Written by Michael O’Donnell
The great (or however you deem to spin greatness) PT Barnum lied easily and often. And why not? Where there was a gullible, wild-eyed and unsuspecting audience, there was opportunity. Why be truthful when deception could so easily control the masses?
Barnum would undoubtedly be proud of Poway Unified School District’s language deception and the district’s plan to implement CRT-like tenets into its Ethnic Studies and Equity curriculum this Fall, despite its continued denial.
According to Carol Osborne, Associate Superintendent, LSS, “Poway Unified is not teaching Critical Race Theory…Our focus is on elevating humanity through education, fostering understanding of different perspectives and respect for one another.”
And who wouldn’t agree with terms such as “elevating humanity,” fostering understanding,” and “respect”? Osborne hopes that parents and community members will do just that…move on…leave the theater…and follow the sign to the egress. In fact, they are counting on this.
But the devil is in the language details and both Osborne and PUSD administrators know this. The basic premise of CRT is alarming:
- it promotes an oppressor/oppressed class structure
- it assigns characteristics to people based on the color of their skin
- it theorizes that racism is embedded in all aspects of American society
- it promotes Marxist ideologies
- it denounces Christianity, free markets, traditional marriage, rule of law, and traditional family structures, labeling them as cornerstones of a “racist” American society.
PUSD’s own Racial Equity and Inclusion Plan refers to such controversial critical race theorists as Ibram X Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, propagating a hypothesis that systemic racism permeates American society, and advocating student activism as central to its curriculum. Just a sampling of terms, concepts, and literature rooted in CRT and hidden in plain sight on the district’s Ethnic Studies website:
- “My Parents Decided To Outwit Everyone By Giving Their Daughter A White Man’s Name”
- “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack”
- “Transformative resistance”
- Kimerbelé Crenshaw, a key CRT proponent, is also listed among the assigned readings. Crenshaw is known for the argument that defines CRT as “an approach to grappling with a history of white supremacy that rejects the belief that what’s in the past is in the past, and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it.”
- Unit 5 demonstrates the activism orientation of the curriculum with a focus on “tools of liberation used by marginalized groups,” a Marxist concept.
- Unit 6 deepens the activism-heavy rather than education-rich focus of the curriculum. Students are encouraged to “help address discrimination and serve as an ally” instead of being taught to develop nuanced and logical understanding of our complex society.
To think that this focus is anything less than racial indoctrination and race shaming is, at best, disingenuous.
Thankfully, such indoctrination is not without its detractors, as parents, administrators, teachers, and politicians have successfully fought back. Even entire states have either banned or limited CRT’s influence. People are starting to wake up.
But as is characteristic of so many school boards, the “greater good” is paramount, and woke culture is the god at whose feet PUSD has placed the sacrificial child, the innocent being who has been taught to trust authority, as misguided as it can be.
Left unchecked, CRT will poison the minds of the young and most vulnerable. It will drive wedges between and among people of all backgrounds and set into motion discordant patterns of behavior and thinking that will have consequences long after the last PUSD board member and district administrator has collected a final pension check.
It is therefore vital that the community call out and confront CRT for what it is, an insidious form of racial indoctrination that is slowly poisoning nearly all aspects of society, from government and politics to military and academics (including kids as young as elementary school).
As parents, community members, and anyone else concerned with the safety and well-being of our children, the moment is upon us: speak out, call out, and do not allow PUSD’s deceptive language to distract us away from among the most important local issues of our time.
The egress is a deceptive play upon words. Critical Race Theory is a deceptive play upon the hearts and minds of our children.
