Monkey Writer

K–12 schools across the country are rushing to incorporate critical race theory and intersectionality into their curricula and pedagogy. Critical race theory maintains that racism is entrenched in American society and that the law works to consolidate and sustain white supremacy and privilege. Intersectionality holds that race, gender, class, religion, and other characteristics are related and confer advantages on people if they are in the dominant group and disadvantages if they are not. A white Muslim woman, for instance, would enjoy privileges because of her race but might experience oppression because of her gender and religion.

Last year in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Wake County Public Schools held a teachers conference promoting these ideas and their application in schools. One session, “Whiteness in Ed Spaces,” advised teachers to “challenge the dominant ideology” of whiteness and to fight back when parents objected. In Loudon County, Virginia, when parents did object to the district promoting critical race theory, a Facebook group of parents and teachers who supported the practice said they should “infiltrate” groups who opposed critical race theory and use hackers to “either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages.”