We've expended a fair amount of effort in recent months rebutting the claim that Critical Race Theory is not an influence in America's schools. This was the Democratic line, repeated eagerly throughout much of the press, ahead of the Virginia gubernatorial race – it's a gaslighting lie, for multiple reasons. Many leftists continue to assert that CRT is merely a somewhat obscure form of pedagogy taught exclusively in law schools, and parental concerns about it are ginned up by right-wing conspiracy theorists. This is preposterous, of course, because parents have literally seen and heard what is happening in their own communities. You cannot tell someone that they're imagining something that they're actively witnessing. But so long as the "CRT is a lie" fable continues to persist, so must efforts to disprove such dishonesty and misdirection. Luckily for those of us who care about the truth, videos like this exist:
Detroit Superintendent @Dr_Vitti: "Our curriculum is deeply using critical race theory, especially in social studies, but you'll find it in English language arts and the other disciplines. We were very intentional about ... embedding critical race theory within our curriculum." pic.twitter.com/zMYdSxfrde
— Christopher F. Rufo ?? (@realchrisrufo) November 30, 2021
"Deeply using" CRT, across multiple disciplines, in a "very intentional" project of "embedding" racial indoctrination "within our curriculum." Right-wingers didn't force this official to say these things out loud. They are his own words, and his boasting about it. Meanwhile, remember this guy?
Here's what is apparently happening to him:
An Indiana school administrator who went viral for explaining how critical race theory is covertly taught in schools — like “social snake oil schemes” — says he’s now been placed on leave, had his email access cut and is banned from entering school buildings. Tony Kinnett, who works as a science coordinator for the Indianapolis Public Schools, posted a video on Twitter earlier this month accusing the school system of lying about CRT being taught in its schools. In the clip, which has now been viewed more than 500,000 times, he claims school administrators use “misdirection” to throw off concerned parents. Kinnett told The Post Thursday that he has been on leave with pay since he posted the video on Nov. 4...He said HR had warned him twice since then that he would have to “part ways” with the district if he continued to act as a “whistleblower,” and that staff have “clinical anxiety” working with him in the wake of his criticism.
This part of the story is probably worrisome for the district: "Kinnett said all the information he has released was located on a public server, and he has denied releasing any private data. Prior to his access being cut off, Kinnett said he’d downloaded 'racist documents and videos' from the server — and indicated he was going to release them at some point. He told The Post that the district should come clean on whether they stand behind staff 'racial gaslighting.'" They're retaliating against him but it sounds like he has the goods to back up what he's said publicly. The backlash and "clinical anxiety" detail buttress his allegations, in my mind. Again, leftist gaslighting on this overall subject is undermined by fellow leftists' words. Conservatives' sin, evidently, is noticing:
Ibram X. Kendi: Critical race theory is not anti-white.
— Christopher F. Rufo ?? (@realchrisrufo) November 30, 2021
Critical race theorists: Yes, it is. pic.twitter.com/Pwe9tqwDqb
Meanwhile, parents have been voting, both at the ballot box, and with their feet:
For the second straight year, enrollment in Virginia public schools has dropped, with 46,000 fewer students enrolled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data from the Virginia Department of Education, the largest school district in the commonwealth, Fairfax County, saw the largest enrollment dip — more than 10,000 students, or a 5.4% difference between fall 2019 and fall 2021. The number of home-schoolers, including students with religious exemptions, jumped dramatically from more than 44,000 in 2019 to more than 65,000 in fall 2020. This year, with school systems offering in-person learning, the number has dipped to 61,873, which is still 40% higher than before the pandemic. The Virginia Department of Education numbers don’t track private school admissions.
A focus group of Biden/Youngkin voters in Virginia recently revealed that while some of these people were concerned about or uncomfortable over racialized curricula, it was school closures that really made the difference:
“These swing voters didn’t agree with what they thought the liberal position on race in schools was...However, it wasn’t as salient as the fact that they felt Democrats closed their schools and didn’t feel bad about it. They also knew about his debate quote on parents; it clearly burned in and resonated with them...School closures + COVID policy were a bigger factor than CRT. These voters were more animated talking about their dissatisfaction with their local school districts’ handling of COVID. They felt buffeted by changing and inconsistent policies and concerned about the impact on student learning loss, and there was a sense among some that Virginia was not following the science by keeping schools closed later than other states. One participant, a Biden voter, stated flat out that her vote for Youngkin “was against the party that closed the schools for so long last year.”
Imagine that. One wonders how these voters might feel about the growing trend of new school closures for "mental health."