A group of House Republicans announced two bills on Wednesday that will fully defund Critical Race Theory at the federal level. The legislation will keep “Critical Race Theory out of our schools, federal workforce, and the military.” North Carolina Congressman Dan Bishop (R-09) sponsored the bill. He was joined by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought, who is now President of Citizens for Renewing America, as well as Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Rep. Ted Budd (NC-13), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Rep Andy Biggs (AZ-05), and Rep. Ralph Norman (SC-05).
Bishop opened his remarks by saying that Critical Race Theory (CRT) "is a divisive ideology that threatens to poison the American psyche...CRT espouses that America is an irredeemably racist society in its origins and in its present condition. And that Americans should be balkanized into identity groups according to race, sex, and ethnicity...that Whites are an oppressor race and other identity groups are oppressed. It further advances the claim that civilizational ideals that America has pursued over her history, including individual liberty, equal opportunity to pursue happiness, and judging people on the content of their character are invalid, cynical, and a mere smokescreen for racism."
The bill announced today follows closely on the heels of a recent bill in North Carolina, House Bill 324, called "Ensuring Dignity and Nondiscrimination/Schools." According to reporting by the North State Journal, the bill which has the backing of Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, "the new bill prohibits the promotion of certain concepts tied to Critical Race Theory (CRT), a belief with Marxist roots that holds racism is constant and inherent in all people and institutions. CRT views all facets of society through a racial lens, dividing people into oppressed and oppressor categories by race."
The first bill is the Stop CRT Act which would codify a September 2020 Trump Executive Order to "combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating." The order banned certain forms of diversity training found in workplace settings in governmental institutions. President Biden has revoked the Trump executive order.
The new bill states in the screen capture below that "[a] Federal entity may not grant Federal funds to any entity that teaches or advances any of the following:
Stop CRT Act/May 12, 2021
Vought gave several examples of the types of CRT curricula circulated in schools and other governmental institutions. He recounted an instance of third graders in California who were asked to "deconstruct their racial identity and rank themselves according to their power and privilege in school." A federal government entity called Sandia Labs reportedly asked its white male employees to "write apology letters to people of color and women." The training materials claimed that "white male culture, rugged individualism, and a can-do attitude, hard work and striving toward success" are "devastating" problems.
The other bill, entitled “Combatting Racist Training in the Military Act,” supplements Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton's bill to combat racist training in the military.
Tom Cotton/Bill to Combat Racist Training in the Military
An April 24 UncoverDC article entitled Critical Race Theory is Waking the Lions featured the concepts and origins of CRT and its ramifications in schools across the country. Parent activists all over the country are awakened to the ways the curriculum is affecting their children's education.
Christopher Rufo, who has reported extensively on the subject of CRT, now has a CRT Legislation Tracker page that tracks legislation "to prohibit public schools and state agencies from promoting race essentialism, collective guilt, and state-sanctioned racism." UncoverDC will continue to follow and report on this important education trend in America's education system at all levels.
