A sequel to John’s post last night about Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers preparing to go to war in court to defend their prerogative to teach CRT while simultaneously arguing that they’re not teaching CRT. You can imagine a virtuous motive for that position, such as if the union believed that state laws banning CRT in public schools might be interpreted to prevent lessons on slavery, segregation, and the civil-rights era.
But that’s not the motive. Weingarten’s playing a semantic game in which “Critical Race Theory” is defined narrowly to refer to a particular vein of legal scholarship, which naturally wouldn’t be covered in middle or high schools. But opponents of CRT mean something broader, a spectrum of “anti-racist” dogma that believes “whiteness” is evil, America is hopelessly “structurally racist,” and the only solutions to social problems are fringe-left ones. As John noted, the other major teachers union, the National Education Association, recently adopted this pro-CRT agenda item that captures the stakes nicely before quietly memory-holing it once it caught the attention of righties:
— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) July 7, 2021
It’d be more accurate to say that parents are concerned with “anti-racist” indoctrination as that word is defined by social critics like Ibram Kendi instead of “Critical Race Theory.” But no one wants to declare themselves a proud opponent of something called “anti-racism,” knowing that they’d then have to define that term for those unfamiliar with it, who’d end up giving them funny looks otherwise. So CRT is the label of choice to describe Kendi-ism, generally. But not for Weingarten, who’s sticking with its formal definition in order to wriggle away from a political problem here:
AFT President Randi Weingarten:
“Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary schools or middle schools or high schools.”
“Culture warriors” are “bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching accurate history.”
pic.twitter.com/PISmLc9iNc— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 7, 2021
She tweeted that point too, in case it wasn’t clear:
#CriticalRaceTheory is not taught in K-12 schools. The right’s culture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism or discrimination as such to try to make it toxic. They’re bullying teachers to try and keep them from teaching the truth. https://t.co/Plz2inkLke
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) July 6, 2021
The problem, per New York Post reporter Jon Levine, is that it was only a few weeks ago that Weingarten’s own union was on social media touting CRT as essential to helping students understand American society:
Watch AFT Secretary-Treasurer @fedingram on ABC's @GMA about how teaching critical race theory allows educators to "give our students the opportunity to understand the full breadth and depth of the American society." Watch the full clip now pic.twitter.com/7LSwPLJbGA
— AFT (@AFTunion) June 14, 2021
How ’bout this one from May, via Jeryl Bier?
Critical race theory isn’t “divisive.” It’s an irreplaceable lens with which we can view our difficult history. https://t.co/FKpcUme33V
— AFT (@AFTunion) May 11, 2021
For cripes sake, Kendi himself is doing an event with AFT this very afternoon, possibly as you’re reading this post:
✨ TODAY! Don't miss our #TEACH21 keynote at 6 pm ET, National Book Award Winner & #1 NYT Bestselling Author Professor Ibram X. Kendi.
Register today! https://t.co/DLpJwCMRS8#PdEdu #DistanceLearning @DrIbram @AFTunion @rweingarten @AntiracismCtr #BeAntiRacist pic.twitter.com/tLWmumB0RG
— AFT TEACH (@AFTteach) July 7, 2021
Having a fight with conservatives over Critical Race Theory, anti-racism, and Kendi beats having to explain why American kids’ test scores are sinking.
But maybe none of this matters? Weingarten’s already maneuvering to justify a new wave of school closings this fall because of the Delta variant, despite saying only weeks ago that kids need to be in class five days a week. You don’t need to worry about your children being taught “anti-whiteness” if they’re not in school to begin with:
Schools can reopen this fall in person, five days a week, with mitigation measures, ventilation upgrades and social, emotional, and academic supports for students. #TEACH21 https://t.co/Plz2inkLke
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) July 6, 2021
I’ll leave you with this dad asking his daughter’s teachers to stick to math and science and leave the “are all white people bad?” conversations to him.
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