Tensions were high Thursday as school system employees assembled at this month’s Gwinnett County School Board meeting and handed out flyers instructing parents to act with civility as they discussed and debated Critical Race Theory (CRT).
The contentious issue of CRT divided the parents who showed up in droves.
One parent, whose identity was unclear, told board members during the public comment phase that CRT prompts students to feel guilt or anguish solely due to their race or sex. That same parent cited recent tweets that board member Tarece Johnson recently posted on social media about Georgia Board of Education members who formally oppose CRT.
“As reflected in the Georgia State Board of Education’s CRT Resolution, Georgia is a racist state where white fragility, privilege, and power reign supreme. This is past and present. #CRT,” Johnson tweeted.
The parent addressed Johnson directly.
“How is anyone to rationally interpret the resolution’s words as racist? There is no attempt to stop accurate history from being taught. Instead the resolution is trying to prevent groups of people from being viewed collectively based only on how much melanin is present in their skin tone, a practice that is utterly ridiculous,” the parent said.
“Critical Race Theory states that our country is irredeemably racist due to its history of the abhorrent institution of slavery. Of course, slavery is evil and repulsive, but CRT ignores the struggle that our country has endured to lift itself from the racism that existed when it was founded. In the Civil War over 360,000 United States soldiers, 90 percent of whom were white, died so that our country would abolish slavery and give freedom to all men as the Declaration of Independence declared. CRT is wrong. It is racist, divisive, irrational and seeks to unravel every bit of progress this country has made to fight racism and demeans those who have suffered, fought, and died to do so.”
Later in the meeting, Johnson said that no educational system should teach or make a child feel guilty, inferior, or invisible.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
