trafficking in for years and the same fear that has been mined time and time again to turn neighbor against neighbor,” the Courant editors claimed regarding the parents. “It’s a fear that has been used to justify violence.”

The editorial is published now that parents in “blue” Connecticut have become increasingly aware of what their children are being taught.

Todd Feinburg, afternoon host of The Todd Feinburg Show on WTIC, Connecticut’s dominant conservative talk station, covered the Courant’s editorial on his show.

“At the same time that Democrats feel compelled to shore up minority votes with political pandering, they are scared of the damage that their support for critical race theory may cause with mainstream voters,” he wrote to Breitbart News in an email. “This is reflected I think in the knee jerk but poorly constructed editorial in the Courant.”

The Courant is not the first by any means to attack grassroots parent groups. Two weeks ago NBC News published a hit piece as well – and it drew a barrage of criticism:

What's interesting here is not only that NBCNews fails to give a fair description of why many object to CRT, its reporter celebrates her bias! This is not news. It's conscious propaganda. https://t.co/uHCCqey6nH

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) June 15, 2021

NBCNews reporter @BrandyZadrozny misrepresents my work, asks for comment, then refuses to publish it because her editors will not allow statements "disagreeing with on-record experts [and] activists."

They pick the "experts," push the narrative, and exclude dissent. Propaganda. pic.twitter.com/1kpiuBeenT

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) June 15, 2021

“NBC News is really upset that parents are fighting back against critical race theory,” wrote writer Libby Emmons at Postmillennial. “What’s really happening here is that the forms of grassroots civic action that have bolstered leftist causes for years upon years are now being taken up by conservatives, and the left doesn’t like it one bit.”

As Fox 61 News observed, Guilford’s superintendent, Dr. Paul Freeman, is using the latest strategy by school officials to deal with fired-up parents – that is, deny he is teaching the words, “Critical Race Theory,” while teaching its concepts:

Dr. Paul Freeman says it is inaccurate that this is being taught in schools. In a statement, he said in part:

“We are working in Guilford Schools to be more equitable in our practice, to embrace diverse texts in our classrooms, to diversify our teaching ranks, to address difficult historical events honestly and openly, and to ensure that all children feel heard in their schools.”

A similar statement was made by Jeff Porter, superintendent of the Cumberland-North Yarmouth, Maine, school district.

Breitbart News reported:

Porter denied his district uses Critical Race Theory (CRT). However, following the death of George Floyd, the district sent a letter to the community, expressing its “solidarity with Black Movement leaders” and detailing its decision to work with Community Change Inc. (CCI), a Boston-based company that self-describes on Twitter as “a non-profit that challenges systemic racism with a special focus on white people.”

“Can’t dismantle white supremacy without dismantling capitalism,” CCI states.

More black leaders are speaking out against the teaching of Critical Race Theory ideology.

Kendall Qualls, a former candidate for Congress in 2020, is leading a black school choice and anti-woke culture movement, starting in Minnesota and spreading nationally, that aims to challenge the narrative that America is a systemically racist nation.

TakeCharge says its objective is “inspire and educate black and other minority communities of their full rights and privileges as Americans granted to them by the Constitution.”

The organization seeks to move black individuals “to take charge of their own lives, the lives of their children and not to rely on government and politicians for redemption and prosperity.”

“We do not apologize for embracing America or its history,” TakeCharge asserts. “We believe that a well-grounded knowledge of American and world history strengthens our diverse country.”

The group denounces “the idea that the country is guilty of systemic racism and white privilege” and “abhor[s] the concept of identity politics and the promotion of victimhood in minority communities.”

“Having been involved on the front lines of American politics, I have learned that progressives are masters in the martial arts of political spin,” Qualls told Breitbart News regarding the Courant’s editorial. “When they have been accused of infraction, a mortal sin or a social wrong, they move and speak effortlessly and toss the accusations back to their opponents.”

“In most cases,” Qualls added, the left has been “quite successful.”

“Just look at the sitting Governor ‘black face’ of Virginia and the accused sexual harassment Governor of New York,” he observed.

“There are many prominent black Americans, including myself, voicing strong opposition to Critical Race Theory,” Qualls continued. “If judging a person by their skin color was wrong during Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech in the 1960s, it is wrong today. Just because the cannon of their racist rhetoric is pointed toward a different group of people, it doesn’t make it right.”