Parents’ fury shocks critical race theory supporters

“Woe is me” is the rallying cry from many public school districts and teachers’ unions across the nation, after parents protested decisions to include critical race theory in education curriculum. NBC News sided with school district administrators, bureaucrats, and teachers who tried to put the radical ideology in its schools.

Parents’ backlash against critical race theory shocked the mainstream media and left-wing activists to the point that NBC News published a biased title that read, “Critical race theory battle invades school boards — with help from conservative groups.” The title portrayed the issue as a partisan one, without recognizing how critical race theory itself is partisan, factually-flawed, and radical.

Critical race theory is the belief that the United States has always been a racist country and that it was built on a racist past. One of its chief promotion vehicles, The New York Times’ “1619 Project,” famously claimed that America’s true founding was in 1619 when the first slave ship came to the United States from Africa and asserted that America’s founding was racist in origin.

The article quoted a Maine school superintendent, Jeff Porter, who bore the brunt of parents’ criticism when the school district denounced white supremacy after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota while in police custody. One parent, Shawn McBreairty, criticized Porter for attempting to “indoctrinate” students with critical race theory.

Porter contended that critical race theory is not a part of the district’s curriculum and blasted McBreairty’s efforts as “tactics from national organizations to discredit the entire district.” He claimed that the district was “almost held hostage” due to parents’ outcry.

What Porter or NBC News omitted was that parents disagreed with the district’s decision not to re-open their schools five days a week, which later led to accusations about critical race theory in the district.

The school board voted unanimously on April 6 to continue hybrid learning, or in other words, combining in-class instruction with remote or virtual classes through June. Survey results indicated that a majority of parents (59%) supported the hybrid learning model, with 95% of staff members and 80% of students also in agreement.

School district MASD #51, which covers the cities Cumberland and North Yarmouth, sparred with parents over school reopening plans. Parents called for Porter’s firing and recalling school board members, and four board members nearly faced a recall election in Cumberland, according to the local newspaper The Press-Herald. The effort failed to gather enough signatures to force a vote.

These events are not isolated since parents have launched successful recall or election efforts to unseat school board members. In Texas, a school board candidate won an election based on her criticism of critical race theory. Parents in northern Virginia suburb of Loudoun County are challenging school board members in a similar fashion. Ballotpedia said that there are at least 50 recall efforts to unseat 126 school board members.

Yet the media and the Left blast “conservative activists” in an effort “akin to the tea party wave,” as NBC News framed it. Although it is true that Republican lawmakers are pushing bans on critical race theory and are publicly supporting these efforts, media criticism ignores the controversial nature of critical race theory. Instead, the media portrays the theory as a legitimate academic theory, without acknowledging the factual errors and partisan ideological tenets embedded throughout it.

Parents have legitimate concerns about what is being taught in schools to their children. Dr. Elana Yaron Fishbein, the founder of the group No Left Turn in Education, said, “We want to know, what are you teaching? What are you doing?” She added, “And it’s exactly what I got: a lack of transparency. They don’t want to answer.”

Related Topics