From California to Virginia, and from Portland to Connecticut, schools across the country are adding “critical race theory” (CRT) to their curriculums, writes Charles Fain Lehman at The Washington Free Beacon.
Lehman gives examples of CRT, which views everything in Western Civilization through the lens of racism, being used to indoctrinate students in public and private schools:
- “Los Angeles’s elite Harvard-Westlake School issued a 20-page confessional about the school’s role in perpetuating‘racism and injustice’ and promised changes. The school, which sends dozens of kids to the Ivy League every year, will now teach 11th-grade U.S. history from a ‘critical race theory perspective.’”
- “On the East Coast, the wealthy Fairfax County public school district shelled out $20,000for an hourlong speech from critical-race commentator Ibram X. Kendi. At one school in the district, faculty went further, disseminating ‘anti-racist’ reading lists to parents and organizing students into ‘equity’ committees.”
- “A listof ‘anti-racism’ resources, compiled just days after the death of George Floyd and featuring such writers as Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and the authors of the New York Times‘s controversial 1619 project, was shared widely by colleges and high schools across the country.”
According to a new report, “Critical Race Theory, the New Intolerance, and Its Grip on America,” from Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez at The Heritage Foundation, CRT “makes race the prism through which its proponents analyze all aspects of American life.” They write that CRT normalizes the “belief in systemic racism for the average American” and has a “commitment to dismantle all aspects of society through unremitting criticism.”
Of course America has racism and bigotry in its past – and even today – as all countries and cultures do. But it’s not the only issue of importance in our history and society. Those who espouse CRT are dismissive of every aspect of American life and history – including the Constitution and civil rights, like those embodied in the First Amendment. They believe “that the gauge by which to judge America is equality of outcome [and] that speech and other rights must be suppressed in order to protect the marginalized.”
How did we get to this place, where high school students are taught that racial struggle is the only lens through which to view American history and that basic civil rights should be dismissed?
Butcher and Gonzalez explain that CRT is rooted in Marxist dogma, which famously said, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who co-authored The Communist Manifesto, believed class struggle was between the “bourgeoisie,” who owned property and the means of creating more wealth, and the “proletariat,” the workers. In order to remake society according to Communist ideals, Marx called for the abolition of the family, individuality, eternal truths, nations and tradition.
“Critical Theory” (CT) developed out of Marxist ideology, Butcher and Gonzalez explain. In 1937 the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt published a manifesto and “modeled itself on the Moscow-based Marx-Engels Institute.”
“Critical Theory was, from the start, an unremitting attack on Western institutions and norms in order to tear them down,” CT gained a foothold in American universities in the ‘30s, and influenced two new movements: “Critical Legal Theory” (CLT) and radical leftist feminism.
Radical feminism changed Marx’s categories of oppressor and oppressed to males and females. This movement also called for a dismantling of societal structures that kept women in bondage and servitude to men – including “oppressive family structures.” This philosophy also led to efforts to disregard or eliminate basic male-female differences, which was part of what ushered in today’s transgender ideology.
CLT holds that legal issues are “intertwined with social issues” and many in the movement “want to overturn the hierarchical structures of modern society, and they focus on the law as a tool in achieving this goal.”
CRT links itself directly and unapologetically to the Marxist roots of CT, radical feminism, and CLT, and its ideology has been absorbed and proclaimed by universities, the media, the government, and, most recently, public schools. Butcher and Gonzalez say, “Academic literature produced in the past 20 years by educational theorists on K-12 curriculum argue that narrative stories and stories from personal experiences – hallmarks of CRT – should replace instruction about facts.”
Universities and school districts are churning out teachers trained in CRT, with its beliefs that our country is governed by systemic racism and every structure – from schools to the family, and from the police system to our government – should be dismantled.
Due to COVID-19 lockdowns, many children are bouncing back between on-campus and at-home learning. As a result, parents are more tuned in to what their kids are studying – including radical Marxist-rooted ideologies and CRT in curriculums such as The 1619 Project and the Zinn Education Project.
Parents who find their children being inculcated in CRT and other controversial teachings should check out the new, free resource, Back to School – For Parents. There’s a section on “Protecting Your Child in the Classroom” that discusses issues of concern in school textbooks and curriculums.
Parents will also learn about their rights and their children’s rights, gain guidance for talking with their children about these issues, and learn about ways to advocate for and protect their children.
Related articles and resources:
The Daily Citizen:
Focus on the Family Education Resources
New Tool Helps Parents Fight Education System’s Indoctrination of their Children
What Can You do About Bias in Your Child’s Classroom?
Focus on the Family:
Breaking Down Racial Barriers With God’s Love (Part 1 of 2)
Forging a Path to Racial Reconciliation (Part 1 of 2)
How To Talk With Your Kids About Racial Differences
Reaching Across Cultural Divides (Part 2 of 2)
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