2021 | Week of May 10 | Radio Transcript #1411
Critical race theory. That phrase is being bandied about across the country.
While the phrase is new, the ideas behind the words aren’t. Christopher Rufo, founder and director of Battlefront6, a public policy research center, in a speech given earlier this year at Hillsdale College, says “[c]ritical race theory is an academic discipline, formulated in the 1990s, built on the intellectual framework of identity-based Marxism.”1
So, what does Rufo mean by “identity-based Marxism”? Essentially, this idea formed the basis for Marxism which originally identified people as belonging to one of two groups: capitalists and workers. As this identity-based approach failed in country after country, Marxists just adapted to whatever was currently happening, including in the 1960s, a decade fraught with social and racial unrest. Instead of capitalists and workers, they now identified people by race and ethnicity, which certainly sets the stage for what is happening today.
Rufo points out in his speech that for years Critical Race Theory was relegated to academia and didn’t have much practical traction in the culture at large. That has changed markedly over the past few years. Right now know CRT is, as Rufo says, “the default ideology in our public institutions.” He adds that “[i]t has been injected into government agencies, public school systems, teacher training programs, and corporate human resources departments in the form of diversity training programs, human resources modules, public policy frameworks and school curricula.”
One thing we know about liberals, they are language experts in that they know how to redefine words or obscure the truth of what they are doing with euphemistic terminology. For instance, in Critical Race Theory we frequently hear about “equity,” “social justice,” and certainly “diversity” and “inclusion.” These are all words or terms that sound at least benign if not downright good to most Americans. But to the cultural Marxists aggressively advancing their agenda today, they mean something entirely different as they go after what they call “white supremacy” and racial oppression coupled with pushing for the overthrowing of capitalism and the redistribution of wealth. Rufo maintains that “[a]n equity-based form of government would mean the end not only of private property, but also of individual rights, equality under the law, federalism and the freedom of speech.”
Entire books are being written on this subject, but this overview gives you enough information to know Critical Race Theory is dangerous and truly unAmerican.
One of the principal places liberals are taking Critical Race Theory is the public schools. It’s being formally adopted in some school districts around the country. Just last week, the state of Washington’s governor signed into law a bill mandating mandating critical race theory training for K-12 educators in the state.
Fortunately, some states are quickly passing bills to do exactly the opposite: prohibit Critical Race Theory in the curriculum of public schools. Idaho, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, Utah, West Virginia and Florida are states that have either already passed a ban on Critical Race Theory in their K-12 public schools or are considering legislation or where the governor has spoken out strongly against this pernicious ideology being taught in the classroom.
What’s the common denominator in these states? They all have Republican governors. So far, Idaho and Oklahoma are the only states where the governor has actually signed the bill into law. It remains to be seen if the other GOP governors will sign the legislation or will take a Governor Kristi Noem or Asa Hutchinson approach and wimp out once the legislation reaches their desks.
Wisconsin is noticeably absent from the list of states. However, I believe before this session is over the Republican-controlled state legislature will put such a bill on Governor Evers desk, giving him the opportunity, once again, to do the right thing. In the meantime, citizens in every school district ought to be ready to head to the school board to push back against Critical Race Theory being included in any way in the local curriculum. We can stop this one school district at a time.
This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you the prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
1https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/critical-race-theory-fight/
Julaine Appling has taught on the junior high, high school, and college levels, and for five years was the administrator of a private school. In 1998 she was asked to become the Executive Director of Wisconsin Family Council, where her mission is to advance Judeo-Christian principles and values in Wisconsin by strengthening, preserving, and promoting marriage, family, life and liberty. In addition to regularly being interviewed for Wisconsin television, radio, and newspapers, she is the host of "Wisconsin Family Connection," aired weekly on almost 50 radio stations in Wisconsin including the VCY America radio network.
Learn more at WIFamilyCouncil.org
