Parents are fighting and winning against critical race theory

by Lance Izumi and

Wenyuan Wu

Submitted to Wyoming

Press Assoc.

Because critical race theory is the most divisive doctrine ever to threaten America’s schools, it has spawned a great parent revolt, which has turned ordinary moms and dads into extraordinary heroes.

As opposed to classical Marxism, which divided people into oppressor and oppressed classes based on economic status, critical race theory uses race to separate people, with Whites being viewed as oppressors and non-Whites viewed as the oppressed.

All across the country there are examples of CRT being injected into classroom instruction.

One California student named Joshua tells of how he and his seventh-grade classmates were told to line up for a so-called “privilege walk” exercise.

The teacher would call out supposed privilege traits, such as “I am White,” “I am male,” and “I am Christian.” If a trait applied to a student then that student would have to take a step forward.

Joshua said it felt like a criminal lineup with students “singled out for privileges that they really can’t help or control.”

Because of such divisive instruction, parents are pushing back hard.

First, parents are demanding to see what is actually being taught to their children.

When Rhode Island mom Nicole Solas asked her daughter’s school about the CRT instruction used in the classroom, she was told to file a public records request.

Instead of being dissuaded from probing, she filed 160 public records requests. According to Solas, “this toxic ideology could destroy a little child’s soul,” which is why for her “it is a spiritual battle.”

Once they find out about CRT in school, parents have taken action.

Nevada mom Gabs Clark, a poor widowed African-American mother of five children, filed a federal lawsuit against her son’s school when the school denied him his diploma for refusing to do a CRT-inspired exercise in a required course.

Clark’s lawsuit alleged that the school violated her son’s First Amendment free speech rights and Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights by forcing him to identify himself publicly according to his race, gender, and other characteristics. The school backed down and has settled the case.

Parents are also running for school boards and are winning.

Ryan Girdusky, the founder of the 1776 Project PAC, which assists pro-parent, anti-CRT school board candidates, has helped flip school boards from Florida to Colorado.

In Southern California, a new pro-parent majority in the city of Temecula immediately banned CRT instruction in district schools.

Immigrant parents are especially concerned about the impact of CRT.

Xi Van Fleet, an immigrant mom from Communist China, lived through Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, which persecuted ordinary people based on oppressor-oppressed class divisions and resulted in millions killed.

“Everything that’s going on here happened in China during the Cultural Revolution,” which is why critical race theory “should have no place in our schools.”

Parents are therefore forming state and national anti-CRT organizations such as Moms for Liberty, No Left Turn in Education, and others.

CRT supporters thought they could secretly sneak their ideological indoctrination into the classroom, but parents have gone on alert and are taking the battle to the pro-CRT education establishment. And the good news is that they are winning.

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. Wenyuan Wu is executive director of the Equal Rights Foundation. They are co-authors, along with McKenzie Richards, of The Great Parent Revolt: How Parents and Grassroots Leaders are Fighting Critical Race Theory in America’s Schools.