Living in Northern Virginia for years, I have seen firsthand the perils of injecting critical race theory into our schools. A generation of young men and women are being taught that race is the lens through which all other issues are examined, whether history, math or science.
In a recent commencement speech, Abrar Omeish, a Fairfax County school board member, articulated this ideology, asserting, "You understand that social justice is only political for those that can afford to ignore it. You understand that 'neutral' is another word for complicit. And you have made a choice to take a stand."
This uncompromising worldview alienates many students and further divides America. It is wrong to shame young men and women simply because they don’t share a teacher’s outlandish political views or support a particular activist agenda. Our education system should bring us together over shared American values, not tear us apart. Parents together with groups like Parents Defending Education are fighting back by revealing the abuses occurring in many school districts, whether through lawsuits or public exposure.
Recent events in Virginia show how many districts have been captured by proponents of the discredited and poisonous critical race theory like Omeish. The Fairfax County school board has made promoting deeply controversial critical race theory a misplaced priority, even as the district struggled to adapt to the coronavirus. Recently, the county superintendent, Scott Brabrand, announced a survey to collect parental input on changing the curriculum.
Parents were shocked by the biased and leading nature of the questions, steeped in left-wing rhetoric. One question, for example, injected the ideologically infused phrasing "ways to take action against racial and social injustice," and the question as to whether schools "should teach students how to challenge power and privilege in society," sounds like it could have been lifted from Antifa talking points. The framing of these questions wrongly assumes that America is inherently racist. There is no room for dispute or nuance in the survey. Either you are challenging power and privilege or are a part of the system (a core message in prominent critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi's work).
Emails uncovered by PDE have since revealed that the survey was intentionally designed to elicit biased results. The group conducting the survey had already been awarded a contract by Fairfax County to revamp the curriculum and will be paid hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in coming years. It is disheartening to see critical race theory spread to the doorstep of Washington, D.C., where so many important policy decisions occur.
The introduction of critical race theory isn't limited to one district in Virginia. In Evanston, Illinois, parents were asked to read a book called Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness with their students and discuss how "whiteness shows up in school or in the community." Similarly, third-graders at R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School in California were made to rank themselves based on how much "power and privilege" they had.
These efforts seem to be a precursor to the nationalization of critical race theory. President Biden's Department of Education plans to funnel grant funding to schools that implement programs that teach the tenants of critical race theory. The initial program only provides a few million dollars in funding, but if implemented, the administration can push for billions in similar funding.
Enough is enough; we need to push back against nonsense. We should be teaching children about core American values like justice, liberty and opportunity, not racializing our past. America isn't perfect, and we shouldn't cover up our failures, but everything cannot and shouldn't be boiled down to race and racism. Doing so does a disservice to America's young women, who are taught that the color of their skin defines them more than the choices they make.
Many Americans are standing up against the pernicious doctrines of critical race theory and are fighting to take back our schools. I know many other parents like me all over America have had enough of our schools becoming indoctrination outposts.
Teri Christoph is co-founder of Smart Girl Politics, host of the Smart Girl Politics podcast and a longtime fundraising consultant.