How much longer will parents let toxic school socialists ruin their children?
As angry parents coast to coast continue to rebel against leftist indoctrination of their children at school, the nation's largest teachers' unions have let it be known that they will support Marxist and socialist teachers who are teaching Critical Race Theory anyway. In other words, "Ha, ha, parents, we have your children, we are going to indoctrinate them as we wish, and what are you going to do about it?" What some irate parents have done about it is to appear at school board meetings. The discourse has been raucous. Some have filed lawsuits. Others have initiated recalls of leftist school board members. In some states like Florida, Texas, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, legislatures have banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory. Similar bills banning the teaching of CRT and the bogus 1619 Project are pending in 17 other states. Against this tide of parental and legislative antipathy, the National Education Association, in a pique of enmity, voted over the weekend to support teaching Critical Race Theory in K12 schools, approving a "New Business Item" that, among other things, establishes a task force for developing a curriculum focusing more deeply on Critical Race Theory. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), another national teachers union, has promised legal action against parents and school boards who refuse to allow CRT to be taught. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, vowed recently to file as many lawsuits as it takes to keep shoving CRT down the throats of vulnerable children. Take that, parents! Well, first, it is just that  a theory, and a flawed and unscientific one at that. CRT and its equally specious partner, the 1619 Project, evolved during the past few years as academic disciplines that declare that the United States was founded not in 1776, as most of us have learned. Instead, America was founded in 1619 to preserve slavery, racism, oppression, and white supremacy  and these forces are still at the root of our systemically racist society. Supporters of Critical Race Theory maintain that it is merely a "lens," arguing that "race is a social construct" and that racism is "systemic," not individual. However, that argument is a strategic departure that fails to grapple with some of the theory's more controversial concepts. Critical Race Theory reformulates the old Marxist dialectic of oppressor and oppressed, replacing the class categories of bourgeoisie and proletariat with white and black identity categories. But the basic conclusion is the same: to liberate black and brown people, society must be fundamentally transformed through moral, economic, and political revolution. The way to do that, CRT proponents say, is to "teach" (read: "indoctrinate") children to view themselves and the world through the ambiguous and tarnished lens of race. CRT teachings reduce individual students to the racial categories of "white," "Black," and "people of color," which are then loaded with value connotations  "white" students are labeled "oppressors." In contrast, "Black" students are labeled "oppressed." Oh, I see. CRT is, in fact, a form of race-based Marxism borrowed from the neo-Marxist idea of critical theory  and it is as antithetical to the American republic as are communism and Nazism. None of this seems to bother socialists like Randi Weingarten, who apparently are relishing a fight with the nation's anti-CRT parents. Weingarten boasted that the AFT is preparing for litigation to counter laws banning the teaching of CRT and has already created a legal defense fund. "These culture warriors are bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history," she asserted. That's absurd. Most reputable historians see CRT for what it is:an attempt to teach white children that they bear responsibility for and are the beneficiaries of historical crimes committed by individuals who shared the same skin color and that consequently, they must atone for their "white privilege." Critical race theorists in practice sometimes refer to this as "internalized racial superiority" within white people. Critical Race Theory is without a doubt the most destructive, dangerous Marxist propaganda ever unleashed on our nation's schools, universities, government employees, and even military. It has one purpose and one purpose only: to promote state-sanctioned racism that will, in effect, drag the country back into the ugly politics of racial separation and segregation. Most of all, it forsakes Martin Luther King's praiseworthy assertion that "children should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Sadly, MLK's inspirational notion is falling on the deaf ears of America's loopy "woke" mob. Ronald E. Yates is a U.S. Army veteran, author, former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, and professor and dean emeritus of journalism at the University of Illinois. His website: http://www.ronaldyatesbooks.com. Image: jarmoluk via Pixabay, Pixabay License.