Al Sharpton has a message for critical race theory supporters: “Rise up.”
The “Politics Nation” podcast host implored his audience to converge on school board meetings with “racist cowards” who oppose the controversial curriculum.
“We can’t get complacent,” Mr. Sharpton said during a recent broadcast, media watchdog NewsBusters reported Tuesday. “Having public opinion on our side is not enough because the racist cowards that would fire teachers and ban certain books are accurately describing the history of racism and bigotry in this country are already showing up at school board meetings, and they’re loud. So we have to be louder. We have to rise up together and show up to those same meetings, demanding that our children get a full and accurate history curriculum.”
The long-time civil rights activist claimed that opposition to CRT is a misguided “kerfuffle” since it is primarily taught in “specialized law school classes.”
A similar argument was made by Hollywood activist/actor John Leguizamo in July when he told over 900,000 Instagram followers that CRT — his “whole reason for being” — is “high-brow college-level stuff.”
Breitbart News noted at the time that 12 states promote “Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness” to students, which calls “whiteness” “[a form of] stolen land and riches.”
“The nation’s largest teachers union recently approved a plan to promote critical race theory in public schools in all 50 states, saying ‘we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.’ The union later removed the language from its website following a public backlash,” the website reported July 14.
Similarly, opponents of CRT reject Mr. Sharpton’s definition of the field of study as “just a strategy to analyze the way racist laws and events from our past impact our lives in the present.”
Jennifer Ho, a critical race studies and ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, for example, made national headlines in May when she pinned a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes on “white supremacy.”
“Anti-Asian racism has the same source as anti-Black racism: White supremacy,” Ms. Ho wrote for The Conversation earlier this year. “So when a Black person attacks an Asian person, the encounter is fueled perhaps by racism, but very specifically by White supremacy. White supremacy does not require a White person to perpetuate it.”
“What Sharpton [and CRT supporters don’t] seem to understand is that parents who are fighting against critical race theory are already paying attention to their child’s education,” NewsBusters’ Bridget O’Neal countered Tuesday. “The reality is, teaching students that America is inherently racist is historically inaccurate, and parents have every right to stand up and voice their concerns. The liberal media are just upset that parents are fighting against the left, not with them.”
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