Is Critical Race Theory being taught in public schools? And if so, what can be done about it?
West Roxbury Republicans are sponsoring a talk by an expert designed to show parents how widespread the theory is and how to fight back against it.
The event, sponsored by the Boston Republican Ward 20 Committee, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, September 29 at the West Roxbury Elks Lodge at 1 Morrill Street in West Roxbury.
Attorney Kimberly Hermann plans to speak about “the legal fight against Critical Race Theory,” according to a press release issued by Lou Murray, who chairs the committee. Hermann serves as general counsel at the Southeastern Legal Foundation and is a member of The Federalist Society.
Organizers request a $25 cash donation at the door.
“America remains a government of laws, not men. The American Founders knew that a strong government could threaten liberty, so they dispersed powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches and then placed ultimate sovereignty in the hands of the people,” Murray wrote in the release. “As James Madison wrote in Federalist 51, our federal structure assigns unique powers to each branch of government for ‘keeping each other in their proper places’ — the critical separation of powers.”
“Public schools are an arm of the government,” he added. “The check on their power resides in the courtroom. It is long-settled law in America that the government cannot discriminate against people because of the color of their skin. We call this equality under the law, and it is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment and in our civil rights laws.”
Critical Race Theory, as EducationWeek defines it, says that “race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”
There are many opponents of Critical Race Theory in the Massachusetts Republican Party. Several members of the party tried to put a question on the November 2022 ballot banning Critical Race Theory from being taught in Massachusetts public schools, but the initiative petition was rejected by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey earlier this month as unsuitable for a referendum under the state constitution.
One of those opponents is Donnie Palmer, a black Republican who unsuccessfully ran for an at-large city council seat in Boston this year.
“When the public schools indoctrinate one group of children into identifying as victims of oppression, and another group into believe that they’re the oppressors, all based solely on the color of their skin, that’s dangerous,” Palmer said in a press release issued by the MassGOP last month. “You can teach children about the history of slavery in America without guilt-shaming them, you can teach them to be respectful of others without bringing skin color into it.”
Another is Summer Schmaling, a Halifax Elementary School Committee member who ran for state representative in the 12th Plymouth District in 2018 and 2020. She chaired the committee that proposed the anti-Critical Race Theory ballot question.
She expressed her opposition to Critical Race Theory in August.
“CRT indoctrinates children into believing, based solely on the color of their skin, that they are inherently racist,” Schmaling said in a press release issued by the MassGOP last month. “Should this divisive ideology be taught in public schools in Massachusetts? We believe that should be for voters and parents to decide, and not government bureaucrats.”
Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons laid out his opposition to Critical Race Theory in a July 16 email message to the MassGOP’s email list:
Critical race theory, the Marxist academic discipline that rejects equality and labels people based solely on their skin color as either being the “oppressed” or the “oppressors,” has gained a foothold inside Massachusetts public school classrooms.
This toxic ideology seeks to divide rather than unify and it’s now being taught to children.
Opponents of this leftist indoctrination scheme are too often afraid to speak out. Criticize or so much as question critical race theory and you’ll be accused of being complicit in “white supremacy.”
It’s time we did something about this.
Public schools generally say that opponents of Critical Race Theory are offering a solution in search of a problem.
The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents denies that pre-K through 12 public schools in Massachusetts teach Critical Race Theory.
The organization put out a statement on its teachings about race in August. Here is what it said, in part:
We do not teach CRT; but, we do have a fundamental and moral responsibility to teach history and social science and in all its truth – the pleasant and the unpleasant. Teaching history and social science is to understand and ultimately to embrace societal and individual learning and to foster collective empathy toward the greater goal of improvement for ALL. We do this by exploring and understanding our history and current status of race, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our nation. This is the collective character of who we are as the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents — we believe in building the future through this work — this is who we want to be.
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