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Parents Revolt: Even Democrat and Moderate Suburban Parents Are Fighting Back Against Critical Race Theory

   DailyWire.com
People talk before the start of a rally against "critical race theory" (CRT) being taught in schools at the Loudoun County Government center in Leesburg, Virginia on June 12, 2021.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

While Democrats continue to claim that Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other so-called anti-racist measures are only opposed by right-wing pundits who purposefully mischaracterize them, Democrat-leaning and moderate parents who voted for President Joe Biden also say they disapprove of what their children are being taught.

Politico spoke to parents, school board members, political operatives, and activists in Northern Virginia, Palm Beach County in Florida, Westchester County in New York, suburban Detroit, and Maricopa County in Arizona, all of which are left-learning. In addition, the outlet spoke with suburban parents in five states where Biden won the 2020 election and one state where former President Donald Trump won.

The outlet found that even though national Democrats and proponents of CRT and what they claim are simple diversity and equity measures claim any fears about the policies are because of “right wing conspiracy theorists,” suburban voters feel differently. That’s because they’re actually paying attention to what’s being taught in public schools.

“One parent in Novi, Mich., a diverse suburb outside Detroit with prized public schools, said she started reading up on critical race theory after her daughter, a recent high school graduate, started raising the idea of defunding police departments and arguing that rioters who looted stores during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests were justified,” the outlet reported.

That parent, who told Politico she had voted for Democrats in the past, said she found these teachings “radical” enough to form an anonymous parents group with others.

“Based on everything I have seen in the last year, starting with Covid, I cannot continue [voting for Democratic candidates] in good faith,” she told the outlet.

Polls also support the notion that national Democrats are on the wrong side of the issue. A YouGov survey found that while a third of respondents hadn’t even heard of Critical Race Theory, 53% of those who had heard of it had a “very unfavorable” view of it.

Even though Politico noted the unpopularity of these policies, it still attempted to define them in terms with which seemingly few could disagree, using phrases like “diversity” and “equity.” It described CRT as “an academic discipline that evolved at law schools and universities in the 1980s to examine institutional racism and challenge existing approaches to racial justice.”

How these policies are actually implemented, however, is far different than simply teaching about slavery or racist incidents throughout history. As The Daily Wire has reported extensively, schools, companies, and even governments are training students, teachers, and employees to view themselves through narrowly constructed definitions of privilege. In one recent example, fourth graders in Minnesota were asked to fill out an “equity survey” that asked them personal and confusing questions, such as what gender the 10-year-olds identified as. When a student said he was confused and asked if he could have his mom explain the questions to him, the teacher allegedly told the class not to repeat any of the questions to their parents.

In other classes and trainings, students and employees have been asked to check boxes to determine how privileged they are.

The polls are not simply dominated by Republicans, either. The YouGov poll found that 71% of independents had a “very unfavorable” view of CRT. A poll commissioned by Fight for Schools, a group advocating against CRT, found that “48 percent of independent voters and 59 percent of public school parents overall in Loudoun and neighboring Fairfax County viewed critical race theory negatively, while 31 percent and 39 percent of each group had positive views,” Politico reported.

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