Tag: education

Ibram X. Kendi Equates Parents Fighting Critical Race Theory To The KKK, Segregationists

Critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi likened parents’ reactions to critical race theory to the pro-segregation and pro-Klu Klux Klan response after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case. School curriculum based on critical race theory indoctrinates children with racist ideas, but in a Wednesday livestream with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Kendi called this education is “crucial” for students.

“The only thing that I can compare this recent wave of what is happening in our school districts, what’s happening in our school districts, what’s happening in our communities, is it really reminds me of the reaction and the response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision when there was widespread fear in certain schools and certain communities that, quote, those desegregated schools with those black children were going to be harmful to white children,” Kendi said.

“It’s similarly being cast, or framed, as if teaching about history, teaching about racism, even teaching about slavery is going to somehow harm white children,” he said. 

On Thursday, AFT president Randi Weingarten claimed that critical race theory wasn’t taught in K-12 schools, even though her own union said “critical race theory allows educators to give our students the opportunity to understand the full breadth and depth of the American society.”

Kendi went on to criticize legislators who have been pushing to limit the spread of critical race theory in schools, stressing the importance of such teaching. 

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Nation’s largest teachers union mysteriously scrubs pro-critical race theory pledge from website

The National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the United States, mysteriously scrubbed from its website a recently adopted plan to combat opponents of critical race theory.

What is the background?

As TheBlaze reported, the NEA adopted a resolution at its annual meeting last week that pledged to “fight back” against groups working to stop critical race theory from being taught in schools.

Not only did the NEA’s resolution vow to “fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric,” but the resolution reaffirmed the NEA’s view that developing curriculum based on critical race theory and other similar ideologies is important “for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society.”

The action plan is necessary, according to a separately adopted resolution, because “the attacks on anti-racist teachers are increasing.” That resolution was also removed.

What happened now?

The NEA removed its pro-CRT resolutions from the union website sometime this week after its plans generated attention, and predictable backlash, online.

Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, an organization that NEA cited specifically as one group the union would “fight back” against, noted Tuesday, “[Three] days after their annual meeting concludes, @NEAToday, the nation’s largest teacher’s union, scrubs the agenda items announcing their nationwide campaign to push CRT from their website.”

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This is The Left’s Handbook to Deal With Parent-Pushback on Critical Race Theory

A coalition of 300 groups and 20 foundations lead by the National Education Association have produced a guidebook. It provides messaging on how to address pushback against Critical Race Theory.

Maybe it’s just coincidence, but shortly before the mid-June frenzy, a large coalition of over 300 progressive educational and union groups, over a dozen major left-leaning foundations, and a parade of affiliated “influencers,” rolled out a CRT Messaging Guide with talking points identical to those repeated almost daily by teachers unions, in major newspapers, on MSNBC and CNN, and in digital media.

Whether the Message Guide was a script being read from, or simply reflected a coalescing of tactics and talking points, its appearance reflects how organized the messaging against parents has become.

I saved (screengrabbed and converted) a local PDF copy of the guide here. Please read it, follow the links, download a copy, and share it. This is the establishment plan for pushing back against opposition to CRT by parents, concerned taxpayers, even legislators, and the media.

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Outrageous! Here’s a Look at the Shocking White Privilege, Gender Equity Lesson Plans Used To Indoctrinate Your Kids

Parents may not be able to vet or opt out of the social justice, ideologically skewed educational regimen being taught nationwide in K-12 classrooms.

But thousands of lesson plans designed to instill students with a gender-fluid, racist, anti-American ideology are available for review at TeachersPayTeachers.com,  a site allowing teachers to sell and share educational programs.

According to the Teachers Pay Teachers website, TpT “is the go-to place for over 85% of U.S. educators to find teacher-created, teacher-tested classroom resources” and “has grown to reach over 5 million educators.”

The site contains 5,552 lesson plans to nurture students on the tenets of Black Lives Matter, 3,712 on critical race, 166 on white privilege, and dozens of gender equity lesson plans.

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Professors say proper grammar is racist, perpetuates whiteness

Towson University recently hosted a virtual “Antiracist Pedagogy Symposium,” according to Campus Reform, which “criticized university writing curriculum and programs for being racist and perpetuating whiteness.”

What’s the background here?

The program, which featured an array of speakers, was sponsored by the school’s Office of the Provost, the College of Liberal Arts, the Faculty Academic Center of Excellence, Center for Student Diversity, the school’s department of English, and more.

In addition to educating attendees about first-year writing and graduate school writing, the forum also addressed “linguistic justice.”

“As the country begins its long-awaited reckoning with institutional racism, colleges and universities have been engaging deeply in the ethical dilemma of our time: How do our institutional structures and practices contribute to the problem of silencing, marginalizing, minoritizing, and otherwise harming black and indigenous students of color?” the event page reads. “What do we need to change to create not just a passively inclusive atmosphere for student, but an actively anti-racist one?”

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Amazon Funding Distribution of Ibram X. Kendi’s ‘Antiracist’ Books in Public Schools

Amazon spent $5,000 to distribute hundreds of copies of “antiracist” writer Ibram X. Kendi’s book to Virginia public school students as part of a program to promote black authors, according to emails between Amazon and school district officials.

The emails show Amazon employees reached out to Arlington Public Schools as part of “NeighborGood,” a program to donate $100,000 to schools and other institutions that “empower black voices and serve black communities.” Despite Amazon’s offer to purchase Kindles or other equipment, Arlington Public Schools director of diversity and inclusion Arron Gregory requested copies of Kendi’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. Amazon donated between 500-600 copies of the book to Wakefield High School and paid $10,000 to have Kendi’s coauthor Jason Reynolds address students.

Asra Nomani, vice president of Parents Defending Education, the watchdog group that obtained the emails through a public records request, called Amazon’s prioritization of “antiracism” efforts during a pandemic “shortsighted” in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.

“Instead of donating Kindles and hot spots to students in Arlington Public Schools, Amazon chose to spread the controversial ideology of critical race theory,” Nomani said. “The shortsighted decisions during a pandemic, with so many students vulnerable, reflect the national crisis of school districts circumventing parents to indoctrinate students—in this case, with the help of corporate America.”

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Judicial Watch Critical Race Theory Investigation: Records Show Massachusetts School District Segregates Students/Staff Based on Race In ‘Affinity Spaces’

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 111 pages of records from Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts which confirm the use of “affinity spaces” that divide students and staff based on race as a priority and objective of the school district’s “diversity, equity and inclusion” plan. The school district also admitted that between September 1, 2020 and May 17, 2021, it created “five distinct” segregated spaces.   

Judicial Watch obtained the records after filing a May 17 Massachusetts Public Records Law request for records concerning the number of affinity spaces, the policies regarding their creation and use, the topics discussed, and any analysis of whether affinity spaces that exclude certain races are consistent with state and federal law, which would include the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the MA Equal Rights Amendment and/or the MA School Attendance Law.

The Wellesley Public School records include a document detailing the school district’s “Equity Strategic Plan 2020-2025” which includes a “District Equity by Design” plan with the stated goal of amplifying student voices by providing “opportunities for affinity spaces for students with shared identity.”

In a section of the document titled “Diversity Staffing,” a stated goal is to “Provide resources for affinity spaces for specialized populations within the wider Faculty/Staff (ie. ALANA, Admin Leaders of Color, LGBTQ+, White Educators for Antiracism, etc.)”

Wellesley Public Schools states in its plan for “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:” “We will practice risk-taking and challenge one another to continuously examine systems of privilege and bias, and work collectively to disrupt and dismantle inequity in all its forms.” 

In an email on March 18 to Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Charmie R. Curry, the day of the so-called “healing space,” a Wellesley High School fitness & health teacher writes: “I wanted to check first, is it appropriate for me to go to this healing space?” Curry responds: “This time, we want to hold the space for Asian and Asian American students and faculty/staff. I hope this makes sense.”

In an April 12 email to school district colleagues, Curry notes that “Equity Literacy” is required coursework in the district. Curry writes: “There is still plenty of time to enroll in the two required courses – ‘Understanding Equity and Inequity’ and ‘Learning to Be a Threat to Inequity.’ These courses, with a keen focus on helping us to build/sharpen our structural ideological lenses, are essential to our ability to address inequities in our community. Our students who are being impacted by inequities such as racism, homophobia, ableism, etc. need to be equipped to respond today to their needs in order to positively impact their experiences.”

In addition, the school district admitted that it does not have any records analyzing whether such segregated spaces violate the U.S. Constitution, the Massachusetts Constitution or any other law.

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