The chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) School Board has a long history of using Critical Race Theory (CRT) talking points on her TikTok page.
“I want to first acknowledge the land of the indigenous people,” Dr. Tarece Johnson said in a TikTok video last October. “I want to say to you all that Gwinnett County is the land of the Muscogee Creek and the [inaudible] Cherokee people.”
That American land was “stolen” from Native Americans, and that Americans are simply occupants of that “stolen” land is a common CRT teaching.
“October 11 – Monday – is Indigenous Peoples Day,” she continued. “May we take the time to recognize their traumas and honor their lives.”
In another 2021 post, she shared a memo from a group called Settlers Take Action, agreeing that she “stand[s] in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the land now called Canada.”
In a third post from that year, Johnson reposted a video of herself giving a speech.
“The only way to truly eradicate fear and hate is through education,” she said. “Combating ignorance is the way to win the war against intolerance.”
Johnson was elected to her position in January, and many parents in the GCPS school district have objected to what they believe is CRT in the classroom.
“Racism is prejudice plus power,” Johnson said in a 2020 video that has been widely circulated around the web. “I’ve also commented before that many white people and black people are impacted by systemic racism. Because we all live in a society that is founded on the oppression of black and brown people, because we live in a society that glorifies whiteness, we are all impacted. Black people are impacted because we internalize this racism, and white people are also impacted because they are socialized racists.”
The idea that America was founded by oppressors is the core tenet of CRT, which encourages students to learn through a lens of racial and sexual oppression.
State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Buckhead) called for an investigation into Johnson’s “implemented policies and administrative actions, and whether they violate any of the code of conduct policies or other statutes.”
He has also introduced one of four bills in the state legislature that seek to end the practice of teaching CRT in schools.
Jones is running for lieutenant governor. He did not return a comment request from The Georgia Star News.
For his part, Superintendent Dr. Calvin Watts said in a Wednesday statement that CRT is not being taught.
“As we have stated, time and time again, CRT is not included in Gwinnett County Public Schools’ Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) curriculum or in the state’s curriculum standards, which are included in the AKS,” he said. “CRT is not taught in Gwinnett schools.”
Brenda Stewart, who was arrested last year at a GCPS school board meeting, disagrees.
“The term CRT is in a tug of war of names – but the reality is that it has basic principles/tenets. Put simply, it is to view all systems – basically everything – through a racial lens,” she told The Star News Thursday. “Equity means equal outcomes, versus equality – which is giving everyone the same opportunities. CRT, in the broad sense, is used to create division amongst races. Oppressor versus victim.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dr. Tarece Johnson” by Dr. Tarece Johnson.
