Michigan Ought to Reject Important Race Idea From Training
It’s no secret that state universities and K-12 schools teach critical racial theory. And if public schools teach it, it means your taxes are paying for it.
In Michigan, whistleblowers found that Grand Haven High School educators used presentation materials that taught intersectionality, one of the basic ideas of Critical Race Theory. With intersectionality, educators direct students to view themselves as oppressed because of their race and gender in a variety of overlapping ways – regardless of their behavior or the actions of others. Oppression is everywhere.
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The Grand Haven presentation also quoted Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi, who has stated in interviews that his work is based on Critical Race Theory. Kendi says it is necessary to implement new forms of discrimination today to address past discrimination.
Grand Haven’s slide show shows Kendi’s claim that standardized tests are instruments of racism used to show that white students are superior to black students. This, of course, is a myth that I forego in my book Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth.
Grand Ledge Public Schools officials pay a Racial Critical Theorist $ 200 / hour to advise them on how to incorporate this racially discriminatory philosophy into their schools. Michigan State University professor Dorinda Carter Andrews was quoted as saying that capitalism was racist (a point Kendi also argued in How to be an Antiracist).
According to Michigan Capitol Confidential, Grand Ledge board members agreed to hire an administrator in August 2021 to lead the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion program. Capitol Confidential also reports that parents who attended the district’s board meetings in June and August said they were against the Critical Race Theory and would remove their children from district schools.
Michigan parents and taxpayers deserve to know when educators teach critical racial theory in classrooms because, as my colleague Jay Greene noted last month, they are paying for that discriminatory teaching. They also pay the salaries of employees whose job it is to promote racial programs at the University of Michigan and other state universities. The Wolverines have 163 Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) staff, more than any other school at Power 5 sports conferences. On average, schools in Power 5 have 45 employees working on DEI initiatives.
In a recent report, Greene and co-author James Paul found that UM employs nearly 15 people working on DEI for every employee who works with students with special needs. The school has twice the number of DEI staff as a faculty in its history department.
And Grand Ledge officials aren’t the only ones using tax dollars to bring critical racial theorists like Kendi to campus. Last November, UM paid him $ 20,000 to speak for an hour as part of a virtual event for students and faculty.
Jay and James argue that the number of DEI staff in colleges is disproportionate to the number of faculty and other staff engaged in the schools’ original purpose of educating students. Policy makers should require evidence that the presence of large DEI staff helps schools achieve goals directly related to student success. If not, policy makers should require schools to redirect funds from DEI programs to departments and activities dedicated to teaching.
For K-12 schools, legislators in Michigan and roughly half of all US states have proposed or passed proposals this year to oppose the application of Critical Racial Theory in K-12 classrooms. State officials should consider proposals that make public school curriculum transparent so that parents and taxpayers can review what educators are presenting to students, as lawmakers have done in Wisconsin, Utah, Arizona, and elsewhere.
>>> Critical race theory
Legislators should also consider proposals prohibiting public officials from forcing a teacher or student to believe or profess an idea that violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including the idea that individuals are discriminated against or because of their race should be treated advantageously as The Heritage The model proposal of the foundation for state politics explains.
No parent wants their children to be exposed to prejudice and discrimination – not while playing and especially not in the classroom. Still, critical racial theory encourages students to see themselves and others through a racial lens – one that divides them into categories of victims and oppressors.
Such teachings leave no room for discussion and create division and hostility, non-civic discourse and civic responsibility. Michigan lawmakers should consider proposals from nearby states to prevent taxpayers from funding coercion and bigotry.
