Tag: critical race theory

Commentary: Leading the Charge Against Critical Race Theory

Michigan Star Staff
Young boy reading a book

Critical Race Theory continues to permeate our classrooms and infect our children’s minds with outrageous ideas about their nation’s history. But a growing number of Americans are standing up to fight back against its false tenets and demand its removal from K-12 education. At the forefront of this patriotic effort is 1776 Action, an advocacy group committed to the vital work of restoring honest and unifying education in public schools throughout the nation.

The group’s Candidate Pledge has garnered national attention in recent weeks for its emphasis on America’s values and its vow to eradicate divisive race- and gender-based ideologies such as CRT from America’s schools. Political candidates who sign the pledge commit to restoring “honest, patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love for our country” and to promoting a curriculum that “teaches that all children are created equal, have equal moral value under God, our Constitution, and the law, and are members of a national community united by our founding principles.” The pledge also seeks to prohibit any curriculum that divides students by race and sex – or sets out to infuse harmful ideologies into course material.

In May, Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) became the first candidate to sign the pledge, declaring that CRT and similarly divisive theories are “shameful [and] must be stopped.” Other high-profile conservatives running for office, such as Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin, also vowed to replace CRT with “a high-quality civics curriculum.” The two Republican candidates for Governor of Kansas, former Gov. Dr. Jeff Colyer and Kansas Atty. Gen. Derek Schmidt, have also signed the pledge. As more candidates sign this pledge, it will put pressure on teachers, principals, and school boards to declare their stances on CRT and other key educational matters. It will also hold them accountable for the materials they teach and ensure our children are not indoctrinated with malicious theories that seek to denigrate our country and reduce students to their sex or skin color.

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Shrier: ‘Aw Shucks Conservatives’ Are Handing America Over to the Woke

Michigan Star Staff
Christopher Rufo

Both meek “aw shucks” conservatives and “chest thumpers” conservatives are handing America over to woke activists, author Abigail Shrier claimed in a Monday Substack.

The journalist and author highlighted the successful work of anti-Critical Race Theory writer Christopher Rufo, who Shrier praised for speaking not to elites, but to Americans, by “gathering evidence and pointing out the glaring harm in clear, unapologetic (but never crass or rude) language.”

“Rufo is out there identifying the problem, alerting the public, and sounding all available alarms,” Shrier wrote. “If he hasn’t yet slain the beast, he has at least awakened American parents from their coma, convinced them that they cannot trust the teachers and administrators and school boards who treat children, not as students, but as recruits for their revolution.”

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Utah House Passes Bill to Ban Critical Race Theory in Public Schools

Michigan Star Staff
Students in class, listening to the teacher at the front of the room

Utah is one of many states in America considering banning critical race theory in public schools.

Republican State Representative Steve Christiansen sponsored a bill that takes direct aim at critical race theory concepts being taught in public education. The bill passed the Utah House and is awaiting the signature of the Speaker to move onto the state Senate.

That bill, HR901, calls on the Utah Board of Education for a re-evaluation of guidelines to weed out critical race theory in publicly funded classrooms.

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Commentary: Florida’s DeSantis Is America’s Great Right Hope

Michigan Star Staff
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Democratic Govs. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gavin Newsom of California, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan shatter everything they touch. Ron DeSantis, conversely, seems to get everything right. The Florida Republican has emerged as America’s governor. 

“We’re standing with our folks. We’re going to do the right thing. We leaned into it, and we stood strong,” DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently.

Rather than snip a tax, kill a regulation, and then doze off, as too many Republicans have done, DeSantis is a tireless, full-spectrum conservative. He has authorized a host of economic, cultural, and law enforcement initiatives that are buoying Florida and transforming him into the Great Right Hope.

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Mom Says School Board Threatened to Sue Her for Seeking Public Information on Critical Race Theory in Curriculum

Michigan Star Staff

Nicole Solas was surprised to find her name listed on the meeting agenda of her local school board, especially since it said the board was considering taking legal action against her in response to her many requests for public records.

The Rhode Island mother of two began filing records requests with the South Kingstown School District several months ago, when she learned that teachers were incorporating critical race theory and gender ideology in the curriculum.

But she didn’t expect the school board to talk about suing her.

“I was shocked,” Solas, 37, told The Daily Signal in a recent phone interview. The school board, she said, “did not tell me that [the requests were] a problem.”

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Ohio Teachers Pledge to Teach Critical Race Theory Even If Against the Law

Cooper Moran

A growing number of teachers across the state of Ohio have signed a pledge to continue to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT), even if the decision violates the law.

A petition published by the Zinn Education Project has collected over 5,000 signatures from teachers who commit to “teach the truth.”

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Far-Left Activist Ibram Kendi, ‘Leading Thinker’ of Critical Race Theory, to Speak at Teachers’ Union Conference

Michigan Star Staff

On Wednesday, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) will be hosting one of the most far-left activists in America at their biennial conference, for the purpose of promoting Critical Race Theory, Breitbart reports.

Ibram Kendi, the author of numerous books that fuel racial division such as “How to be an Antiracist” and “Antiracist Baby,” will be a featured speaker at AFT’s Together Educating America’s Children (TEACH) conference. Other speakers who will appear during the five-day conference include Jill Biden, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and the Deputy Secretary of the Education Department Cindy Marten.

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Parents Fight Critical Race Theory as Teacher’s Union Commits Over $127k to Advance It

Michigan Star Staff

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor and teachers’ union in the U.S., has voted to spread critical race theory as parents across the nation are fighting against it.

The union is preparing to commit $127,600 to advance critical race theory, according to the Epoch Times.

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University of North Carolina Grants Tenure to ‘1619 Project’ Author Nikole Hannah-Jones

Michigan Star Staff
Nikole Hannah-Jones

The University of North Carolina’s Board of Trustees voted on June 30 to grant tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the “1619 Project,” who will be the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism.

It is rare for a university to grant tenure to someone who has not climbed the academic ranks through teaching and research. Tenure, which virtually guarantees job security, is usually the result of a multi-year process, not a privilege granted before a professor teaches a single class.

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Commentary: Critical Race Theory Discourse Is Political Gaslighting

Michigan Star Staff
Back of the Statue of Liberty

Happily, the spirit of American liberty seems to be awaking from its decades-long slumber.

Unless you’ve been living in an underground bunker for the past two years (I wouldn’t blame you too much if you had), you know there’s quite a lot of controversy over critical race theory (CRT). You also know that just as those who oppose it have started to gain some momentum in pushing back against it (like parents in Loudoun County, Virginia), legacy media shills all leaped into action, concern trolling about ordinary Americans’ alarm over this racist theory’s presence in their children’s schools. (See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here for 11 articles in two weeks on the RealClearPolitics homepage doing exactly that.)

This is a crystal clear example of what Michael Anton calls the “celebration parallax”: “a fact pattern is either true and glorious or false and scurrilous depending on who states it.” Thus, when CRT fanatics indoctrinate your children to hate America and to hate one another on the basis of their skin color, it’s a much-needed dose of hard medicine for a racist people whose country’s “very DNA” is racist (according to the “1619 Project”). But when you—a patriotic, decent American mom or dad—point out how evil a thing that is to say unironically, let alone teach to children and force on Americans across the country via human resources departments, it’s either not happening, or we’re overreacting, or opposing it will hurt the Right “in the long run,” or it’s innocuous and really just about “teach[ing] children that slavery is bad and racism still exists.”

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Commentary: Josh Hawley Takes on Critical Race Theory in a Fight for the Nation’s ‘Soul’

RealClearWire

Josh Hawley was just explaining how much he agreed with Barack Obama when Kamala Harris arrived. For weeks, the junior senator from Missouri had raised hell over who should head the federal agency that is the equivalent of the federal government’s human resources department. Hawley gave speeches and made procedural motions that deadlocked the Senate, ultimately resulting in the arrival of the vice president’s motorcade on Capitol Hill. That’s when Hawley lost the fight.

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Over a Thousand Former Military Members Sign Letter Warning About ‘Wokeness’ in the Military

Admin

by Debra Heine   Over 1,000 former members of the military have signed a scathing public letter warning that the increased priority placed on “wokeness” in the military is a threat to the Constitution and the nation’s military readiness. The letter comes after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley…

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Commentary: Gelding the Left’s Trojan Horse

Michigan Star Staff

by Thaddeus G. McCotter   Across the Left, rage and panic reign. America has seen the Marxist and racist dogma undergirding “critical race theory” and, indeed, the entire falsely labeled “anti-racist” cult. And a revulsed America rejects it. Having pinned their hopes and put so much time, energy, and money…

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Commentary: Four Signs Parents Won’t Be Sending Their Kids Back to Public School This Fall

Michigan Star Staff
Student working on school work at home.

As disruptive as the 2020/2021 academic year was, it led to many positive educational changes that will be transformative and long-lasting. Most notably, parents have been re-empowered to take back the reins of their children’s education from government bureaucrats and teachers unions. Frustrated by school closures and district “Zoom schooling,” families fled public schools in droves over the past year, and there are several signs that these families won’t be returning this fall.

According to an analysis by Chalkbeat and the Associated Press, public school enrollment fell by an average of 2.6 percent across 41 states last fall, with states such as Michigan, Maine, Vermont, and Mississippi dropping by more than 4 percent. These enrollment declines far exceeded any anticipated demographic changes that might typically alter public school enrollment.

How many of these students will be back in a public school classroom next year? Not as many as public school officials hoped.

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‘Lean into the Culture War’: Republican Study Committee Tells GOP Fighting Critical Race Theory Is a Winning Message

Michigan Star Staff
Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks

The Republican Study Committee is urging the GOP to “lean into the culture war” as a “winning” issue, according to an internal strategy memo obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

RSC Chairman Jim Banks sent the memo Thursday to approximately 154 Republicans urging his colleagues to fight back against the ideology of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the “racial essentialism” that it teaches. Banks wrote that Republicans believe “individuals should be judged based on the contents of their character, not their skin,” and that America’s institution should be “colorblind, just as our Constitution is colorblind.”

“Here’s the good news,” the RSC chairman told his colleagues. “We are winning.”

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Rashida Tlaib Says Opposition to Critical Race Theory Is ‘Rooted in Racism’

Michigan Star Staff
General Mark Milley

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said Thursday that opposition to Critical Race Theory is “rooted in racism.”

“Opposition to critical race theory is obviously rooted in racism and has just become the newest dog whistle for racists,” the Michigan Democrat tweeted Thursday, referring to a video in which Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley defended Critical Race Theory to the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday.

CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based polici

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New Poll Confirms Widespread Support for School Choice

The Center Square
Student raising hand in class

A majority of voters support school choice, a new poll from Echelon Insights shows.

Among more than 1,100 registered voters surveyed, 65% support school choice compared to 19% who oppose it, while 16% remain unsure.

The findings were consistent across party lines, with 75% of Republicans, 60% of independents, and 61% of Democrats saying they strongly or somewhat support school choice. Most voters in both parties agree parents should control all or some of the tax dollars they pay for education.

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Critical Race Theory Presented Before Board of America’s Oldest Military Academy

Michigan Star Staff

In a recent livestream, a Virginia state official gave a presentation on why the far-left and anti-White teachings of Critical Race Theory should be encouraged at the oldest military academy in the United States, the Daily Caller reports.

Janice Underwood, who holds the title of Virginia’s “Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer,” spoke before a virtual gathering of the Board of Visitors at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). In the lecture, Underwood promoted the racist writings of Robin DiAngelo, the author of the book “White Fragility.” She explicitly called for such “uncomfortable” ideas to be promoted at VMI, and said that such race-based thinking should be incorporated into “every single course” at the academy.

“Discomfort is to be expected,” Underwood continued, but encouraged the faculty to “lean into that discomfort. Walk towards the discomfort, not away.” She added that students at the academy must “engage in self-reflection and engage their own racial engagement and biases.”

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Concerned Parents Arrested While Objecting to Critical Race Theory Teachings at School Board Meeting

Cooper Moran

Hundreds of concerned parents in Loudoun County, Virginia showed up a school board meeting to demonstrate their objection to teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) and multiple policies regarding transgender students in the school system. 

However, after numerous parents expressed their apprehensions to the school board members, the members immediately shut down discussion. Many parents continued to object, and at least two of the worried parents were arrested.

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College President Derides ‘Critical Race Theory’ Criticisms, Lauds Its ‘Widely Acclaimed Scholarship,’ Asserts ‘Critical Race Theory Is the New Communism’

Michigan Star Staff
Dr. Elliot Stern

Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College, a public community college in California, issued an open letter commemorating Juneteenth that also voiced support for Critical Race Theory.  

Amid thoughtful comments on the historical significance of Juneteenth and the importance of commemorating Emancipation, Stern equated the ongoing backlash against Critical Race Theory to the “Red Scare” of the 1950s: 

“Politicians create bogeymen of scholars of race study and are passing laws to prevent schools from teaching widely acclaimed scholarship,” he wrote. “Critical Race Theory is the new Communism.”

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Commentary: The Inevitable Fruits of Critical Race Theory

Michigan Star Staff
Captured in a metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia primary school, seated amongst his classmates, this photograph depicts a young Asian-American school boy, who was in the process of creating a drawing, and was choosing from a box of crayons, the colors he’d use in order to bring his ideas to life. It is important to know that these objects are known as fomites, and can act as transmitters of illnesses.

A black man went on a multistate shooting spree recently. The suspected gunman, Justin Tyran Williams, said he specifically targeted white men in his rampage that left five wounded. “Basically, [Williams] explained throughout his life, specifically white males had taken from him, and also what he described as military-looking white males had taken from him,” Columbus (Georgia) Police detective Brandon Lockhart testified Monday.

A racially motivated mass shooting would be the number one news story on CNN . . . were the races reversed. But a black man intentionally shooting white men is just not that interesting to those outside of conservative media.

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A Parent-Led Rebellion Against Critical Race Theory Is Storming School Boards Across the Country

Michigan Star Staff
Young girl reading a book

A parent-led rebellion against Critical Race Theory is storming school boards across the country and demanding accountability for what is being taught to American children.

At least 165 local and national groups have formed to combat Critical Race Theory (CRT) instruction in schools across the U.S., an NBC analysis found. Many of these groups were founded by parents appalled to discover what was being taught to their children. Their advocacy has launched small town CRT debates onto the national stage, spurring far-left activists and establishment media outlets to accuse conservatives of ignorance and in some cases, racism.

“Parents are right to revolt against critical race theory in the classroom,” senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and anti-CRT writer Christopher Rufo told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Children are not inherently ‘oppressors’ and should not be implicated for historical crimes on the basis of their race. That’s the kind of propaganda that belongs in a Soviet history museum—not American K-12 classrooms.”

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Donald Trump Commentary: A Plan to Get Divisive and Radical Theories Out of Our Schools

RealClearWire
Teacher holding book, reading to boy student

As a candidate, Joe Biden’s number one promise was to “unite” America. Yet in his first months as president, his number one priority has been to divide our country by race and gender at every turn.

There is no clearer example than the Biden administration’s new effort aimed at indoctrinating America’s schoolchildren with some of the most toxic and anti-American theories ever conceived. It is vital for Americans to understand what this initiative would do, what drives it and, most importantly, how we can stop it.

For decades, the America-blaming left has been relentlessly pushing a vision of America that casts our history, culture, traditions, and founding documents in the most negative possible light. Yet in recent years, this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil.

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Commentary: Anatomy of the Woke Madness

Admin
Black Lives Matter Protest in DC, 5/31/2020

Wokeism has become our most popular secular religion—at least for a moment dethroning climate change. It reduces all of the past and present into puerile binaries between “whites” and “non-whites.”

Its aim is for the present generation to rewrite our history—whether by The 1619 Project and cancel culture or iconoclastic statue-toppling and Trotskyization of names and places. Wokeism becomes a child’s morality tale of noble non-white victims versus villainous white victimizers. Erasing the past and its language supposedly fuels a recalibration of the future, all in the here and now, a holy Year Zero

In the process, wokeism has done a lot of damage to America, and will do even more if left unchecked. Here are its chief characteristics.

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Poll: Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Teaching Critical Race Theory in Schools

Michigan Star Staff
Young girl in pink long sleeve writing

A new poll shows that the majority of American voters are deeply opposed to having critical race theory (CRT) principles being taught in schools.

The survey, conducted by Competitive Edge Research for Parents Defending Education, also shows that people overwhelmingly prefer Capitalism to Socialism (61.8% to 31.4%), frown upon “cancel culture,” (62.7% to 10.6%) and believe the United States is headed “on the wrong track” (60.7% to 32.8%).

Additionally, more respondents had a negative opinion of Black Lives Matter, than had a positive opinion (48.1% to 44.4%).

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Sen. Blackburn Introduces Resolution Condemning Critical Race Theory in Schools

Cooper Moran

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) joined Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Mike Braun (R-IN) in introducing a resolution to condemn the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in K-12 schools. 

“Critical race theory has no place in American schools. The tenets of critical race theory are based in the destructive ideal of inherent racism and will teach our children to judge and self-segregate based solely on skin color,” Blackburn said. “Students should not be discriminated on the basis of race under any circumstances.”

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Former President Trump Calls on All Republican Lawmakers to Ban Critical Race Theory

Cooper Moran

Former President Trump urged Republicans “at every level” throughout the county to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) education.

“Republicans at every level should move to immediately ban critical race theory in schools, and we should ban it in workplaces, we should ban it in our states, and we should ban in the federal government. And it should be done immediately,” Trump said while speaking at the North Carolina Republican Party state convention.

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Commentary: Fighting Back in a Woke World of Cancel Culture

Jordan Bondurant
Empty office

By now there are enough “cancel culture” stories to fill volumes. After my own story about standing up to a woke mob – and succeeding – went viral on Twitter, I decided to speak out, because I am convinced that Americans need more encouraging stories about standing up to cancel culture, and information on how they can do it themselves.

In order to withstand attacks, you’ll need to be armed with an understanding of the ideas in play, and the courage to stand up to bullies. I hope my story can help give you both.

My story began in 2010, when my husband and I founded a nonprofit organization that trains people around the world who are providing care for survivors of trauma. We were pleased with the success of our organization for the first several years, but around 2016, we noticed a change.

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Commentary: Florida is Overcoming ‘Systemic Privilege’ by Putting Students Before the ‘System’

RealClearWire
Students in shop class at school with safety goggles on

Throughout America, a very important – and highly racialized – conversation is taking place about overcoming injustice. Here in Florida, that conversation has often gone in a markedly different and very promising direction. And schoolchildren of color are among the greatest beneficiaries.

The conversation in Florida, at least as it pertains to education, has focused on what might be called “systemic privilege.”

If you are unfamiliar with this (de-racialized) mash-up term, try this: Go to a public forum and suggest that all families should be treated fairly – that all parents should have access to the per-pupil funds for their children even if they choose to educate them outside the public school system.  

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Inside Story on How the 1776 Commission Refused to be Canceled by Biden

Michigan Star Staff
Joe Biden in the office

Despite being abolished by the Biden administration, the 1776 Commission established by President Trump to develop a patriotic education curriculum lives on.

The commission’s executive director, Matthew Spalding, told Just the News that the panel is staying operational despite losing its federal charter and shifting its focus to state and local education. A Web site and new social media presence are forthcoming.

“You can abolish a commission, you can take a report off the website, but you can’t erase history,” Spalding told the John Solomon Reports podcast in an episode that aired Wednesday.

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Commentary: Critical Race Theory Has Radically Transformed America’s Corporations and Public Schools

Michigan Star Staff
People in the streets protesting

Just four weeks ago, I wrote about the rising resistance to the woke craze and critical race theory, and much has transpired since then.

Here in California, even Disneyland has not been spared the wrath of the crazies. On May 7, the incomparable Christopher Rufo reported that “The Wokest Place on Earth” now includes employee trainings on systemic racism, white privilege, white fragility, and white saviors, and also launched racially segregated “affinity groups” at the company’s headquarters.

But just five days later, Rufo disclosed that Disney “has removed its entire antiracism program from the company’s internal portal, effectively scrubbing it out of existence.” Rufo added, “This is a major victory in the war against ‘woke capital,’” and noted that a “significant backlash from the public” was responsible for the shift. While some skeptics suggested that the policy was being “tweaked or rebranded, not scrubbed,” Rufo responded, “Possibly, but small victories start to add up. We’ve set the precedent—and forced a $329 billion company to back down.”

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Trump Criticizes Ducey for Veto of Critical Race Theory and Election Security Bills

Cooper Moran

Former President Donald Trump slammed Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Wednesday for vetoing bills that would have outlawed Critical Race Theory (CRT) training for state employees and another that would prevent mailing ballots to individuals who did not request them. 

“Incredible to see that RINO Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona just vetoed a bill that would have outlawed Critical Race Theory training for State employees, and another that would have banned the mailing of ballots to citizens who never requested them,” Trump said in his statement. 

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Montana Attorney General Bans Critical Race Theory

Michigan Star Staff
"End Racism Now" sign and "Black Lives Matter" in a crowd

The highest-ranking prosecutor in the state of Montana has declared Critical Race Theory to be a violation of state and federal law, and has banned the far-left theory in Montana’s schools, as reported by ABC News.

Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R-Mont.) made his announcement on Thursday, after he was asked for his opinion by the state’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Erise Arntzen (R-Mont.). His declaration bans the concept not only from Montana’s schools, but from employee training as well.

The far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a statement criticizing Knudsen’s decision, falsely accusing him of attempting to “impose an alternate version of American history – one that erases the legacy of discrimination and lived experiences of black and brown people.”

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Commentary: No Schools are Safe from Critical Race Theory – Even in Tennessee

Michigan Star Staff
Downtown Franklin, Tennessee

Williamson County? Never heard of it. What’s the big deal?

Well, a lot.

Williamson County, Tennessee is what you might call “Republican Heaven.” Just south of Democrat-stronghold Nashville, much of it is a gorgeous suburb, home to the likes of country star Luke Bryan of “American Idol” fame – on an 150 acre estate – and Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Its county seat, Franklin, has a downtown straight out of an updated version of Norman Rockwell, the kind of place you can get both great barbecue and haute cuisine.

That small city and county are growing like crazy in large part because they are also supposed to have one of the best public school systems in the country.

Supposed to…

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11 States Consider Bans on Teaching Critical Race Theory

Michigan Star Staff
Student raising hand in class

Earlier this year, an Aiken County teacher wrote to South Carolina state Rep. Bill Taylor in alarm about critical race theory emerging in public schools. 

“I know full well the insidiousness of the so-called critical race theory that aims to resegregate society, discriminate against those who are white, victimize those who are black, and render America a nation of identity groups rather than Americans,” the teacher wrote. 

Hardly a day goes by, Taylor said, that he doesn’t hear from a constituent on the issue. 

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Carol Swain Commentary: Critical Race Theory Is a Cancer on Our Educational System

Michigan Star Staff

Critical race theory is the civil rights issue of our time. It eats away at our public, private, and Christian academies with its cancerous messages about white privilege, minority disadvantage, and perennial racism. Hardly a day goes by that I do not hear from parents and teachers about yet another school system where the cancerous roots of critical race theory have taken hold or begun to appear under the guise of “culturally competent teaching and learning” or “educational equity.” No matter what they call it, they cannot hide its poisonous effects. 

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Utah Legislature Passes Resolution to Ban Critical Race Theory from Schools

Michigan Star Staff
House Speaker Brad Wilson

Republicans in Utah’s state legislature passed a resolution on Wednesday to instruct the state’s schools to ban Critical Race Theory from their curriculum, as reported by Breitbart.

During the vote in the Utah House of Representatives, every single Democrat walked off the floor in protest of the bill, thus allowing the legislation to pass with only Republican votes. The “House Resolution on Critical Race Theory in Public Education” was subsequently passed by the Utah Senate. Because the measure is a resolution rather than a bill, it did not need the signature of Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) in order to pass.

House Speaker Brad Wilson (R-Utah) said that with the resolution, the state legislature was “calling on the state school board to look at the curriculum and determine what the right parameters for this discussion to happen.”

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Professors, Parents Sound off on Proposal to Prioritize Critical Race Theory

Michigan Star Staff
Town hall meeting

The Biden administration invited the public to comment on its plan to place a priority on plications for a civics and history grant that incorporates Critical Race Theory in April. Americans had much to say about the polarizing proposal, which yielded more than 16,800 comments over a 30-day period.

In addition to comments made online, 22 parent and teacher groups signed on to a coalition letter to Secretary Cardona that says teaching Critical Race Theory may violate the rights of students to pursue an education without discrimination. The group, led by Parents Defending Education, writes that the proposal “creates the very real possibility that under the auspices of this grant program, discrimination will be introduced into classrooms across the country.”

Nicole Neily, founder and president of Parents Defending Education, told Campus Reform that the letter is a result of volunteers who are “the tip of the spear, out there, on the front lines, going to their school board meetings. These are all groups that have sprung up to address political indoctrination in schools.”

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Commentary: Biden Admin Pushes Critical Race Theory in Public Schools

Michigan Star Staff
First Lady Jill Biden

When President Biden signed an executive order on Inauguration Day calling for “an ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda,” he signaled that his administration would embrace the education agenda of the race-obsessed world of radical “social justice” politics. We now see further evidence of the president’s intentions in the Department of Education’s proposal to funnel grants to schools that teach critical race theory. This pernicious theory analyzes every aspect of American society and history through the belief that racism has been, and remains, central to American life, all while peddling revolutionary Marxist philosophy.

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Group Seeks to Share Personal Stories of Critical Race Theory

Cooper Moran

The Center for Renewing America is seeking to share stories of critical race theory (CRT) in action across the United States.

The group is working with America First Legal, a legal group created by Stephen Miller and other Trump administration officials. The two organizations share the goal of fighting CRT in various formats across the country.

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Commentary: Beware of Academics Offering ‘Expertise’ on Systemic Racism, Equity

Michigan Star Staff
Person walking through library aisle

If it’s been said once, it’s been said many times: The academic language surrounding “equity,” “systemic racism” and the like is always ambiguous, vacuous and flowery.

This is on purpose, mind you. Because when challenged, so-called experts can define the terms as they wish. The words are ever-malleable.

In a recent Education Week piece, the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Jennifer Cheatham and John Diamond of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education offer tips to help determine whether a school district’s “way of decisionmaking” serves to maintain systemic racism.

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Major School District in Virginia Eyes ‘Anti-Racism’ Instead of Questioning Assumptions

Michigan Star Staff
Students dancing in classroom

Parents in one of the nation’s largest school districts are being asked about how schools should teach their children about systemic racism, “multiple identities,” and ways to “challenge power and privilege.”

Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools sent a survey Thursday to parents and teachers seeking input about the school system’s future “anti-racism” and “anti-bias” policy. 

“One key strategy to achieve educational equity is to analyze and address the beliefs and policies that inform teaching practices along with what is taught in schools,” Schools Superintendent Scott S. Brabrand said in an email message introducing the survey to parents and teachers. 

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Disney Pushes ‘Critical Race Theory’ in Employee Training Materials

Michigan Star Staff
Walt Disney Cinderella's castle

A new report claims the Walt Disney Company is pushing “critical race theory” on its employees as part of an internal training program, teaching them “race consciousness” and other concepts to address “systemic racism” in the U.S.

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo on Friday published what he says are a “trove of whistleblower documents” detailing a program titled “Reimagine Tomorrow.”

Rudo also provides in his report what he says are primary-source documents that appear to be pages of a training manual.

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West Point Probed for Allegations It’s Pushing Critical Race Theory on Cadets

Michigan Star Staff
West Point Military Academy

A U.S. congressman is seeking transparency from West Point Military Academy after hearing complaints regarding elements of critical race theory present in its training curriculum.

Rep. Mike Waltz, a member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to West Point leaders requesting copies of teaching materials provided at West Point after receiving complaints from various families and cadets.

In a phone interview with The College Fix, the Florida Republican explained that many families of West Point cadets come from military or law enforcement backgrounds, saying “they found it incredibly divisive.”

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States, Political Parties Draw Battle Lines over Taxpayer Funding of Critical Race Theory

The Center Square

A grassroots group of conservatives and Republican state leaders is pushing back after the Biden administration tied federal education funding to adopting controversial critical race theory teachings in schools’ curriculum.

The Biden administration in April proposed a new Department of Education rule that gives preference in grant awarding to schools that incorporate into their curriculum content from the “1619 Project,” a controversial history project that is the most prominent work containing critical race theory ideas.

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Anti-Woke Faction Opposed to Critical Race Theory Wins Bitter Texas School Board Election

Michigan Star Staff
Black Lives Matter flag hanging on porch

Aso-called “anti-woke” candidate won a bitter race for a school board seat in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

Saturday, Hannah Smith, a Southlake lawyer and former clerk for Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, won a race for a seat on the Carroll Independent School District board, nine months after the district introduced a controversial critical race theory curriculum in classrooms, according to NBC News.

“The voters have come together in record-breaking numbers to restore unity,” Smith said Saturday after being declared the winner. “By a landslide vote, they don’t want racially divisive critical race theory taught to their children or forced on their teachers. Voters agreed with my positive vision of our community and its future.”

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Commentary: Critical Race Theory Is About to Face Its Day(s) in Court

RealClearWire
New York State Education Building, Albany, New York

As recently as last summer, few people outside academia had heard of critical race theory, whose central claim is that racism, not liberty, is the founding value and guiding vision of American society. Then, President Trump issued an executive order last September banning the teaching of this “malign ideology” to federal employees and federal contractors.

Trump’s ban was blocked by a federal judge in December and immediately revoked by Joe Biden upon occupying the White House in January. Since then, federal agencies and federal contractors have resumed staff training on unconscious bias, microaggressions, systemic racism and white privilege – some of the most common but also most disputed concepts associated with the four-decade-old academic theory.

Now critical race theory is about to face a major real-world test: a spate of lawsuits alleging that it encourages discrimination and other illegal policies targeting whites, males and Christians. But unlike Trump’s executive order, which ran into First Amendment problems by prohibiting controversial speech, the lawsuits name specific policies and practices that allegedly discriminate, harass, blame and humiliate people based on their race.

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Commentary: The Slow-Motion Suicide of the West

Michigan Star Staff

I have been thinking a good deal recently about Arnold Toynbee’s much-quoted observation that “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” As an historical proposition, I’d say that it was like the story of the curate’s breakfast egg. “I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr. Jones!” “Oh no, my Lord, I assure you!” the curate replied. “Parts of it are excellent!”

And yet we all see the pertinence of Toynbee’s point. While there are, as a matter of historical fact, plenty of civilizations that succumb to invasion, occupation, and subjugation, there are also many that wither from within from a failure of self-confidence, of (for the Bergsonians out there) élan vital, of what your philosophy graduate student likes to call thumos: spirit, gumption, “heart,” manliness.

The fact that no one can even speak of “manliness” today without looking over his shoulder these days is an index that thumos is on the endangered species list (along, as it happens, with sperm counts in the Western world). Why this should be is a fraught question—something whose answer is “overdetermined” as our Freudian friends like to say.

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