At a public meeting, a black woman in Loudoun County, Virginia, erupted in a fiery denunciation of the school board’s seeming intent to implement the teaching of Critical Race Theory, blasting, “CRT is racist; it is abusive; it discriminates against one’s color. … Think twice before you indoctrinate such racist theories. You cannot tell me what is or is not racist. Look at me. I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together and we are strong.”
The woman began by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’” she said. “Now I have a dream that we will implement love, not hate, or supporting another Jim Crow’s agenda. CRT is not a ‘nice dialogue,’ it was a tactic that was used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slaveries many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves. CRT is racist; it is abusive; it discriminates against one’s color.”
Shaking her finger, she snapped, “Let me educate you: An honest dialogue does not oppress. An honest dialogue does not implement hatred and injustice; it’s to communicate without deceiving people. Today we don’t need your agreement. We want action and a backbone for what we ask for today: to ban CRT.”
“We don’t want your political advertisement to divide our children or belittle them. Think twice before you indoctrinate such racist theories. You cannot tell me what is or is not racist. Look at me. I had to come down here today to tell you to your face that we are coming together and we are strong. This will not be the last greet-and-meet. Respectfully.”
The Daily Wire reported on March 16:
A group of current and former teachers and others in Loudoun County, Virginia, compiled a lengthy list of parents suspected of disagreeing with school system actions, including its teaching of controversial racial concepts — with a stated purpose in part to “infiltrate,” use “hackers” to silence parents’ communications, and “expose these people publicly.”
Members of a 624-member private Facebook group called “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” named parents and plotted fundraising and other offline work. Some used pseudonyms, but The Daily Wire has identified them as a who’s who of the affluent jurisdiction outside D.C., including school staff and elected officials.
The Daily Wire later reported that Interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler, in response to the furor that erupted after the revelation of the “enemies list,” said that “LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to…. but does have a Culturally Responsive Framework.”
That 28-page document contains elements that echo key critical race theory concepts and was written in part by Equity Committee member Tara Hewan. Hewan had called for the school system to ban students from wearing materials related to former President Donald Trump, The Daily Wire noted.
The Daily Caller reported on March 23 that a recall campaign had been launched by a group called Loudoun Parents for Education (LPE) targeting six members of the Loudoun County school board for “neglect of duty, misuse of office, and incompetence in the performance of their duties” after reports surfaced accusing them of participating in the Facebook group “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County” that included calls to list parents who opposed Critical Race Theory being taught in schools or wanted in-person learning restored.
LPE issued a press release stating, “Not only is this a failure of their duty to represent their constituents, but it raises serious questions about Virginia’s open meeting laws.”
An attorney for the GOP political action committee called The Virginia Project sent a cease-and-desist letter to one of the six board members, writing:
You commented to this Facebook group that you were concerned that Loudoun County parents opposed to the teaching of critical race theory or “equity” in Loudoun County Public Schools were “gaining support” and that your fellow school board members should be pushed to “call out statements and actions which undermine our stated plan to combat systemic racism at LCPS.”
The letter continued by asserting that one member of the Facebook group had explained that volunteers were needed to infiltrate Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT) and similar groups, hack or shut down and hijack websites and organizations.
The letter addressed the school board member: “You did not ask your fellow Facebook members to stop what they were doing, you did not rebuke or reprimand them, and you did not warn them about the risks of engaging in the above described illegal, reckless, inflammatory and irresponsible actions.”