M.H. Cavanaugh
Christian Action League
May 20, 2021
Wednesday, May 12, the North Carolina House passed critical legislation to prevent public schools from promoting or endorsing concepts such as Critical Race Theory.
“No student or school employee should be made to feel inferior solely because of the color of their skin or their gender,” said Rep. John Torbett (R- Gaston), the primary sponsor of HB 324 – Ensuring Dignity and Nondiscrimination/Schools. “Our public schools should be a place of respect – not hateful ideologies,” he added.
In a PragerU video, David Lindsay, founder of New Discourses, warns that Critical Race Theory has already insinuated itself into numerous American institutions. “If it takes hold, it will completely change the very nature of America and the way you live,” says Lindsay.
In the video, Lindsay rightly contends that CRT says the primary thing about each person is one’s race. The color of one’s skin defines each person and not one’s behavior, values, or environment. It asserts that if one is a part of a minoritized racial group, you are automatically a victim of a system rigged against you – a system that doesn’t want you to succeed. On the other hand, if your race is in the majority and, therefore, privileged, one is automatically an exploiter, whether intended or not. It advocates that all of the advances made to overcome racism in this country are a mirage. Racism still exists in all interactions. It has to be because that’s how the Imperial European powers and America set things up. Therefore, CRT is not a continuation of the Civil Rights movement; instead, it is a repudiation. Its tenants are, in essence, a counter-American Revolution.
Watch the full PragerU video about Critical Race Theory here.
In an article for Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College, Christopher F. Rufo, gives an example of what CRT looks like in action.
Rufo says that last year he authored a series of reports on CRT in the federal government. He wrote:
“The FBI was holding workshops on intersectionality theory. The Department of Homeland Security was telling white employees they were committing ‘microinequities’ and had been ‘socialized into oppressor roles.’ The Treasury Department held a training session telling staff members that ‘virtually all white people contribute to racism’ and that they must convert ‘everyone in the federal government’ to the ideology of ‘antiracism.’ And the Sandia National Laboratories, which designs America’s nuclear arsenal, sent white male executives to a three-day reeducation camp, where they were told that ‘white male culture’ was analogous to the ‘KKK,’ ‘white supremacists,’ and ‘mass killings.’ The executives were then forced to renounce their ‘white male privilege’ and write letters of apology to fictitious women and people of color… I’m just one investigative journalist, but I’ve developed a database of more than 1,000 of these stories.”
HB 324 would prohibit public school units from promoting the following concepts:
- One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.
- An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
- An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex.
- An individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.
- An individual, solely by his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex or race.
- Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.
- The belief that the United States is a meritocracy is racist or sexist or was created by members of a particular race or sex to oppress members of another race or sex.
The vote fell completely on partly lines, 66-48.
During a committee hearing on the measure, Rep. James Gailliard (D-Nash) criticized the bill saying, “What this bill does is it keeps history out of our schools. Probably the best way to reproduce history is to not talk about it. This is an act to ensure discrimination, fanaticism, bigotry.”
When the measure was taken up on the House floor, Rep. Kandie Smith (D-Pitt) associated the legislation with “book burning.”
But Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has created a task force to address what he calls “indoctrination” in the public schools, endorsed the legislation and said in a statement:
“Students should absolutely learn the horrific facts associated with slavery, Jim Crow, and other dark times in our nation’s history. They should not, however, be subjected to pseudo-science social justice initiatives like the ‘1619 Project’ and ‘Critical Race Theory,’ which seek to divide us along racial lines and teach that the system of our Republic and the history of our great American experiment are shameful.”
Read Rev. Creech’s editorial, The state schools’ social studies standards and the evil they pose
“I’m glad this bill passed the House,” said Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League. “Prejudice, bigotry, racism, are terrible sins. When we read the Bible, we see that the Jews detested the Samaritans. The Egyptians hated the Jews. Jonah despised the Ninevites. The apostle Peter had to be confronted by the Lord in a dream because he was unwilling to share the Gospel with the Gentiles of Caesarea. But CRT doesn’t rebuke or repudiate racism; instead, it encourages us to practice something Jesus strongly condemned – judging others based on assumptions. It imputes wrong motives to someone based on skin color – bad motives to one skin color and good to another. We shouldn’t be fooled. CRT is just another form of racism disguised as antiracism. CRT was born out of Marxist ideology and is meant to divide and conquer us as a nation.”
The bill has been sent to the Senate and now resides in the Senate Rules Committee.