While the Biden administration and Democratic state authorities largely labelled the opposition to CRT as "conspiracy theories" propagated by Fox News and former President Donald Trump's loyalists, the latest study indicates that those Dems "appear to be underestimating parents’ anger," according to Politico.
One parent, a California-based registered Democrat Elina Kaplan, has launched an email list, set up meetings with state legislators and recruited people to meet with their school boards in a bid to raise awareness about controversies surrounding the theory.
"I firmly believe that if the vast majority of Californians and Americans knew about this, and about the content of this type of curriculum, this would not be happening," she told Politico.
According to Kaplan, it would be wrong to assume that those who are against CRT in schools are "just against talking about racism".
"We believe strongly in teaching [against] racism, in confronting racism," she stressed.
A Democratic Party voter from Michigan has grown distressed after her daughter, a recent high school graduate, started advocating the idea of defunding police departments and insisting that rioters who ransacked stores during 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests were justified.
"Based on everything I have seen in the last year, starting with COVID, I cannot continue [voting for Democratic candidates] in good faith," the parent told the media outlet.
Speaking to Politico, Ian Prior, a former Trump Justice Department spokesperson, suggested that the Democratic Party is making a mistake by "dismissing [concerns about critical race theory]" since "it fires up people even more".
According to The Hill, critical race theory "increasingly looks like it will play a major role in the 2022 midterm elections" as the GOP is seeking to retake the House and the Senate. The media outlet's interlocutor, Republican strategist Ford O’Connell, even predicted that CRT could contribute to a red wave in 2022 and help the GOP to "win back those suburbs that they might have lost in the 2020 election."
Protests in Seattle against racism and police brutality in June 2020
© Sputnik
Critical Race Theory Under Biden Administration
CRT originated in the 1960s and 1970s and was based on the idea that race is not a natural and biologically grounded feature but a socially constructed category used to oppress and exploit people of colour. In particular, the theory argues that US laws and legal institutions are "inherently racist" and function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and non-whites, most notably black people.
The majority of American voters still aren’t aware of critical race theory, according to the Economist/YouGov June 2021 poll: just 35 percent of respondents have heard something about critical race theory and believe they have a good idea of its meaning. Of them 58 percent have unfavourable views of CRT and just 38 percent endorse the theory. Additionally, 55 percent of those who heard about CRT believe that teaching it in schools is bad for the United States.
CRT has long been criticised by GOP voters, who complain that the theory is controversial, divisive and unpatriotic, with Republican lawmakers moving to ban the studies in K-12 schools in their states. Earlier, in September 2020, then-President Donald Trump prohibited the federal government and its contractors from instructing their employees to follow CRT tenets. However, his successor, Joe Biden, rescinded Trump's executive order restricting CRT training.
U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a campaign event for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at Lubber Run Park in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., July 23, 2021
© REUTERS / EVELYN HOCKSTEIN
On 19 April, the Biden administration proposed new priority criteria for a $5.3 million American History and Civics Education grant, listing the "1619 Project" and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi's ideas as materials to be taught in K-12 schools.
In response to the announcement, a group of 20 attorney generals urged the Biden administration to reconsider the educational proposals on 25 May. Eventually, US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced in mid-July that his department would allow local schools to determine on their own what is taught in American history and civics grant programmes.
However, it does not mean that the fight of CRT antagonists is over: in early July, the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers union in the US representing 3 million public school employees in all 50 states, signalled that it would do whatever it takes to include critical race theory in K-12 curriculum across the country.